Some of you might be wondering what happened with that Google job thing. I’ll tell you.
A couple of days after I have received the letter, I managed to catch my breath and think clearly. It didn’t take me more than five minutes to figure out that I would be a complete idiot not to try it. Part of me still thought that the email wa a hoax or a practical joke. Part of me wanted to work for Google. Most of me believed that that is impossible. But one last tiny part of me said that I could do it.
So I refreshed my Curriculum Vitae, which ended up being a grand editing job. I’ve added descriptions to vague terms like ‘good’ and ‘satisfactory’, inserted some meaningful descriptions, removed and demoted stuff that just isn’t important anymore, and fixed the cosmetics of the look and feel. I emailed back. Said that I am interested in working at Google (yeah, like who isn’t?) and attached the shiny resume.
After I did it, my brain split in two. One half was sure that the story is over. Noone will ever read my message. Or maybe it will just get lost in a queue of other similar emails. The other half of the brain started to wait for reply. Did you ever had your head split in two by an axe? Yes? Well that was how I felt. At least as far as I can imagine how an axed head feels like.
And than The Good Thing happenned – I got the reply. Since then I was sure that the whole thing was serious and that it wasn’t no joke or anything. There was interest on both sides, so we setup a day and time for the phone call. Which was last night.
There goes my first Google interview. The conversation was almost an hour long. It consisted of mostly basic questions to clearify few items of my resume. After that there were a few technical questions, which weren’t difficult at all. I still managed to get confused by a couple of them though.
By the end of the interview I was told that my profile will be forwarded to the technical department, which will decide – based on my resume, self-evaluation, and answers – if I am a good candidate. If they will like me, they will arrange for another interview – of purely technical nature this time. If that will ever happen, I will know within a week or so.
Overall, I liked the conversation a lot. The recruiter was very polite, well-spoken, and comforting. It felt like she really wanted me to get hired by Google. Even if I won’t, I’m glad I had this experience. It made me rethink my current position and see my work, my family, Cyprus, and my routine from a different angle.
I’ll let you know if there will be any continuation of the story.