hey guys I'm Jodi Taylor a university
program specialist here at Google and
today I'm going to be walking you
through a little bit about our interview
process first we'll be going over an
overview of the interview process and
what you can expect when you're going
through our interview secondly I'll be
going over how to build a strong
response what is the framework you
should utilize third we'll actually have
an opportunity to practice a leaked
Google interview question together and
lastly we'll go over some interview
basics so Google is made up of
incredible people and there are some
core central tenets we're looking for as
we're hiring folks one is how a
candidate thinks how does the candidate
use data logic and reasoning as they're
responding to a question two is their
leadership skills that doesn't
necessarily come in the form of a title
what leadership means is emergent
leadership
how are you proactive how are you taking
leadership initiatives on campus or in
your job 3 is role related knowledge
that doesn't necessarily come in the
form of an fancy internship what that
means is transferable skills do you have
the basic skill set to transfer into the
role that you're looking for at Google
and lastly is googliness googliness is
this really nebulous word that we kind of
made up and essentially means
intellectual curiosity it means are you
willing to collaborate work with other
people and think 10x or at scale but
today in this presentation we're going
to be focusing on that first tenant I
mentioned which is how a candidate
thinks so after your resume screen
oftentimes we'll be invited to a
interview at Google or on the phone and
you'll be invited to a GCA interview GCA
stands for general cognitive ability and
that sounds like a fancy word are really
scary phrase but in reality it's just
how do you break down complex problems
and come up with really thoughtful
solutions the GCA interview is broken up
into two parts the first part is a
behavioral part of the interview those
are past behaviors and assessing those
past behaviors so a sample behavioral
interview question could look like tell
me about a time when you let a team tell
me about a time when you communicate it
effectively tell me about a time when
you failed the second part of a GCA
interview is the hypothetical or
situational part of the interview and
those are questions that are assessing
real-life Google situations that you may
actually face we'll walk through that in
a second we ask these questions for
really specific reasons one it's an
evaluation of your problem-solving
skills how are using reasoning and
rationale and data to solve complex
issues secondly it's an insight into
your working style and lastly it's an
opportunity to talk through problems
that you actually may face at Google or
other Googlers have faced in the past
you may have heard that we ask really
complex questions like how many golf
balls can fit inside a 747 jet we
actually no longer ask those questions
and instead have moved towards those
hypothetical or situational questions so
what is Google assessing when we ask
these sorts of hypothetical or
situational questions one it's your
understanding of the question so
oftentimes your interviewer will give
you too much or too little information
we want to make sure that you're
understanding the core and central issue
so making sure that you're distilling
through all of the excess noise and
excess words and making sure that you're
really getting to the core issue at hand
second is your preparation strategy we
don't mean how much you study the night
before about Google what we mean is how
much information that's been given to
you are you able to actually
thoughtfully parse through that
information and formulate a coherent and
dynamic response third is your ability
to identify solutions so these responses
are often open-ended there is no right
or wrong way to answer these GCA
questions more importantly how are you
able to identify a solution justify that
solution and communicate that solution
to your interviewer so now we're going
to walk through a framework of how to
build a really strong response please
keep in mind that this framework is not
prescriptive there may be some questions
that require all of these elements of
the framework some questions that only
require a couple we just want you to
keep this in mind as you're going
through the interview process the first
part always take a moment before
responding these questions are often
complex or have a few layers please make
sure that you're taking a moment to
respond even feel free to ask the
interviewer to repeat the question or
say can I have a moment before
responding also feel free to bring pen
and paper and write down the question
as the interviewer is asking it secondly
ask clarifying questions like I said
earlier oftentimes who get too little or
too much information and you want to
make sure you're extracting out all the
information from the interviewer so that
you can appropriately and effectively
answer that question third share logical
assumptions
once again you're not going to have all
the information that you need to answer
this question so you're going to make
some logical leaps in order to formulate
an appropriate response don't worry
we'll go through what this looks like in
a second for is show your work so that
doesn't necessarily mean showing your
interview your pen and paper with all
your notes what that means is
communicating to your interviewer your
thought process communication is
incredibly critical during this time as
you're thinking and as you're iterating
through your solution make sure that of
course you're writing it down but also
communicating it in a succinct and
