First point of interaction was with a recruiter over LinkedIn. I scheduled quick screening call with the recruiter to gauge my interest in the role, and to see if I should move forward with a technical phone interview. After the call with the recruiter, I sent work samples over to them in preparation for the technical phone interview
About a week later I was on the phone with a senior designer for a technical phone interview. He asked me questions about my design process as well as some of the work in the work sample. It was up to them to decide if I was going to proceed to the next step.
After the technical phone interview, I was given a list of 3 prompts for a design exercise of which I had to choose one and submit a presentation. I had the ability to choose my own deadline for this project. I chose 2 weeks since I was currently employed at the time and can only work on it in the evenings/weekends. This presentation gets sent to a hiring committee who decides wether or not you move onto the onsite interview.
Once I got confirmation that I was going onsite, the recruiter mentioned that in addition to my design exercise, I should also include 1-2 examples of previous projects presented in a case study format to include in my presentation. According to the recruiter, the presentation (~45 mins) format should be as such:
5mins: Short intro of myself
15-20 mins: Presenting my design Exercise
15-20 mins: Presenting 1-2 previous projects
Any extra time: Q&A
The interview day was rather grueling, but it wasn't my first time going through a corporate-style interview loop, so I was familiar with the process. The interview consisted of showing my presentation to a panel of 5 designers and researchers, followed by individual 1:1 conversations with each of those panelists focusing on a different theme with each. For my particular interview, two of the candidates were remote (via Google Hangouts). The interview day was from 9:30am to 4:00pm with a 1 hour lunch break. The day looked like this:
Design Presentation: For 45 minutes, I presented both my design exercise and 1-2 previous projects. A short Q&A session followed where i answered questions either about my assignment or previous work.
1:1 with a UX Researcher: I was asked questions about how I approach gathering information before designing. What I believe the role of research is in software development, how I have done user testing in the past.
LUNCH: Had a one hour lunch with a current designer who is not part of the interview process. Gave me a chance to unwind and ask more candid questions about life at google. I was also shown one of their many cafeterias where I had a delicious Pho lunch
1:1 with Designer (Core Role Knowledge): Asked question about how the design cycle/process looks like for me at my current job. I was also asked what my favorite app was and why. I pulled out my phone and broke down the reasons why I liked said app. I was also asked about ways in which the app can be improved.
1:1 with Designer (Problem Solving): This section was basically a deep dive of my design exercise. It was quite intimidating because the interviewer was probing very deeply about my design exercise and questioning many of my answers. On the upside, it felt more like they were trying to challenge my answers and see how I would respond rather than my answers being insufficient.
1:1 with Designer (Creativity): This was the session I was most nervous about. We did 2 white-boarding exercises. Thankfully I've interviewed enough designers in my previous role that I had a good grasp of the dos and don'ts for this kind of session. The questions were relatively broad, and the exercises felt more like a collaboration with the designer rather than a test.
1:1 with Designer (Technical Knowledge): This session was the easiest for me. I was asked about what type of software I use, how I submit deliverables, and other basic stuff about what tools designers used. I used this session to learn more about what Google's process looks like, and If I'm already using the same kinds of tools they use day-to-day.
Throughout all the 1:1s, the interviewers are taking notes. Once the onsite interview is complete, those notes, along with my presentation and resume, are sent to a separate committee to review before making a final decision. It took about a week to hear back from Google on a decision.
After I learned that I will be presented an offer by the recruiter, I was then asked what my salary expectations are. After plenty of Glassdoor research, and asking peers, I gave the recruiter my numbers, which they then relayed to the hiring team. It took another week to finally receive the official offer letter, which I signed.
I chose not to counter-offer because the offer was slightly higher than I anticipated, and was comfortably higher than the median compensation for my experience level and location.
