Hired in 2006. I was really serious about it. I was a year out of school (C+ GPA) working at a place I knew I didn't want to be. I had just started to grasp the seriousness of my situation as I stared into the abyss of an Office Space-style cubicle farm future. I knew I wasn't up on my stuff after slacking my way through school so I spent months coming up to speed on algorithms, code architecture, best practices, etc.

I wouldn't say I expected to get the job, but I nailed the interview. I've since moved on from Google, but the stuff I learned during those months has been incredibly valuable for my career.