This review is specifically for a product manager position at Google.
I consider Google to be the Harvard of product management. Similar to Harvard, Google is extremely hard to get into but if you get in, you are pretty much set for life, you work with the smartest people on the planet, so many doors open up for you, you will likely become very wealthy, and you can make a huge impact on the world.
The Google interview process takes 6-8 weeks from initially talking to a recruiter to accepting an offer. It feels like a marathon and the entire time - particularly up until you are approved by their Hiring Committee - you need to bring your A+ game. They are looking for a reason to reject you so you need to ace every single phone screen and interview. Any small misstep on your part and you're out.
If you truly want to work there, I strongly recommend spending as much time as you can preparing by practicing sample questions over and over before your interviews/phone screen so, during those interviews, it's feels like second nature.
I was very fortunate to get 7 offers including offers from Google, Amazon, Facebook, and 4 other tech companies. I accepted an offer from a late stage startup where the role and opportunity was a near perfect fit with what I was looking to do next in my career.
Here's the end-to-end process I went through at Google to get an offer:
1. Recruiter reached out to me over email
2. I chatted on the phone with the recruiter
3. I had a phone screen with a product manager at Google who interviewed me on product design, product strategy, and analytics
4. I had an onsite interview with 4 product managers and 1 software engineer
5. Google asked me for internal Google references (people who I worked with in the past who now work at Google)
6. Google took my feedback to the hiring committee and they approved me for hire at a specific level
7. I received a doc from roughly 15 teams in Google who were hiring product managers with a description of their projects and the role they were hiring
8. I selected my top 3 teams
9. I talked with the hiring manager and team members from my top 3 choices and then ranked my choices
10. I had a mutual match with my top choice
11. In a normal situation, my package would then be taken to an SVP who'd approve it and I'd get an offer. But in my case I wanted a higher level so the hiring manager had to submit a Statement of Support to the hiring committee to approve the higher level. The hiring committee approved it and the recruiter emailed me my compensation package. The next step was for the SVP to officially approve it, but I ended up accepting my other offer before that step completed.
Google's hiring committee initially turned me off since I felt like I was being judged by a bunch of people who never met me. But I later realized, the committee prevent hiring managers from bringing in less qualified candidates in order to fill a role and ensures Google gets the cream of the crop.