First time, I was told a manager would call me to explain me which team I was being matched with. I received the call to tell me I had an offer... two days after the deadline set by the University. And it is not like this deadline is unknown to employers.
Second time, again, I received an offer. This time, I had to call, one week before the deadline, after two weeks of hearing nothing from them. Two students in my class were in the same situation, one had to send a hate mail to finally get a reply. The other one got one only after the deadline.
To be honest, this really isn't the best way to go about it. Makes you fell like crap as an intern. I interned at fairly large and well known tech companies in the past (Facebook, heading to Bloomberg this Summer) and got offers from many more (Amazon, Microsoft, Zynga, EA, etc.) and my worst experiences were always with Google. As a freshman, Google looked like the dream internship, the company to aim for. Four internships later, it is now pretty low on my list.
Definitely not impressed by their recruitment process. And this all happened in the past 12 months.
And it is not like this deadline is unknown to employers.
Sadly the recruiter who knows this deadline and the managers who have "Look for suitable interns" as one of very many todo list items are not one and the same.
I did an internship at Microsoft and now work at Google; the MS internship hiring process (in 2002) was awesome and very, very fast. Your comments about Google's relative standing are definitely interesting and clearly not an anomaly, the issue is fixing them =)
Weird story here. MS, Qualcomm, Intel etc. everyone shows up really early @ our school. Google comes 2 months later after the offer deadlines have passed. What gives ? I couldn't even interview because I had to accept another offer.
Compared to MS, Qualcomm, AMZN (I'm headed to MS) Google's process is pretty weird.
Perhaps Google only wanted the people who specifically want to work at Google... Once they have no other choice, Google has its pick of the remaining fish, right?
I wish it didn't play games in recruitment. I had already accepted an internship at Facebook by the time Google called. In the end I'm glad I did, because I really enjoyed Facebook and am going back full time.
Strangely, I've had a different experience. I've heard promptly from Google, but nothing from Facebook. Perhaps they just aren't interested in me, however.
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.
Yeah I agree about Google making you feel like crap. Another thing, they don't pay for the relocation flight or provide corporate housing, so before my first internship with Google I was pretty bummed out by the whole process, but after actually working there I can't wait to get back.
Renaud, I think you should give them another shot if you're still up for it.
At least this summer, that's not true. They pay a relocation bonus that's more than enough to fly you out and back for the summer, as well as ship whatever you need out with you.
The lack of corporate housing is kind of unfortunate, but the internship pay is enough that it isn't something I'm terribly concerned about.
