Back when I wanted to interview at google, I sensed some frustration between HR and the engineering. Some engineers just didn't make good interviewers.
I had a recruiter obtain approval to have my technical review ignored because I pointed out so many flaws in it. At that point I had too much of a distaste for the process to continue.
But I kept being approached by Google recruiters, kept recounting what had happened last time and asked if I could expect better this time. None could promise things had improved, and a few did express that kind of frustration.
This was years ago now. Could have changed of course. But I started telling them to go away.
I was getting HR hits like every six months and eventually I told them I would get back in touch when I was ready.
Now I'm getting an email every month from FB, and about ready to do the same with them.
The last time I passed the first and second rounds and Google let me languish on the third round for a month. I still probably would not have made it through, but it was surprising that my candidacy was dropped like that.
It says something about their HR systems that it's clear they don't review past interactions before doing this. To me that's a warning sign too - I'm less likely to consider interviewing if a company contacts me again and the interaction doesn't start with a pitch of how this time or this position is a better fit...
The problem is that many out there try to copy the dysfunctional FAANG interview style. Google was asking those dumb brain-teaser questions for years, which were obviously useless to the naked eye, and then they realized themselves that those were counter-productive.
Yet, you could expect one of those in almost any interview process. Seemingly smart people are ready to jump on bandwagons, too.
Google was asking those dumb brain-teaser questions for years
Microsoft started doing this, realized it was a bad idea, and stopped before Google even really started this practice. So Google is as guilty of bandwagon jumping as everybody else here.
HR wished I had gotten a different interviewer.