I've had bad experiences with Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. Amazon's recruitment process was lengthy and somehow all records they had for one of my interviews mysteriously vanished and I had to start all over again. With Facebook, I didn't get too far into the process, but our campus recruiter has a reputation for being disorganized.

I'll give MS recruiters the benefit of the doubt, as all other candidates I met had positive experiences. They just matched me with the wrong team, and it seems like the recruiter overlooked some paperwork related to scheduling and traveling.

Other sloppy recruitment experiences include some with trading companies such as Jane Street; one such company rejected me by saying "we're only looking for juniors" after calling me on-site. The only truly positive experience I've had is with a YC startup (I was eventually rejected).

Nothing, however, compares with how bureaucratic and mismanaged Google was. I went through a smooth but lengthy recruitment process the first time, and was given a rejection letter after 1 month. Second time, I had to do some juggling between 4 recruiters before getting the paperwork settled for my first interview. I was out of the country and clearly told a recruiter that I should be reached by a different phone number, after which I was asked "are you legally allowed to work in the United States?" even though I'd already answered that in the paperwork they had given me, and I had clearly stated I was studying in the US. Then, I end up scheduling interviews for 2am and 3am my time. The 3am interviewer is not informed about the change in phone number, and is a no-show.

A couple of interviews and 6 weeks later, I get no response. So I end up sending a follow-up mail to my recruiter, who, the very next day, tells me I've been put in the rotting pool. I get no more feedback after 3 weeks, and send another mail. Apparently, I'm still in this rotting pool. I'm guessing this is just equivalent to getting a rejection.

As for interview questions, Google isn't any different from other large companies. I found it odd that they still require candidates to code in Google Docs rather than some Etherpad equivalent that formats code.

So far, searching for an internship has been just a ridiculous time sink. I'd probably get more experience by hacking on my own projects, but that's no guarantee of job safety.

user:	boombah
created:	March 30, 2011
karma:	1