We know hiring processes can seem overwhelming, but we don’t want you to feel overwhelmed at Google. We want all candidates – from entry level to leadership – to have access to the same information and resources (after all, our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful).
Google’s hiring process is an important part of our culture. Googlers care deeply about their teams and the people who make them up. We also care about building a more representative and inclusive workplace, and that begins with hiring. In order to truly build for everyone, we know that we need a diversity of perspectives and experiences, and a fair hiring process is the first step in getting there.
Self-reflection
While we’re sure you’re ready to dive into the depths of the job search, we recommend starting with an often-overlooked first step: focus on you.
Have you ever discovered you’re good at something you're not passionate about? Many of us have. This may be a result of the work you like to do, or it may be something you’ve had to get good at because of a previous project or role. The more skills you have the better — but it’s hard to build a fulfilling career on something that doesn’t excite you. Before you start applying, take some time to ask yourself a few of these questions:
- What is something you learned that made everything that came after easier?
- Have more of your achievements come as a result of solitary effort or teamwork?
- What do you enjoy more, solving problems or pushing the discussion forward?
- What is the most rewarding job you've ever had? Why?
- Describe the best team you ever worked with. What made that experience stand out?
Now, sit with your history for a moment. Consider all the best, most rewarding elements of your experience, and let them come together to create a picture of where you want to go next in your career.
Why the visualization exercise? Your skills, interests, and goals are the result of your life, your experiences, your triumphs, and your failures. If we hire you based on your skills, we’ll get a skilled employee. If we hire you based on your skills, and your enduring passions, and your distinct experiences and perspectives, we’ll get a Googler. That's what we want.
Job searching
Once you’ve taken some time to focus on what you’re looking for, you can get a better idea of who we are, what we’re about, and what it’s like to work at Google.
Our goal is for you to feel like you know us a bit better, and that you’ve got enough information to feel like you’re applying for the right jobs.
Check out our company and our teams sites. View our YouTube channel and our locations. Read our blog and how we care for Googlers. The goal here is the job or jobs you land on should exist at the intersection of who you are and who we are. So go, click around for a bit. We’ll meet you back here.
You should now have a better sense of who we are and what part of the company and role seems like the best match for where you want to go.
Your resume
It’s tempting to take your last resume and update it, tweaking it a bit here and there to include your latest work. But we’d like to suggest that you go a little deeper — we think you’ll feel much better about your hiring process if you do.
Keep your old resume next to you for inspiration, but start with a blank document and create a resume specifically designed for each job you want.
For each position do the following to build your job-specific resume:
- Align your skills and experience with the job description. Tie your work directly to the role qualifications (and don’t forget to include data).
- Be specific about projects you’ve worked on or managed. What was the outcome? How did you measure success? When in doubt, lean on the formula, “accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].”
- If you've had a leadership role, tell us about it. How big was the team? What was the scope of your work?
- If you're a recent university graduate or have limited work experience, include school-related projects or coursework that demonstrate relevant skills and knowledge.
- Keep it short. We don’t have a length requirement, but concision and precision are key — so think twice before letting your resume move onto multiple pages, and take careful aim with your information.
A word on cover letters: they aren’t required (and may or may not be considered), so it’s your call on whether to include one. If you do decide to include a cover letter, many of the same suggestions we have for building a good resume apply here as well. For instance, tailor it to the job you’re applying for, tell us how you’ve made a difference and use data to back it up. Draw a direct line between your passion and our position, let us see who you are a bit.
Apply online
We want you to focus on the jobs that delight you and that you match as opposed to submitting dozens of applications (it’s tempting, but it doesn’t work well — trust us). Quality, not quantity, is the way to go.
Using the careers search tool, tell us who you are, what you do, where you’d like to be, etc. — then start looking at some of the listings that match. As you’re browsing, keep in mind that you can apply for up to three jobs every 30 days.
Sidenote: Most Googlers applied for other roles at Google before they eventually made it to interviews — not getting a role can often be a matter of timing, rather than a reflection of your skills or qualifications. So if things don’t work out with your first application, don’t let that stop you from applying to other roles in the future.
Interviews
If a Staffing team member believes you might be a match for a job you’ve applied for, you’ll enter our hiring process.
While the process may differ slightly for different roles or teams, the same basics apply whether you’re applying for a tech job or a marketing job, an internship or a leadership position. Not all of these may apply for your role, but here are some of the ways we assess candidates in our hiring process:
Online assessments: You may be asked to do a brief online assessment, like a coding quiz, after you’ve submitted your resume.
Short virtual chats: Before diving into more in-depth interviews, you’ll typically have one or two shorter conversations over phone or video. These will usually be with a recruiter and then with either the hiring manager or peer on the team, and are designed to assess key skills you’ll need for the role.
Project work: We sometimes ask candidates to complete a small project prior to their in-depth interviews. This could range from prepping a case study to providing writing or code samples (don’t stress, they’re not that scary and we won’t spring this on you without warning), and helps us understand how you think and approach problems. We’ll let you know about any additional materials we’ll need early on.
In-depth interviews: We get excited about interviewing and take it seriously because, at the risk of sounding cliché, Google is what Googlers make it. Our process can be rigorous (typically 3-4 interviews in one day, either over video or in person), but it’s also meant to be friendly, warm, and gives you the opportunity to get to know us better too. We’re guided by our goal of creating an equitable and inclusive experience where candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds have an opportunity to succeed.
In the end, we want above all to assess your skills and see if you and this role are a match (there aren’t any brain teasers, and who knows, you might even have some fun). So we conduct our interviews using these guiding lights:
- Structured interviewing: Every candidate is assessed using clear rubrics, and we use those rubrics for all folks being considered for that role, so that everyone is evaluated from the same perspective, allowing their distinctiveness to emerge.
- Open-ended questions: We ask open-ended questions to learn how you solve problems. We want to understand how your mind works, how you interact with a team, and what your strengths are.
When it comes to accommodations, our Staffing team is here to help. From sign language interpreters to specialized equipment, interview breaks to extended time, we aim to provide the support you need so you can keep the focus on your conversations.
Decision and offer
After your interviews are done, we’ll bring everything together from your application and interviews and review it.
We say “we” because we take into account a number of perspectives to come to a decision. If we decide that you’re the best candidate for the role, your recruiter will reach out to you with an offer.
Once you’ve accepted the offer, the Google onboarding team will walk you through compensation, benefits, badging, insurance and so on, after which you are on your way to becoming a Noogler! Put on your hat and get your Noogliness on — we’re thrilled to have you.