Interview process at Google & Work culture?
Got a call from a recruiter for a non tech role. I'm still deliberating whether I should go for the role or not. Nevertheless, I'll give it my best
Currently at Amazon, I'm not having the best experience. I'm working 24*7 and still getting nowhere. Growth seems directly proportional to visibility and that the no. 1 red flag and incompetent people end up becoming managers who are incapable of guiding.
I want to know if the work culture at Google is any different? What is the interview process and what type of questions can I expect? If I get through how much hike can I expect from my current role which I've only been in for 8 months?
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Nobody works 24/7 it is 12 hrs max
He meant work is on his mind 24/7. So your mind is occupied with it. That’s toxic
Okay boomer
The whole work culture is overrated. People are not getting married to their company , worrying that a divorce would be costly. We should focus on the pay/benefits. and the quality of our reporting manager, which we will not know until we join.
Trying to find about work culture is like checking if the hooker can sing/cook before hiring the service.
Lmfao
lol well said . Hahahaha
Moving to Google requires a fundamental mindset shift. While Google offers more 'psychological safety,' that safety is designed to encourage risk-taking, not just comfort. The interview process specifically screens for how you handle ambiguity and whether you have the courage to challenge the status quo. Reading your experience, it’s worth asking: are you looking for a place to hide from the 'visibility' game, or are you ready to take the high-stakes risks that Google actually rewards? Without that 'owner' mindset, the transition might be harder than you think.
PeopleOps?
I’m not afraid of ambiguity or high ownership—I’ve thrived in consulting environments before. What became difficult at Amazon was the absence of basic enablement. With most of the team being new, work cascaded downward without context, and I was handling critical deliverables without historical knowledge or transition support.
What troubled me more was the lack of psychological safety—being asked to “figure things out” and then being publicly corrected or undermined by the very people who withheld information. I can handle pressure and politics, but I don’t believe in compromising quality or integrity for optics.
I’ve delivered despite the chaos, but I don’t want to build a career where visibility outweighs substance. I want to grow in environments that value honest work, depth, and accountability—not just escalation management.
Anyway, what's the screening round like - behavioural? Technical? Or both?
Let’s talk?
Yup
I’m no authority on Amazon’s internal day-to-day, but I can share how we’d typically navigate those kinds of gaps at Google.
Google’s culture is built on psychological safety and blamelessness, but even then, there’s a massive expectation for proactivity. You’re often learning on the fly, and the onus is on you to flag missing context before it turns into an optics issue. For example, if you're forced to submit a deliverable without historical data, you’d frame it as:
'This was completed without historical context or transition support; therefore, I’ve made these specific assumptions to maintain speed.'
It’s about externalizing the risk early, essentially creating an 'information-gap log', so that 'figuring it out' isn't misconstrued as a mistake during a public correction.
To be fair, Amazon is a giant for a reason. They didn’t get here with failing systems; their model for high-velocity output clearly works at scale, even if it feels like 'escalation management' on the ground. Every top-tier company has its own version of 'hard.' While Google might feel more inclusive, the demands for proactivity and 'Googliness' are just as intense.
Honestly, it might be worth giving yourself more time to observe the Amazon work style and how people navigate the internal politics. The job market is pretty rough right now, and the reality is that all the Big Tech giants have become a lot harder to work for than they were a few years ago. It’s likely just about finding the right way to navigate this new 'normal' while the industry is under so much pressure.
You can expect the same as I was worked in Google