Google APM Intern Interview Experience- My First Interview!
If you are reading this, you either know what the APM position is or you don’t. Since the majority of people still don’t know about it, I will start from the very beginning. :)
APM stands for Associate Product Manager. You would have probably heard about the field of Product Management but breaking into that field requires some experience. And if you want to get into product management while you are still in college or as soon as you graduate, then the APM role is the way to go!
But, APMs are not that common in most companies yet. Only a few major companies like Google, Facebook, Uber, Salesforce, etc have such programs.
As Google’s career page explains, “The Associate Product Manager (APM) program is focused on building Google’s next generation of product leaders.”
Read more at https://careers.google.com/programs/apm/
Now, the question is, “Did I know about the APM programs when I applied at Google?”
Well, the answer is no.
This means that my first ever APM interview was with the company that started the APM Programs in the first place. ♥
I was randomly scrolling through Google’s Career page and came across an APM Intern opening in London and Zurich. When I read the description of the role, I felt that it was tailormade for me. Neither too technical, nor completely out of touch with it. The idea of getting the opportunity to bring all my diverse interests to the table in a single role was a dream come true!
Phase 1: Application
I applied for this position on 30th September 2020. I directly applied through the Careers page without any referrals. (Maybe my first mistake? I guess I will never know ;) )
So, fast forward to November and I had lost hopes to hear from the Google team. To my absolute surprise, my recruiter reached out to me on 13th November 2020 regarding this role!! I was asked to fill a Google form so that the Team could understand my background better.
The next day, that is on 14th November 2020, I received an update saying that my application is being taken forward and I will have a 45-minute phone interview. I was asked to fill out 4–5 dates and times according to my availability. My recruiter also shared a few resources with me to prepare for the same. Most of them, you would easily find on Google. I will also tag a few common resources towards the end. I got my interview date on 16th November 2020 so I had some time to prepare for the same.
Phase 2: Phone Interview
The phone interview was scheduled for 4th December 2020. I was nervous as it was my first interview and when the interviewer didn’t arrive for 7 minutes after the scheduled time, I started panicking a bit. Then he joined the meeting and apologized for running late and then the interview started. The interviewer asked me about myself and then I was asked three questions, two analytical questions, and one product design question. The interview went well (I cannot reveal the questions due to Google’s policy) and I got to ask my interviewer about his role and everything. Overall, it was a great experience. Now, I had to wait for my recruiter’s response whether I would progress to further rounds or not.
Phase 3: Written Assignment & Further Interviews
Phase 3 Part 1: Interviews
On 7th December 2020, I got an email from my recruiter saying that I have passed the first round and will be moving forward. Here, she also introduced me to another recruiter who would take my application ahead. I was asked to fill in dates for my availability for the interviews as well as for receiving the written assignment. I will explain the written assignment in a bit.
My new recruiter again shared a few resources to prepare for the interview and even gave the option to schedule a group prep call to clear all the doubts regarding the interview process!! (I am not sure if this is done by all the recruiters or my recruiter was extra sweet. I did not read about such a call in other people’s interview experiences so I don’t know. )
Before the prep call with my recruiter, I got an email from the scheduling team. I had to give 3 interviews out of which 2 were scheduled on 14th December 2020 and the third was scheduled on 15th December 2020. I knew that these interviews would now cover one category of questions at a time but I did not know which interview would cover which. So much suspense!
And, the group prep call turned out to be a one-on-one call instead and I got the opportunity to talk to my recruiter and got to know all about the interview process in this 30-minute call. I also asked her to delay my writing assignment date a bit because unfortunately the interviews and the assignment submission were clashing. She helped me out with that and changed the date of the written assignment to after the interviews. I believe this call played a big role and helped me a lot during the interview process!
Fast forward to the D-Day, as it turned out, my first interview was about estimation questions (find more about different types of questions in resources tagged below). The second interview covered product design and the last one was technical.
Again, I cannot reveal the specific questions asked but here is something that I will always remember about this interview experience:
Remember the 45 minutes outage that Google faced on 14th December 2020? I was in the very last stage of my second interview when it happened. And so, I lost connection with my interviewer and there was no way to reach out to my recruiter or the interviewer because all Google services were down. Fortunately, my interview was almost concluded by then and so, when things got back to normal, my interviewer said that there was no need to repeat the interview. This is an anecdote that will always be memorable!
Also, just a quick note about the technical interview, I was not asked to code during any part of it. The questions were more focused on the implementation of various applications and system designing.
Phase 3 Part 2: Written Assignment
We are given a full-fledged problem and we have to suggest a solution for the same in the form of a document or a presentation, covering all the aspects that would play a role. This was a sneak peek into the actual work that a Product Manager does.
I received the assignment on 14th December 2020 and had exactly three days (till 17th December 2020) to submit my solution. This was undoubtedly a fun learning experience!
After all of this was done, what followed was a long waiting period of almost a month due to the Christmas and New Year holidays. :(
I got an update regarding my application from my recruiter on 6th January 2021 saying all of my feedback is in and my application will be reviewed by the Hiring Committee next week. A lot of suspense at this moment(!).
After waiting for a week, I got the email that the hiring committee has decided not to move forward with me this time. :(
But I did not get demotivated by this. I had a great experience while preparing for the interviews and I am going to continue preparing for further interview opportunities for the APM role.
I hope this interview experience helps you. :)
If you still have any doubts, feel free to reach out to me: linkedin.com/in/tanyabatra30
A few resources for reference:
https://blog.tryexponent.com/best-associate-product-manager-programs/
https://candor.co/articles/career-paths/google-s-apm-program-from-a-to-z
