Google · Donald Trump · South Korea · Fortune Technology
Former VP Kamala Harris confirms she went through a nine-hour interview to land the job—but she couldn’t escape ‘gold medal
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Job-seekers complain about “ ghost jobs,” five rounds of interviews, and tedious skills tests —but even major leaders are not exempt from the ordeal.
Key facts
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai was put through nine interviews and a trick question before securing an SVP product manager role at the $4.5 trillion company
- A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on October 31, 2025
- She made history in the Bay Area as the first woman elected to the role of San Francisco DA, and the first female, Black, and South Asian attorney general in the state’s history
- The last time she experienced it was when she went head-to-head against now-President Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, with less than four months to campaign
Summary
“When I was being vetted for vice president, I had a nine-hour interview with a lawyer going through everything,” Harris recalled on the Diary of a CEO podcast last year. Harris undoubtedly had the professional chops to take on the job. “Having been in the position of both being the interviewer and the interviewee, it as much as anything comes down to chemistry,” Harris explained. “Then it’s about sitting down and deciding, because it is going to be a partnership,” she continued.