0) Applied via the reference of a longtime employee at Google. This was extremely useful because he could be a squeaky wheel to bother recruiting coordinators (of which there were exactly four!)
1) Phone screen. Great conversation- we just talked about my resume. Couldn't ask any questions about the position, work, team, etc, because Google X.
2) Waiting/scheduling game. They asked for three weeks (!) of availability. I did the best I could, but ended up having to fly home early because they chose the very first day (where I had hoped they would choose sometime in the middle of my date range).
3) Handed off from recruiter to coordinator to coordinator. Filled out the full paper application.
4) Full day of interviews on-site! I was interviewed by exactly NINE people, because they had a lot of 'shadow' interviews for new employees. Of the nine, I would say four were a joy to talk to, three were quiet/boring/had poor english language skills, and one guy was an utter jerk. Maybe he was having a bad day, but he kept on asking very general questions, then interrupting as soon as I began to answer to tell me that he didn't understand or that my answer was too general. Questions were generally open-ended and related to the position and my past experience.
Some personality questions, too, but the interviewers seemed generally confused about what the role would entail- the scope of what they assumed I would be doing spanned about five very different jobs, only about two of which I have the experience for and interest in doing.
5) Staffing coordinator begins to fail. Says he'll get back conclusively by a certain date. Fails to do so, but says it doesn't sound likely and that I'm not a perfect fit. I check in a couple weeks later, he says that I should take other offers if I have them, but he will get back to me soon for a final decision. I check in again after a couple weeks…he says the exact same thing. Still waiting, double digits weeks later. Bleh.
