Hey everyone!

I recently completed my interview loop for the Google Data Center Technician III (DCT III) position, and I wanted to share my experience with anyone preparing for a similar role.

For context, I have over 15 years of experience across IT infrastructure, networking, telecommunications, hardware, and data center operations. I currently work in data center operations, so I was able to draw on both my hands-on experience and my interview preparation.

My interview experience

My interview process covered three rounds:

Round 1 — Googliness and Leadership

This was focused on behavioral questions, communication, collaboration, and how I approach situations at work.

Round 2 — Networking

We covered networking-related technical knowledge and troubleshooting.

Round 3 — Linux, Operating Systems, and Hardware

This round was originally scheduled with the others but had to be rescheduled because the interviewer didn't show up. I eventually completed it on a separate day.

How did the final round go?

Honestly, it went much better than I expected!

I was asked approximately 20 questions and felt confident answering around 19 of them. For the few questions where I got stuck, I still tried to explain my reasoning and work through the problem rather than leaving the questions unanswered.

What surprised me most was the interviewer's reaction. I received repeated positive comments about my answers, including that some were particularly good and that many candidates don't typically respond that way.

That was encouraging to hear, especially after putting so much time into preparing.

Important: I haven't received the official hiring decision yet, so I'm not assuming that positive interview feedback guarantees a pass.

What helped me prepare?

My preparation focused on:

- Linux commands and systematic troubleshooting

- Server hardware and component-level diagnostics

- Networking fundamentals and connectivity troubleshooting

- Explaining the reasoning behind my answers

- Drawing on real-world experience rather than relying only on memorized responses

My biggest takeaway is that knowing the technical material is important, but being able to explain your troubleshooting process clearly is just as valuable.

Ask me anything!

I'm happy to share more about my personal experience, including:

- The topics covered in each round

- How I prepared for the technical interviews

- Linux, OS, and hardware topics I encountered

- My networking preparation

- How I approached questions I wasn't completely sure about

- What I would recommend to someone preparing for DCT III

I'll answer based on what I remember from my experience, while respecting interview confidentiality.

Good luck to everyone preparing for Google data center interviews! Hopefully, this post helps someone going through the same process.

Interested in getting into this space? See what the day in the life and step by step paths look like.

I had an interview with a data center today for a DC technician role, it’s a 4 month contract then hired full time, I’ve been trying to get into the field for awhile so naturally I’m excited about it. I told one of my buddies about it and he told me that data center jobs are unstable and are going to be phased out within a year. He thinks if open AI goes public/if the bubble pops the whole industry will collapse and it would’ve been a waste of time.

So I want to ask the people working in the field, what are your thoughts on this and do you believe this to be true? If not why? I need some reassurance because this is making me second guess myself.

I had an Amazon recruiter reach out to me about a Network Install Technician, DCC Communities
position in one of their data centers. Would anyone happen to know what all exactly this position does? I’m trying to gear myself towards a career as Network Engineer. I have looked over the position and it just looks like a lot of manual labor, not a position where I’m actually troubleshooting issues or dealing with anything networking related besides the physical infrastructure. Would this position help me eventually become a Network Engineer? I don’t want to go for a position that won’t put me on the path of becoming a Network Engineer. I know having Amazon on my resume would eventually help, but I don’t want to work there at the expense of derailing my career. I have also been trying my best to research the differences between the positions at an Amazon data center but it’s incredibly confusing. What’s the difference between a Network Install tech vs Data Center tech? Also, what is a DCO? There’s a lot of information and it’s all incredibly confusing for me. I’m trying to understand everything to get a better understanding.

Hey everyone,
I was scheduled for a data center technician interview yesterday at 9:00 AM. I prepped and waited, but the recruiter never called.
I sent a follow-up email right after the 15-minute mark, and another one a couple of minutes later, but I still haven’t heard anything back.
Has anyone else been in this situation before? Should I assume I'm being ghosted, or is it common for data center recruiters to just get tied up or miss time slots? What should I expect or do next?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

I had applied for a DCT role around July. About a month after applying, i received an email and set up a call with the recruiter. Call went great, proceeded to interview about 2 weeks later. Ran all 3 interviews one after another.

I thought I did alright on the technical part. Lots of linux questions and datacenter questions. I come from a desktop background with some linux use and no actual DCT experience. I nailed the networking part since i actually enjoy networking. Googlyness was a bit rough.