coherent manner to the interviewer so
let's say you come up with an incredible
solution and you communicate this to
your interviewer don't just leave it
there make sure that you consider pros
and cons or you think about how you
would measure success and lastly tie it
back to the role if you can oftentimes
these questions are role related meaning
that the question that you'll get will
be really specific to the role that
you're applying for and so if you can
tie back your answer really nicely to
the role that you're applying for
now I'll invite my colleague Kelsey up
and we're going to work through a leaked
Google interview question together now
I'm here with my coworker Kelsey and we
are going to go through a leaked
interview question together hey Kelsey
hey hi everyone the first question is
imagine you are in charge of organizing
the grand opening event of a new Google
office how would you plan this event
awesome so please remember the steps in
building a really strong response so
first always take a moment before
responding and secondly remember to ask
clarifying questions here are some
clarifying questions and I would ask
where is the new Google Office Cambridge
Massachusetts is there a budget you can
decide the budget there was a similar
event in the New York City office last
year and their budget was $50,000
wonderful and how many people are
attending one hundred people so Kelsey
took a moment
were responding to the question she also
asked him really thoughtful clarifying
questions and now she's going to share
some logical assumptions here are some
of the assumptions that I would make
assumption number one I will assume that
there is a facilities team on site to
help me organize this event assumption
number two I'll also assume that the
objective of this event is to welcome
new Googlers to the Cambridge office
assumption number three since New York
City is a larger City than Cambridge
I'll assume this grand opening will be
smaller
I'll also assume we have a ten thousand
dollar budget across 100 people remember
the framework first Kelty took a moment
before responding secondly she asked
those really thoughtful clarifying
questions third she shared out her
logical assumptions and now she's going
to show her work which means actually
sharing out her thought process so far
I'm assuming we have a budget of $100
per person I'm also assuming I will have
the capacity to coordinate with someone
in the Cambridge office lastly I will
also assume a logistical needs can be
solved by local vendors here is an
example of an ideal Google solution
first I'm assuming there is a facilities
team on site to assist with this project
and all logistical efforts can be
supported internally I would reach out
to that team to begin planning and to
assess if I will have to use outside
vendors second I'll assume we'll have a
budget of $100 per person therefore I
know I'll have ample budget for food
drinks and decor third because the
objective of the event is to welcome new
Googlers to the office I would ensure
that I am inclusive of all Googlers in
my planning and finally I would collect
an experienced feedback survey from the
New York City event and incorporate it
into my planning so once again
Kelsey took a moment before responding
she asked those clarifying questions she
shared out her logical assumptions she
showed her work but remember don't just
leave it at the exemplar answer take it
to that next step and either consider
pros and cons or think about how you'd
measure success here is how I would
measure my success
for my solution sending out a post-event
survey to the attendees to measure
impact against the intended objective
capacity to stay within budget number of
attendees and will my project plan be
used to plan future grand openings so we
just walk through a leaked Google
interview question together not so bad
right now you'll have the capacity to
actually practice at home we'll share
another leak to Google interview
question with you and feel free to take
some time to practice at home as well so
here is another linked Google interview
question that you can practice at home
imagine you're working on an email
product and a competitor starts charging
a $5 monthly fee for their product how
would you assess the situation and what
recommendation would you make to your
team so here's what interviewers are
thinking as you're answering these
questions
one - the candidate understand the
question and including the basic problem
- did they ask clarifying questions
remember clarifying questions are
incredibly important to get to that
right answer 3 what relevant information
stakeholders and variables were
considered please keep in mind that the
interviewer may say things as you're
asking those clarifying questions such
as you decide or you pick or you choose
feel comfortable in that ambiguity and
continue to work through using your best
assumptions - the candidate identify
multiple solution options remember there
is no prescriptive way to answer these
questions there are multiple right
answers just choose the best one that
you can justify were they able to
reasonably justify why their solution
was the best option communication is
incredibly important during this process
so making sure you're communicating why
you're justifying this particular
solution and lastly did the candidate
incorporate any feedback hints from
probing questions the interviewer is
there to support you and to help you
through your journey as you're answering
this question so if they're giving you
feedback make sure to incorporate that
feedback and pivot as necessary thank
you so much for tuning into our
interview prep guide we hope you found
it helpful we hope to see that Google
one day Bye
