Back in December, I received a message on LinkedIn from a Google recruiter. Believe it or not, I genuinely thought it was fake. I ignored it. A month later, she messaged again. I still didn’t reply. I’m not proud of it, and I still don’t know what I was thinking. Then came two missed calls from Google Recruiting, once on the 10th and again on the 21st of January. It wasn’t until the 24th, three days later, that I finally picked up. The recruiter asked if I had five minutes, introduced herself, and talked me through some open roles. I said I was interested. She asked about my interests, the tech stacks I’ve worked on, and how I would rate myself in DSA. I said 8.5 out of 10. She also asked about the kind of work I do in my current company and when I’d be free for interviews. The call lasted around 16 minutes. Right after, I received the prep materials, the schedule, and an invite to a mock interview group. Generally, they give three weeks to prep for the first round. In my case, I was given two. The phone screen was scheduled for February 5th, from 2:00–2:45 PM. Due to a personal emergency, I had to reschedule it and it was moved to February 7th, 8:00–8:45 PM.