All of the questions in each interview were very reasonable. For the technical one, it was explaining statistical concepts, deciding which tests to use in certain situations, and my experience with using these techniques. Where I had a negative experience was in that my interviewer had quite a strong accent that severely impacted my ability to understand exactly what questions were being asked. I have worked with many amazing colleagues with accents and appreciate it is far more of a struggle for them than for me, a native English speaker. However, in a phone interview process where I don't have familiarity with the person's speech and I could not type or chat or see my interviewer pronouncing the words, I found it extremely difficult with every single question. In the least, it made it extremely awkward when I asked her to repeat the question every time, repeatedly clarifying it back to her. In the worst, I misinterpreted the question and answered incorrectly. The person that interviewed me is in a highly technical/analytical role (i.e., not giving many presentations) and I do know that conducting interviews is a part of Google's promotion process, thus she was required to do so in order to move up in the company, despite the difficulties that would arise for the interviewee. When I contacted my recruiter about this, before finding out the results of my interview, I was ignored about the language barrier. I suggested that I could provide another technical interview with a different interviewer, could provide additional written answers regarding technical concepts to demonstrate my competencies. This was all ignored and I was given a rejection notice. I was extremely frustrated by this process and will never apply to Google again. I have a PhD, have published 6 peer-reviewed articles with advanced statistics, have worked in a translational science role in the past, and have been asked by faculty to assist in teaching graduate level classes in advanced statistics because of my advanced demonstrated knowledge in earlier classes. Not to say I could have gotten some things wrong in that interview on my own accord but the way Google responded to me was what made it worse. Acknowledge that the person has a significant accent that would affect a phone-only interview and allow reasonable accommodations moving forward.