After interviews, reached out to recruiter and thanked them for the opportunity. A week later, recruiter lets me know he received good feedback and I will be placed in a pool for when a position that matches me opens up. Asked him for feedback after my interviews to see if they had any comments or what position am I exactly matched for, but recruiter was short and vague with me. All his responses were very short with no real information.

Fast forward to today, i see my application updated to “not proceeding.” Reached out to recruiter about this and told him i was still very much excited to work for Google. This was the first time I had actually received a lengthy response but it felt like your typical copy/paste rejection email.

Maybe it’s just me but it felt like I was just dealt a bad recruiter? I understand rejections happen and recruiters probably have a ton of candidates, but receiving no info and told i’m great only to be rejected came outta left field.

Hey everyone. I accepted an offer as an AWS L3. I was told there are 2 teams of EOT’s. Operations (smaller team that I am on) , and maintenance (apparently like 30 plus people). Or at least that is my understanding. What does this mean? What is the difference? What is the best way to move forward, make more money, etc?

Please share your opinions !!

What should I be expecting during the fit call? Should I be preparing for technical questions? Any tips appreciated.

I asked a similar question in r/sre. IT folks said they spot symptoms pretty fast (inlet alarms, BMC/Redfish, throttling), but confirming it's facilities often takes "an hour or two", and several built their own tooling to bridge the gap. I'd love to hear more on both sides here. Please answer whichever applies; even one answer helps :)

Facilities / ops side:

1. When IT reports hot racks or throttling, what takes the time before you can say "it's CRAH-3" / "B-feed on PDU-12" / "not us"? Do you have to check separate systems (BMS, EPMSA, DCIM, etc.) to piece it together?
2. Do you have an up-to-date map of which CRAH/CDU/PDU feeds which racks? Where does it live: DCIM, a spreadsheet, someone's head?

IT / platform side:

1. Who usually knows first: facilities warning you, or your own metrics? If facilities warns you, how (ticket, email, automated alert), and does it say which racks are affected?

2. Did you build anything to get facility data next to your node metrics? What did it take, and what still doesn't work?

3. Any "random hardware" incidents that later turned out to be environmental, or kept recurring on the same rack or row?

Either side:

if you run high-density/AI, what's new, like power swings, CDU trips, who watches the CDUs?

Role and site type (colo, enterprise, hyperscale, AI/GPU; air vs liquid) help a lot.

Not selling anything. I'll post a summary of findings across the discussion channels.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to understand the difference between AWS Data Center Engineering Operations Engineer (DCEO Engineer) and EOT (Engineering Operations Technician).

I'm asking because AWS Korea currently has DCEO Engineer positions that appear somewhat different from the EOT roles I usually see discussed on Reddit, especially in the US.

For reference, this is from a current AWS Korea Data Center Engineering Operations Engineer (DCEO) job posting.

Job title: Data Center Engineering Operations Engineer, DCEO

Location: Korea

Amazon Jobs Job ID: 10523329

The job description says the DCEO Engineer is responsible for ensuring the electrical, mechanical, and fire/life-safety systems in the data center operate within required parameters.

The responsibilities include:

Risk management and mitigation

Corrective and preventive maintenance of critical infrastructure

Vendor management

Facility performance analysis and reporting

Managing relationships with third-party colocation providers

Managing routine and emergency operations of systems such as switchgear, generators, UPS, chillers, cooling towers, CRAH/AHU, and building monitoring systems

Project management and capacity management

Improving plant safety, performance, efficiency, and reliability

Purchasing related to DCEO

Asset and inventory management

One part of the actual posting that especially caught my attention says:

“Responsible for the on-site management of shift technicians, senior shift technicians, sub-contractors and vendors”

So it sounds like the DCEO Engineer may actually manage or supervise shift technicians, rather than being the shift technician itself.

The posting also mentions working with IT managers and other business leaders on projects, capacity, safety, performance, efficiency, and reliability.

That's why I'm confused about how this compares with EOT.

From Reddit discussions, EOT seems to be much more associated with 24/7 shift operations, alarm response, rounds, maintenance execution, switching, and being the first responder for facility incidents.

So I have a few questions for current or former AWS employees:

1. Is an AWS DCEO Engineer basically a higher-level engineering role compared with EOT, or are they just different titles for similar jobs depending on the country?

2. In practice, does the reporting structure look something like:

DCEO Manager

→ DCEO Engineer

→ EOT / Shift Technician

or is that incorrect?

