So here are some key things I learned about bombing my final round at google for an SRE.
- You will be judged on your competitive programming skills than your knowledge of Linux and systems.
- You should be able to communicate the code you have written properly to the interviewer.
- The 5-hour interview is tiring, practice it with people.
- You can perfectly prepared but one bad interview can mentally derail you.
- Practice whiteboarding.
- Be ready to accept failure.
- Your interviewer can be an prick and will try to destroy your confidence, be calm at all cost.
- If you have to prepare for the interview, means you are not yet ready for google.
- I lost 6kgs of weight in 3 months in preparation, don’t do it.
- Try to interview in sunny vale, Philadelphia, etc Interviewing in 3 degrees Celcius in NYC is not fun at all.
- Don’t be depressed if the hiring committee does not go forward with an offer.
- The starting salary of an SRE (University Graduate) is $1,28,000 base salary. Don’t do it for the money. Do it for the learning and impact.
- SRE was invented at google and I would have killed to be one and grow over there. You can fail, it’s ok. Grow from it.
- If you are experienced, you will have 5 rounds + lunch. 3 coding and 2 system design.
- Google is not the end of the world.
https://landing.google.com/sre/
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