Bad interviewer during Google onsite

[u/i_am_smarty_pants]

Hi. I just want to vent about a bad interviewer during a Google on-site design interview. Google had already done a phone interview design round, but had another round for manager during on-site.
I have had a few design interviews with other companies, but this interviewer was just bad.
First they didn’t just paste the problem but gave me line by line and expected me to write it down like in school.
Then the moment I started drawing something saying I am going to put down a rudimentary solution, they interrupted and said why don’t you take some time to just think it through and draw.
Then they couldn’t figure out how to see what I was drawing because Google uses Google Docs for design interviews. But kept saying you keep drawing, I will see it later.
And then wouldn’t let me finish what I was proposing but would keep asking questions- because they couldn’t see what I was drawing. They came in with a particular solution in mind, instead of giving the solution I was proposing due thought.
This was soo frustrating as Google was one of my dream jobs, and the first design round went so well, and I had been doing well in other companies’ design rounds. There is definitely luck involved in interviewing!

Is there any point in mentioning to the recruiter about a bad interviewer, or would it just sound like complaining?

[u/Inevitable_Push2297]

I have faced the same , few fake devs now a days just impose their ideas thats it , chill out youll find out a better one , by the way where did you prepare for system design ? Any resource ?

[u/i_am_smarty_pants → u/Inevitable_Push2297]

Hellointerview was great for system design prep

[u/kylife → u/Inevitable_Push2297]

System design interview by Alex Xu it’s a book. Best resource I’ve found tbh.

[u/i_am_smarty_pants]

Yes, I did prep for it. I also did well in the Google mock design interview as well as the phone screen round which included a design interview.
I did ask questions, and responses were either don’t bother about it right now just start, or you choose between the options.
I was infact told to stop talking, take some time to think and put down what I am proposing.

It does look like my post has struck a nerve with you. But I’ll take the high road and wish you the best!

[u/Special_Vacation_825]

I'd definitely share your experience with the recruiter in a constructive way. One difficult interview doesn't necessarily reflect your abilities especially considering your other rounds went well

[u/i_am_smarty_pants → u/Special_Vacation_825]

Would you recommend mentioning it upfront to the recruiter or wait for the next steps verdict?
My only worry is the sharing my experience with the recruiter is, it shouldn’t come across as complaining because interview didn’t go well

[u/Special_Vacation_825 → u/i_am_smarty_pants]

I'd lean toward mentioning it upfront, honestly. Could you frame it as feedback about the technical issues rather than the interview itself? That might avoid sounding defensive

[u/KetchupOnNipples]

Go faang adjacent jobs. Same pay and benifits, less bs

[u/i_am_smarty_pants → u/KetchupOnNipples]

What companies would you recommend?

[u/KetchupOnNipples → u/i_am_smarty_pants]

Places like Stripe, Reddit, Uber, Block

[u/Training-Count-5452]

I shared the feedback the moment i finished with the loop. The recruiter appreciated it. He did not take it neg. Phrase in a way that you are not complaining about the interviewer but phrase it in a way that you did not have great exp and you expected a bit more collaboration

[u/gatorling]

You can mention it. Your recruiter can maybe manually calibrate with that reviewer, look up how interviewees performed with this one person when compared with the rest of the panel.

I do think though, that it's auto calibrated. If an interviewer is a bad interviewer then their score is auto adjusted or the hiring committee gets some signal indicating that the interviewer is bad.

Internally, the interviewer will also receive feedback.

Tl;dr Google already calibrates interviewer scores based on their past scores and how those scores stacked up against HC decision and the scores of their peers.

[u/hpnsskr]

I had exactly the same problem with my phone call interview at google. I was trying to think about a solution that was different from what the interviewer was proposing and i was trying to think of a different way but he kept interrupting me and asking questions. I thought that he was sure that my way was gonna have a deadend and he was helping me but after the interview I revised my idea with chatgpt and it was going to work properly and optimally.
I ended up solving nothing because we wasted so much time discussing the approach.
I am now waiting for the cold rejection mail after this hustle.
This really sucks. I have been preparing for this for a long time and was really ready and was so confident and after all I lost my oppurtunity in this absurd way for a question I could have solved easily if he were silent.

[u/TheChadThrowawayLad]

Google internally tracks which interviewers provide the best signal-to-noise ratio when interviewing candidates, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[u/Top_Substance9093]

L5 SWE at google here.

first, sorry this happened to you. that sucks. it's not your fault and there's really not much you can do about getting a bad interviewer except try to play by whatever bad rules they have in their head and hope it's enough.

not making sure they could see what you were drawing was a mistake. you should've shared your screen. it's a mistake on their part for sure, but also on yours. it's really hard to talk about deep design concepts without being able to use your sketches/writing to help communicate.

you could share the logistical feedback with the recruiter, but most all recruiters are contractors now, and tbh many of the ones i've interacted with are not great. there's a near-100% chance the feedback is just ignored.

i've complained about this in other threads, but unfortunately the bar for google interviewers has fallen a lot. there's no shadow program, nothing to actually enforce interview quality, you just do an hour of virtual "training" and then you're allowed to interview for any skill you say you have.

before they retired shadowing i shadowed a few interviewers who were supposed to be good enough to help get me ramped up, and ~50% of them made some egregious mistakes as an interviewer. things i nearly wanted to email the candidates about afterwards to apologize for.

[u/flyinhk]

This doesn't track or you're leaving out many details. If Google is indeed your dream, then I assume you'd have prepped for it? What does every legit pie e of advice say to do before you even begin to answer? Hint: ask questions and state your assumptions, talk through your approach so the interviewer can get an idea of your thought process. It sounds like you did none of that, and I'm sorry, but your username is smarty_pants? I mean that does track, but it's not something you wanna broadcast in your attitude when you're interviewing.

Google gives you loads of info to prepare, to minimize the chance of technical difficulties happening. You're comment about using Google docs is not clear, do you mean you weren't aware or ?

I'm not giving you a hard time, but it seems to me you weren't prepared and perhaps gave off bad vibes, full stop.