I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Google in Dec 2011
Interview
Recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn. I spoke with her for about 15 minutes and expressed interest in the job. She was positive and forwarded me on to a phone interview with one of their product managers. They gave me suggestions for preparation which I used. These suggestions included thinking about existing products and how I might change or enhance them. I prepared a few examples, shying away from Google products per their advice. In the interview I discussed the changes I would make to a web site which I had once visited often but no longer did after its redesign. The next question asked me to estimate the cost of solar panels needed in the US to replace all existing other energy supplies. I went through this estimation by describing the information I would need (number of households, per household energy consumption, efficiency of solar panels, increases in efficiency over time, etc.).
Apparently he did not like my answers. Overall, I wasn't super impresses with him either, so perhaps it is for the best. Interestingly, the interviewer did not himself ever go through the interview process at Google. He was a product manager at an acquisition.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Describe an existing product and how you would improve it.
The process was straightforward and moved quickly. After applying online, a recruiter reached out within a few days for a brief phone screen. That was followed by two video interviews, one with the hiring manager and one with a panel of team members focused on project planning and stakeholder communication. The whole thing wrapped up in about two weeks, and the team was responsive and clear about next steps throughout.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I walked through a specific project where a key vendor delivery slipped. I explained how I flagged the risk early in our weekly status review, reset expectations with stakeholders, re-sequenced dependent tasks, and brought the timeline back within an acceptable range by negotiating a partial early delivery.
standard 1st round digital interview, they are asking about your experience, background, some behavioural questions and technical questions. and they also share a bit more about the role, culture and expectation
Very self-driven, first of multiple rounds, where I had to take the initiative to arrive at the problem, constraints, approach, solutions, tradeoffs and reasoning behind it in a matter of 30 minutes.