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My Game, My Rules
My story interviewing at Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Bloomberg
During my job hunt, I did interviews at a number of tech giants. The interview process is quite similar but interview experience varies drastically. Companies have individual ideologies and skills they value in a candidate, hence it is beneficial to know the differences and get prepared accordingly.
Here are five things that make all the difference.
1. Application Process
From traditional job portals to a hidden job application link in a website’s source code, there are various channels to apply for a job. Let’s discuss the effectiveness of each channel for different companies based on my experience.
Career page: Google has numerous offices worldwide, so it’s a delight to scroll through its career page full of job openings. A lot of people do get hired through Google’s careers page. You may not get a response immediately but your resume remains in Google’s database and you may get a reply after some time (2 years in my case). I would say it is a good source to apply for both internship and full-time opportunities.
Employee referral: Referral is a good way to stand out among applicants. Google sends a mail after an employee puts referral, to choose three job openings and apply. But it may take some time to hear back from a recruiter.
Foobar challenge: This is Google’s secret hiring channel where browser speaks to the “chosen ones.” The exact triggering condition is not known but roughly, it is based on user’s searched keywords on google search engine. Once the challenge triggers, some funky animation happens on the browser and you are presented with with five problems to solve. The interesting part is, after solving problem three you can share your details with a recruiter and opt in for career opportunities.
Note: People have come up with tricks to trigger the challenge so this channel isn’t so secret now and may not be as effective as it used to be. The video below shows one of the tricks to…