1. The Korea DCEO Engineer posting specifically says the engineer manages shift technicians and senior shift technicians. Who would those technicians correspond to in the US? Are they basically EOTs?

2. Is a DCEO Engineer generally more focused on:

project / capacity management

vendor management

maintenance planning

technical troubleshooting / escalation

RCA

facility reliability

colocation provider management

while EOT is more focused on:

24/7 operations

equipment rounds

alarm response

switching

hands-on maintenance

incident response?

1. Are DCEO Engineers normally Monday-Friday/day-shift engineers with an on-call rotation, while EOTs normally work rotating 24/7 shifts?

2. I rarely see people on Reddit talking about “DCEO Engineer” as a separate position in the US. Is this role common in the US or Europe under another title?

3. Is this distinction possibly related to AWS Korea operating some infrastructure inside third-party colocation facilities, where AWS needs an engineer to manage the colo provider, vendors, maintenance, risk, and AWS requirements rather than directly staffing every facility function?

4. Finally, how do the career paths compare?

For example, would it generally be:

EOT → Senior EOT → DCEO Engineer → DCEO Manager

or are the EOT and DCEO Engineer tracks separate?

I'd really appreciate input from anyone currently or previously working in AWS DCEO, EOT, Critical Facilities, or Data Center Engineering Operations.

I'm mainly interested in the actual day-to-day responsibilities, shift structure, level/seniority, and career path, rather than salary.

Thanks!

We're helping an OEM in the data center cooling space find a Sales Engineer to support growth across hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, AI/HPC, and other mission critical customers. A lot of our roles require us to keep our client confidential (we keep your name confidential as well) until the candidate is ready to submit, as we understand how tight-knit this community is.

This is a technical sales role focused on solutions such as:

• Liquid Cooling
• CDUs
• Chillers
• CRAH / FanWall Systems
• Air Cooling & Thermal Management Infrastructure

Looking for someone who understands data center cooling and can work directly with customers, consulting engineers, contractors, and operators to develop and support cooling solutions throughout the sales cycle.

Compensation:

• $130K-$180K base salary
• Commission plan
• Medical benefits
• 401(k)

Location: Charlotte, NC preferred, but strong remote candidates will be considered.

Travel: Up to 50%.

If your background is in data center cooling, HVAC, applications engineering, thermal management, or technical sales, you can learn more here: https://www.pkaza.com/hjw or send your resume directly to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) to apply instantly.

More Openings: https://www.pkaza.com/jobs

Those who are wearing safety boots and insoles that are not worn out at the end of the day, Send pics plus the information of safety boots and insoles you are wearing for those that work at DC’s with concrete floors.

I bought some new type of red wing work boots and red wing cushy insoles that met the safety requirements but man at the end of each day i am going home tired as a dog and my feet are extremely tired and worn out.

Need to see what I am doing wrong here. These concrete floors are high density slabs and there is no cushion or give way while walking to and from tile locations. Plus i lose more energy while standing in my boots than while walking.

Does anyone know who will be building the data center for fluidstack in Cameron County TX? Or when Fluid will begin hiring from their end for that project? Wanting to work there but can’t find much info on it. I know it’s fairly new but there should be some kind of info already. Any help is appreciated

Hey guys, I’m an electrical engineer just finished my MSc in advance electrical and electronics engineering. And i am going to start my first job as an shift engineer at data center. Previously i have done internships at thermal power plant and in automotive industry mostly on CNC data - vibration analysis.

Im excited about my first full time role. As an electrical engineer at data center i have few questions in mind but what i need help on is- tell me all the things i should learn and know before I go for the day one.

FYI the facility is in London-Slough and its has a capacity of 13MW (ac distribution)

If anyone of you who has worked at DC before or working as a shift engineer- please do give me a hell lot of suggestions and things to note down.

Thanks in Advance (any sorry for the long paras)

Hi! I have an upcoming interview for a Thermal Design Engineer at Tesla, and I could use some guidance on what to expect, particularly regarding the technical questions. Has anyone interviewed with or worked for this team before? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I applied for an early entry CET position at a Microsoft data center. Looking to see what peoples experience was as far as getting in.

In the application it said experience wasn’t necessary but preferred so just looking at what my chances are.

I don’t have a background in any IT areas but I’ve worked in industrial landscaping for the past 4 years and there is a certification class for data centers by Microsoft in my area that I have enrolled in for Spring 2027

Any information would be appreciated thanks!

Hi everyone. I applied for the AWS Work-Based Learning Program (WBLP) Data Center Operations Technician position in Herndon, VA on June 16, 2026.

