Honest response from a Googler to a question on Quora:
Q: Do Google engineers get tired of interviewing candidates since so many are rejected?
A: “I can only answer for myself: I get tired of interviewing candidates (I do one to two interviews per week), not because so many get rejected, but because it’s an activity that requires my energy, involvement, and active participation.
I do not stop seeing a candidate as a person because of all the other candidates I’ve interviewed, regardless of their performance. An interview is a conversation, not an exam or a test, and as such I am just as involved in it as the candidate.
What the amount of the interviews conducted and the corresponding experience points collected give me, is the ability to grade the interview according to the standardized process during the interview, rather than at the end of it/after writing the feedback.
There is a certain emotional cost to see the candidates fail during the interview, but it’s much worse to see the candidates shine during my interview and then be rejected based on the outcome of all interviews they’ve been through”
My thoughts on this honest response from a Googler?
My own honest insight into Google’s and indeed all FAANG company interviewers – once a candidate clears a specific bar set really high first by the recruiter, then the candidate screener, much of the time these candidates are already above average and interesting to talk with. The kinds of things that get candidates either disqualified or make them successful are generally the behavioral answers – how collaborative, how intellectually humble, how open to learning they are. Similarly with my coaching clients – how open they are to feedback from their answers, how deep they’re willing to dive into details when prompted, how honest they are about the scope and scale of knowledge and experience they have in a given area or areas.
Take these answers for whatever value you can derive from them.
