Shadowing Practice: Google Interview Tips That Actually Get You Hired - Learn English Speaking with Video

I'm sitting here at a coffee shop and I check my LinkedIn.

literally here on my laptop

and i got five messages people asking me nigel i got

the interview i got into the assessment at google account manager

account executive what do i do next how do i stand

out i've been watching your videos i would love to talk

so i want to address some things here first

and foremost to give the people the ability to understand my mindset

and give you four strong strategies

that you can implement to knock out this interview number one is going to be understanding Are you going to Google Cloud?

Are you working specifically in search?

Understanding that individual department is going to give you a leg up.

in just a basic google terminology whether you have an actual

director uh whether you have a you know you're going to

be an ic whether you're going to be reporting into a particular industry

or vertical understanding those things

and being able to break it down is going to give you a leg up on the competition

because you come into an interview like hey you know understand

i'm going to be in the automotive space i understand i'm going to be working with this industry director

and i know that the goals and the values here are going to be these particular products they're

via email or even as you're in the actual interview to start tailoring your questions.

Number two, of course, is going to be the products.

Being able to have a detailed understanding, not all, right, but at least a few different products

that you can speak on through your experiences and your different ideas and understanding where the business is heading.

As an example, if you're an account manager, you're going to be working in ads.

You need to understand programmatic.

You need to understand Google search.

You need to know basic SEO strategies, optimizations, and how to give an analysis.

It's like, hey, in my past previous role, you know, I work with 20 different clients looking at their SEO strategy, mapping out keywords and identifying opportunities.

When I work at Google, I'm going to be able to scale the same skill set and be able to apply all, you know, the leadership optimizations,

everything that the executives are looking for across my entire book of business.

And so the other thing that you want to understand is that when you're thinking about these products, it's in the mindset of what you've done before.

But more importantly, how it will apply later.

about hey you know i sold this i washed these cars you know i developed this spreadsheet

and it has nothing to do with google google is very You know, it's open and great culture that they are.

They want to know that you have a good understanding of them.

They're a really big family.

And if you don't really kind of understand how Google works, the products, etc., you might as well throw away your application.

You won't go to the next round.

Number three, of course, is going to be your ability to objection handle your communication skills and how you

operate as a salesman or as a saleswoman.

A lot of people focus their time here.

My opinion, two is more important than three, but three cannot be skipped.

And so what does this mean?

Like, hey, tell me about a time when, you know, you had a difficult client.

Tell me about a time where you had to pitch something and the deadline was coming up.

They're looking for frameworks, not right answers.

The biggest thing that people get stuck on, especially when I'm having these one -on -one conversations is, hey, you know, how do I answer this?

How do I answer that?

The questions are always going to be different.

It's about your framework.

So when we think about We're thinking about, you know, seasonality.

We're thinking about budget.

We're thinking about leadership.

We're thinking about KPIs.

We're thinking about data.

We're thinking about stakeholders.

We're thinking about risk.

And so each individual answer, whether using the star method, et cetera, you want to work in some of these frameworks, not only to sound really smart and sophisticated,

but you want to hit different pieces of the puzzle so they know, hey, I'm the salesperson, a saleswoman, a salesman that can cover all the areas, ask great discovery questions.

And when you're doing this interview, you want to be asking discovery questions.

One of the biggest mistakes that I see at Google

or any interview is that people just allow the flow to go question, answer, question, answer, question, answer.

You sound like a robot.

You're not showing off your people skills.

As an example, if the interviewer name, an interviewer's name is Jenny.

Jenny asked me, hey, you know, tell me about a difficult client that you have to work with.

I tell her and I say, hey, Jenny, for this example, would it be better if I give a difficult client in terms of budget?

Or would it be

better

if i give an example of difficult client based on communication

style you see how we open up the dialogue here even

when i introduce myself as hey my name is Nigel Hammett

eight years of tech sales experience i've worked at a variety

of startups some of my strengths include you know really great people skills you know amazing tech stack

and background and then three you know having the ability to understand the dynamics of the needs

and leadership now based off those things understanding leadership tech background and great people skills jenny what should i focus

that was about 30 seconds obviously abbreviated for today's video

but just the ability to answer questions

and flip it back create to turn the interview into an actual conversation moment

so many people are just too robotic

and then the fourth thing here is to be googly right

you have to be friendly you have to be curious ask

great questions i love to ask you know what do people

traditionally struggle with you know what is the new hot google products and then add your research whether it's programmatic,

give a statistic.

And I found out X, Is that true?

Or what are you seeing on a day -to -day at Google?

This is an easy way to stand out.

Obviously, know the interviewer's name, where they grew up, where they went to school, those things are basic.

But if you do those things at a high level and you don't focus on the actual answer, you're going to put yourself in a good spot.

Focus on the process.

Somebody could ask me, what shoes are you wearing tomorrow, Nigel?

And there's no right answer.

It's about how I go through the process of discovering that, hey, I'm going to look in my closet.

I'm going to check the weather.

I'm going to Dan Levy: Take time and pause and think about how I'm feeling for the day.

And then I might ask questions.

Hey, am I going to a special event.

100

All right, what did I wear yesterday.

101

These are things that you can go back and forth with the interview

102

and open up the conversation and not only show your people and sales skills, but show that you have the ability to think at a high level.

103

So again, don't focus on the answer.

104

Focus on the actual framework in the process and then Google product, being friendly, and then of course, doing your basic research, man.

105

Let's get it.

106

If you have any questions after this, of course, shoot me a message or let me know if you learn anything.

107

I love all the interactions.

108

I appreciate when you guys hit me up because I'm active.

109

I'm checking these comments.

110

I'm checking LinkedIn.

111

So good luck on your interview.

112

Let me know how it goes and hit me up with the good news.

113

Let's do it.

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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