I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Google (Mountain View, CA) in Aug 2013
Interview
Phone interview by recruiter followed by on-site interview. Received offer (non-exploding) within three weeks. I was referred in by someone on the same team and had already spoken to the hiring manager prior to my recruiter conversation.
Best piece of advice for those trying to interview: Ensure that you're applying for a role that you're a perfect fit for. If you are not a good match and get a bad rating on your interview, that rating sticks with you for the rest of your life. If you do really bad, there are certain ratings that guarantee that you'll never work at Google.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Not much general cognitive ability (ie, if you get shrunk into the size of a penny and thrown into a blender...). Almost all role-related knowledge with some technical aspects (even my job is non-technical). General questions around personality, fit, and culture. I definitely dropped a few F bombs in my interview with a Director and she was cool with it.
They ask a lot about your experience in the field and how your experiences shape your work today. This includes tough and great times, and what you did in those times to fix it or cause/help it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you had to manage a difficult partner relationship.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Google (London, England) in Nov 2013
Interview
Screening interview
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I was surprised that in this case the recruiter were very focused on the specific industry and role experiences and knowledge, which I could have researched quite easily if I had had better knowledge about the role
