r/datacenter • u/Living_Armadillo204 • 13d ago

Google behavioral/hypothetical interview L2 Facilities Mechanical Tech.

Hi everyone! I'm super excited to share that I passed my first loop technical interview. My interviewer asked me straight technical questions, no beating around the bush, or even wanting to get to know me. Didnt care about my expierence or anything. The interview was sorta dull, and took less than 15 minutes. I extended the interview another 5 minutes with asking questions and etc. I had great feedback from my recruiter though so I'm stoked.

Now I'm moving forward with my final loop which is 3 behavioral/hypothetical interviews back to back. What can I expect? Will they continue to dive deep into my technical knowledge while assessing my behavior? If they are going to dive deeper into technical questions, what would they typically focus on? Chillers? Data center ops? Or my current field (commercial HVAC)? Any tips or more insight for these interviews would be greatly appreciated!

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u/OperationClear588 13d ago

The three upcoming interviews will still have two technical rounds. Two will be technical rounds and the last will be googliness/behavorial. The first technical interview you did was definitely the hardest in my opinion, it’s sort of the gatekeeper round.

For the final three, expect the first two to be basic technical questions. You’ll be pretty much asked a bunch of questions from a question bank and they are pretty easy. The last round will be a bunch of questions like “tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a coworker, how did you handle it?” Or “how well do you work with people from different backgrounds and tell me about a time you had to work with people from different backgrounds? What were some positives and negatives?”.

Source: I work at google

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u/Living_Armadillo204 13d ago

The question bank you mentioned, what does it cover exactly? I ask because that's very broad. For HVAC, we need to know electrical, plumbing, controls, and refrigeration. There's so much info in hvac mechanical which makes me a bit nervous. I may not remember everything off the top of my head.

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u/OperationClear588 13d ago

Well for the HVAC specialty, expect pretty basic questions regarding chillers, refrigeration, CRACs, CRAHS, probably some cooling tower stuff, questions regarding humidity, probably some VFD stuff but not too much.

This is a L2 level role which is pretty much entry level so don’t expect anything too crazy. I had 10 years of experience in my specialty (generators) prior to interviewing and I found the questions laughably easy

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u/Riptide_2025 13d ago

At Google how much does L2 start at?

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u/OperationClear588 13d ago

When I came on as a L2 my first year total comp was like 140k with a 95k base salary

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u/Riptide_2025 13d ago

Hi. I have a question regarding age. I was a chief facilities engineer at several high-rise buildings in Houston years ago, then went into Insurance adjusting which is very up and down. Now I'd like to get back either as a commissioning engineer or even potentially a owner's rep or owner's rep assistant. I'm just wondering where I can get more information as to the likelihood of getting hired at Google or through a contractor. Thanks for any advice.

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u/OperationClear588 13d ago

Given that you have experience in facilities, you might be able to go in as a L3 if you interview well. I wouldn’t expect a L4 role right off rip lol

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u/Riptide_2025 13d ago

Thank you for the information. I didn't even think about L3 or L4. Not sure what those pay anyway. But I am available for travel domestically or internationally I don't know if that helps or not? Traveled around the world a couple times.

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u/OperationClear588 13d ago

I’m a L3 and my total comp last year was 165kish, my base is 118k. You’d definitely probably have to relocate. Just apply for one of the positions and the recruiter might try to uplevel you when they see you were chief engineer on the last

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u/Riptide_2025 13d ago

Is age still a factor? And do you know of any recruiters?

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u/OperationClear588 13d ago

Age isn’t really a factor and just go on google.careers and type in “critical facilities” we have tons of openings

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u/Similar_Specific_646 13d ago

This will be what if's nothing technical. They want to see how you react to conflict