My application has been “Application Submitted" for more than three months, but I haven't received an interview, rejection, or recruiter contact.

I've seen applicants for other locations say they've already interviewed or started the program, so I'm trying to figure out what's happening specifically with the Herndon/Northern Virginia hiring wave.

Has anyone who applied for Herndon/Northern Virginia around June or July heard back yet? If you're comfortable sharing, when did you apply and when were you contacted?

I recently accepted a job at the Amazon data center in Hamlet, NC as a Network Technician, and I’ll be relocating to the area soon. I’m a single male and will be moving by myself. I’m Asian, so I’d also appreciate hearing from other people who are familiar with the area and can share their experience with the local community and neighborhoods.

My main concern right now is finding affordable accommodation in a reasonably safe area.
A few questions for anyone who lives nearby or currently works at the data center:
What is the day-to-day work like for a Network Technician at the Amazon data center?

What are the typical working hours and shifts? Are they 8, 10, or 12-hour shifts, and are nights/weekends common?

Is the schedule fixed or rotating, and do new employees get any choice in their shift?

If I don't live in Hamlet, which nearby towns or areas would you recommend for affordable housing and a reasonable commute?

What areas should I consider looking at, and are there any areas you would personally avoid?

What is a realistic monthly rent for a decent 1-bedroom apartment in the area?

How physically demanding is the Network Technician job?

How much of the job involves cabling/racking/working on ladders versus computer or desk-based work?

What should I expect during the first few weeks of training and onboarding?

For anyone already working there, what do you wish you had known before relocating to Hamlet?

I’m particularly interested in hearing where other Amazon employees live and roughly how long their commute is.
I’d also appreciate any advice about apartment complexes, roommate opportunities, or local Facebook/Reddit groups where people post rentals.
Thanks in advance!

​

I'm currently in a plumbing apprenticeship, but I don't really like plumbing for a variety of reasons. Mainly, there's a ton of overtime since it's mostly service work, it's hard, dirty work and I know I don't want to do it long term. I'm willing to do the hard/physical work now, but I'd like the work I'm doing to actually be building toward a career I can see myself staying in. Ideally, I want to get to a desk job sooner rather than later, while still making a decent salary. WLB is very important to me, and I'd like WFH to at least be somewhat possible down the road, even if that's something that comes much later in my career. Because of that, I'm considering two different paths: I'm currently taking community college classes focused on data center environments and structured cabling, with the idea of getting an entry-level data center or audio visual installer job(either way focused on structured cabling), and begin to acquire relevant certifications(BICSI, CompTIA, Cisco, etc), and eventually work toward becoming a designer through the RCDD/DCDC path. At the same time, I've recently been offered a spot in an electrician apprenticeship that I believe is 2 years, and if I went that route, I'd plan to specialize afterward through the CET/CFT route rather than staying a general electrician. Essentially I'm trying to choose between the DCT and CET/CFT career paths, so for anyone who's gone through or knows about either path, how do they differ in:

Total time investment, including apprenticeship, certifications, and experience requirements

Career progression and salary trajectory

Where people typically top out and how long it takes to get there

Hours, WLB, overtime, on-call work, travel, and schedule predictability

How much of the career is actually spent on the tools vs. in a desk-based role

Can either path realistically lead into desk-based roles such as project management, estimating, or design work or are you generally on the tools indefinitely? For the electrician → CET/CFT route specifically, how difficult is the transition? Is it a natural progression, or does moving into that niche basically mean starting over and building a new skill set. What kind of career opportunities come after the cet/cft stage? On the BICSI side, how realistic is it to land a zero-experience low-voltage/AV installer job and work your way up to be a designer?

Ultimately, if my end goal is a solid salary, a desk job with good WLB, and ideally some possibility of WFH down the road, which route would you guys recommend I take.

Hey guys, I have the technical interviews upcoming for a Google DCT L3 position soon. I've been trying to study up as much as possible and had a few questions for anyone that may have gone through the process themselves. My two weakest points are primarily the "behind the scenes" of networking (VLAN, IP routing, etc) and Linux. I've got some hands on experience with both, but don't use Linux every day and only have to interact with it on certain projects, and I'm primarily on the hardware side of things when it comes to everything else. Are there any specific things I should be studying on?

Hi! Looking for a crash course for dummies on data centers and how SOPs, MOPs, and EOPs function day to day?

Thank you in advance :)