Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hired…And One That Means You Are

Re:Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hire... by nostrademons on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @03:11PM (#393407)

The first question my Google phone interviewer asked me was "So...tell me about yourself." One phone interview, 4 in-person interviews, about 2 dozen emails back-and-forth with my recruiter, one hiring committee, several VPs, and a couple days held up on Larry Page's desk later, I was hired.

It's a conversation starter. It gives them a baseline to open things up. Your answers after that, once you've gotten into the swing of things, determine whether you'll be hired.

Also, an interviewer will almost never ask you "Can you do this job?" or "What does this job entail?" How do they know you're being truthful, or even if you are, how do they know that you're not just wrong? It's your responsibility to show the answer to these, through the questions you ask your interviewers. Nearly all interviewers will ask "Do you have any questions for me?" - that's your chance to show that you're interested in the meat of the job itself.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hire... by tocomment on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @08:52PM (#393796)

Mine didn't go so well. They flew me out there, then on interview day all of the managers were "busy" so I met with two guys and that was it. 12 hours of flying and two missed days of work for a two hour interview :-(

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hire... by nostrademons on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @09:22PM (#393833)

Ouch. That sucks. I'd think that HR would be very careful about making sure the interviewers are actually available before bringing you out. With mine, there was some concern that it might actually get pushed past Thanksgiving due to lack of interviewer availability (thankfully not, and they got it in front of the hiring committee before the break).

My experience with Google HR in general was very positive, though of course "all's well that ends well", so my perspective might be a bit biased.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hire... by tocomment on Wednesday December 10, 2008 @11:53PM (#393975)

Luckily I like traveling and met with a friend out in SF so I guess still a good experience.

After that they referred me to YouTube (is that where they send the second class programmers?) I had one phone interview and he asked me to come up with an algorithm to do something tricky (forget exact question) but it turns out I can't program in my head over the phone. I emailed him the solution later but I guess it didn't help.

[ Parent | on HN ]