Google User Experience Researcher interview questions

The interview process at Google is well-documented at this point. One or more phone screens, an on-site with a presentation, it was all the same for me. I'll share info on a few other topics instead of repeating others. ***Getting an Offer in a Smaller Google Office*** I could not relocate to a major Google hub like MTV or NYC and it was quite difficult to get an offer in a smaller office. I had a positive internship at Google and know dozens of people there and it was still a challenge. I had multiple false starts where I'd pass a phone screen (once I even had a positive onsite), only to hear that internal candidates had filled all openings in the office I was targeting and would I be interested in moving to California? Here was what I did differently this time. #1, I expanded my search to include more Google locations. Still no MTV or NYC, but I was no longer laser focused on one smaller office. #2, I contacted a friend on a relevant team. The manager was interested in me and re-started the process with an onsite. This was over a week AFTER a recruiter had told me that, yet again, all possible positions had been filled and I would not be moving on despite my good feedback. #3, After my onsite I ended up getting matched with a different team in my preferred office (huzzah) for a position that didn't even exist at the time of my onsite. It wasn't on my radar or my recruiter's radar at all. After that match, I effectively went through several additional phone interviews with the team, as the dreaded internal candidates were up for this position as well. So, get your foot in the door and do what you can to get to the team-matching point, even if you have to consider less desired locations, since new openings come and go quickly. Also, work your contacts. Don't assume that every team and opening is known to HR. In the same vein of getting your foot in the door, if you are able to relocate to a major hub for a few years, you can look to transfer to an opening in a smaller office down the line. This is clearly a popular course of action given all the positions I've seen filled by internal candidates. ***Competing Offers and Negotiating*** I was also interviewing at another major tech company. I kept Google apprised of this and it definitely sped up the process. I got a competing offer before the Google offer and agonized over whether I should share the exact details with Google. The competing offer was very strong. Google also knew from my history with them that I didn't want to relocate (required by competing offer, would NOT be required by Google). I wasn't sure how much leverage I really had. I ended up sharing the details with Google before receiving Google's first offer. Google's first offer then beat my competing offer, via a lower base but more stock and a signing bonus. I was unable to negotiate this any further. It was a very solid offer at that point, and the recruiter told me going any further would require counters from the competing company. I didn't want to leverage either company that way when the offer was already in a good spot, so I accepted at that point. I think the competing offer, even in a different location, got me a better offer from Google than I could've gotten on my own.

Transparent: recruiter let me know exactly how everything would go down. Gave me ample materials/resources to prepare. She answered all my questions before hand and checked in to see if I was ready or needed anything. Most pleasant interviewing process I have ever experienced.