In last week’s post I reviewed the skills Google suggests Data Center Technicians have before they apply for one of their open roles. This post reviews Google’s Data Center Technician interview guide (which you can read here) so those with an upcoming interview can hopefully succeed and get an offer. As a Data Center Technician III at Google who interviewed candidates I’m happy this guide is available. Now I have something to give those reaching out to me on LinkedIn asking for interview advice.
Google’s Data Center Technician Interview Guide: Overview
Per the website Google designs their interview with two principles:
- Structured interviewing: Every candidate is assessed using clear rubrics. We use those rubrics for all folks being considered for that role, so that everyone is evaluated from the same perspective, allowing their distinctiveness to emerge.
- Open-ended questions: We ask open-ended questions to learn how you solve problems. We want to understand how your mind works, how you interact with a team, and what your strengths are.
What is is rubric? According to Indeed: “An interview rubric, also referred to as a hiring scorecard or scoring sheet, serves as a rating tool to evaluate job-relevant competencies during an interview.”
Google’s Data Center Technician Interview Guide: Expectations
Google explains in their interview guide that candidates will have multiple interviews. The recruiter will give the exact number and schedule.
As for the type of questions, the guide explains they are open-ended. Meaning there aren’t any multiple-choice questions. This way the interviewers can learn how candidates approach and solve problems. Interviewers, like myself, can’t learn that from a multiple-choice question.
So what type of questions do candidates have to answer? This is what so many people want to know when they reach out to me on LinkedIn or ask on my YouTube channel. Google lays it out:
- Role-related knowledge (RRK): these questions will relate to the role and your past experiences. Be ready to discuss key role knowledge and industry expertise.
- Problem solving: interviewers will be evaluating your problem-solving and critical thinking skills. They want to see how you strategically think through scenarios.
- Leadership: for individual contributor roles, interviewers will look for leadership qualities that demonstrate your potential to grow into future roles. Questions will focus on your ability to get things done, work collaboratively, and strive for self-development.
These guidelines are pretty self-explanatory. Candidates should be ready to answer questions related to the Data Center Technician role using their past IT experience. They need to showcase good problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Finally, candidates should demonstrate their leadership qualities from their previous and/or current roles as this displays potential to grow into future roles.
Interview Preparation
This section is quite long because this is vital to one having a successful interview. After reading the section I do agree with the preparation suggestions:
- Showcase your strategic thinking
- Listen carefully and clarify as needed
- Demonstrate how you navigate complexity and ambiguity
- Share how you work with people and teams
- Think about your leadership style
- Let us know about any accommodations you need
Some candidates may be strong in these already. If one isn’t, then I highly recommend becoming proficient before the interview. Those individuals can consider participating in a mock interview with a friend or family member. Or they can pay for a mock interview. The latter may be better as those companies do provide actionable feedback and will give their clients the truth about their interview skills.
I also suggest candidate write down answers to the above topics. If you can’t write down how you work with people and teams, or how you navigate ambiguous tasks then probably won’t explain those well during the interview.
Look at the interview as an audition. You must practice over and over and over so you will have the best audition possible. If you don’t, then someone else will get the role.
Behavior Interviews
I’m glad Google’s Data Center Technician interview guide covers behavior interviews because I think too many candidates focus on the technical interviews too much. Thus, they are unprepared when it comes to behavioral questions.
These are important because that’s how interviewers learn “how you’ve handled a specific challenge in the past to assess if you’ll be a good match for the role.”
There’s more I want to say, but I don’t want to overstep any boundaries placed by my employer so I suggest individuals spend a considerable amount of time reading through that section on the guide. Then put into practice the STAR method the guide describes:
- Situation: Describe the situation you were in or the task you needed to accomplish
- Task: Explain the goal you were working toward
- Activity: Detail the specific steps you took and the role(s) you played
- Result: Describe your accomplishments and the overall outcome
Use The Provided Resources
I want to end this post to tell candidates to use the provided resources at the end of the guide. Especially if one has an upcoming interview.
- Connect with a Googler
If someone has more questions about the role to see if it will be a good fit for them then ask your recruiter to connect with a Googler. Candidates can also ask to have a mock interview with a Googler. I’ve done both of these with candidates. And one of those candidates now works at Google! (I’m not taking full credit for that because that person had to pass the interview, but I did help that person focus on their strengths and provide tips on how to calm their nerves.)
- Leverage AI
It’s fine to use Gemini to prepare for an interview. You can even have a mock interview with the LLM. However, do not use it during the interview! That’s a big no-no and you can (and probably will) get disqualified from the role.
- Interview Warmup Tool to Practice Answering Interview Questions
I learned about this tool some time back, but forgot about it until now. Go try it out!
- Learn more about Google and the Data Center Position
There are plenty of links on the guide to get more information so please visit them.
Good luck!