Google Hiring Process: How does Google Hire Employees?

Working in Google is the dream job for everyone, and everyone tries to make it come true.

If working for Google is your dream, you should know the Google hiring process.

Google hires best of best people from around the world who can bring new perspectives and life experiences to their teams.

As we all know that working culture of Google is different so is its process of hiring people.

Google hiring process can be briefed in three basic steps:
  • Apply
  • Interview
    • Telephonic Interview
    • Face to Face Interview and On-site interview
  • Decide
    • Hiring Committee
    • Compensation Committee
    • Final Executive Review
Google also have a dedicated page on their official website, where they have mentioned everything about how they hire people.

You can also have a look at the infographics below to understand Google hiring process even better.

google hiring process

Apply for the job

Google releases thousands of new job vacancies each year in different fields.

You can apply for the job at Google's official website, different job portals as well as through reference of an employee of Google.

After the application is received by the company, they screen the resume to check the better fit profile to it.

As the company receives a very large number of resumes so it could take little long to get respond from the recruiters.

While screening the resume, a lot of things are checked in order to accept it or reject it.

The factors include qualification, academic percentage, previous experience, extra-curricular activities and positive and negative points about the applicant.

If your resume fits in the open job requests then the recruiter would contact you through phone or through an email to fix the interview date.

Appear for the Interview

When the resume is selected then your 50% work is done because it is extremely difficult to get selected among millions of applicants.

The Next step is to appear for the job interview which would be coordinated by the recruiter.

The interview process is taken in around 8-12 steps which depend on the job profile.

After the selection of the resume, the telephonic round is taken to check basic factors like communication skills, confidence, leadership quality etc. 

Related: Body language tips for an Interview

Telephonic Interview:

The phonic interview is mostly conducted on Hangout and in exceptional cases, it could be on phone as well.

The number of interviewers could vary in this case depending on the job profile.

If it is a technical job where you have to write codes and share, then it would take place in Hangout, whereas for other profiles they just take on a voice call.

This interview could go up to 30-60 minutes long where interviewer ask all questions related to the job, your experience, and other interest areas.

Face to Face Interview or On-site interview:

Firstly you reach the Google office where you are welcomed by 4-6 people team of recruiters who give an introduction to the company and roles & responsibilities of the job profile.

Google always like to welcome people to explore their environment so the recruiting team would show you the office to make you more comfortable before the interview so that you can give your best without any nervousness.

The interview could be taken by a single person or more people which always varies.

The face to face round also goes up to 30-60 minutes.

If you are appearing for a technical job, the number of rounds can increase to check technical knowledge as well as attitude presentation.

Types of questions in the interview:

The company hires the best people for the available profile and makes sure that the selected person is the right fit for the job so, they ask a large variety of question to get all the information about the applicant.

Below listed are some major questions which they could ask during an interview:
  • Introduction: Interviewers notice a lot of things only during your introduction as the first impression is the last impression. They check the communication skills, confidence level, and attitude during this answer only.
  • Experience: Interviewer would ask about your previous working experience and the segments in which you have worked. This gives a brief about your focus areas as well as it gives them the idea about their next questions. It is highly suggested to mention only expertise areas so you could confidently answer more questions in that area.
  • Technical skills: This part is for technical jobs where the coding knowledge is checked. The interview could ask to run the particular code or could ask to write any program.
  • Additional activities: Too much studious who just study never attract Google; they need people who are an all-rounder. They focus a lot on the extra activities of the applicant, about his interests in sports, association with any NGO or any other activity outside of work.

Interview Feedback:

After the interview is done, they would ask you to fill the feedback form of an interview and their overall experience.

Even interviewers fill the form to mention your positive and negative points as well as you fit in the given job or not.

This feedback is taken to next level managers who view them to take the decision.

It is not single person decision as different level people are involved in it to make the fair decision.

This process takes time as very senior people of the different department are involved in it.
If the candidate clears this round then he/she is taken to next round i.e. hiring committee.

Related: Things an Employer Looks for in an Employee

Hiring Committee:

When the managers who took face to face round approves of the candidate, then that resume is taken forward to hiring committee which consists of experienced employees of a particular domain, senior managers, and directors.

They check all the feedback from previous rounds, resume along with working experience.

When this committee approves the candidate, it is taken forward to next level committee which is called as Compensation Committee.

Compensation Committee:

This committee views the applicant resume along with the feedback to provide the best-suited compensation depending on the capability and experience of the candidate.

All the points are mentioned in the form which carries all details from round one to be forwarded to Final Executive Review.

Related: Salary Negotiation Tips

Final Executive Review:

Even for hiring a single candidate, one of the high-level Executive looks at the feedback form from previous interview rounds to make the final decision.

If the executive approves of the candidate, then the applicant is informed of his/her selection.

For a High-level Job Profile:

If the job position is high-level profile, then after all these rounds the decision is forwarded to the CEO of the company i.e. Sundar Pichai or either to the co-founder Larry Page. A face-to-face interview is conducted with the CEO as the company wants the best people who could help in company growth. 

Related: What not to do in your first job?

Explore Google working environment and Decide

If you have cleared the above steps then the team would call as well as email you to inform about the same.

They would ask you to visit office premises and the working environment before giving the offer letter.

This step is done to check that whether the applicant could perform in their environment as they have very open work culture.

The same team of recruiters would have lunch with you in office premises and would try to interact with you to know more about the applicant.

They also give the feedback of the meeting to the senior level on various factors. They check your reaction to different scenarios and inform you about the office rules and regulations.

This is Google’s recruiting process which takes a long time but when all above steps are done then, you receive the offer letter to join the company along with the date of joining.

All other formalities are discussed by the recruiter regarding salary, working timings, facilities provided etc. Every minute detail is checked about the applicant to select the best fit for their organization.