diff --git a/bigquery/cloud-client/pom.xml b/bigquery/cloud-client/pom.xml
index 89fd11d9a41..f357faf0f7f 100644
--- a/bigquery/cloud-client/pom.xml
+++ b/bigquery/cloud-client/pom.xml
@@ -28,8 +28,8 @@
   </parent>
 
   <properties>
-    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
-    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
+    <maven.compiler.target>1.7</maven.compiler.target>
+    <maven.compiler.source>1.7</maven.compiler.source>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
   </properties>
 
diff --git a/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/QueryParametersSample.java b/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/QueryParametersSample.java
index 2485fc0cf83..97f08a563c2 100644
--- a/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/QueryParametersSample.java
+++ b/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/QueryParametersSample.java
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
 /**
  * A sample that demonstrates use of query parameters.
@@ -150,12 +149,11 @@ private static void runNamed(final String corpus, final long minWordCount)
     }
 
     if (response.hasErrors()) {
-      throw new RuntimeException(
-          response
-              .getExecutionErrors()
-              .stream()
-              .<String>map(err -> err.getMessage())
-              .collect(Collectors.joining("\n")));
+      String firstError = "";
+      if (response.getExecutionErrors().size() != 0) {
+        firstError = response.getExecutionErrors().get(0).getMessage();
+      }
+      throw new RuntimeException(firstError);
     }
 
     QueryResult result = response.getResult();
@@ -208,12 +206,11 @@ private static void runArray(String gender, String[] states)
     }
 
     if (response.hasErrors()) {
-      throw new RuntimeException(
-          response
-              .getExecutionErrors()
-              .stream()
-              .<String>map(err -> err.getMessage())
-              .collect(Collectors.joining("\n")));
+      String firstError = "";
+      if (response.getExecutionErrors().size() != 0) {
+        firstError = response.getExecutionErrors().get(0).getMessage();
+      }
+      throw new RuntimeException(firstError);
     }
 
     QueryResult result = response.getResult();
@@ -256,12 +253,11 @@ private static void runTimestamp() throws InterruptedException {
     }
 
     if (response.hasErrors()) {
-      throw new RuntimeException(
-          response
-              .getExecutionErrors()
-              .stream()
-              .<String>map(err -> err.getMessage())
-              .collect(Collectors.joining("\n")));
+      String firstError = "";
+      if (response.getExecutionErrors().size() != 0) {
+        firstError = response.getExecutionErrors().get(0).getMessage();
+      }
+      throw new RuntimeException(firstError);
     }
 
     QueryResult result = response.getResult();
diff --git a/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySample.java b/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySample.java
index 9cde1155d80..94ccd8edece 100644
--- a/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySample.java
+++ b/bigquery/cloud-client/src/main/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySample.java
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@
 import java.io.PrintStream;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
 /**
  * Runs a synchronous query against BigQuery.
@@ -40,7 +39,7 @@ public class SyncQuerySample {
   /**
    * Prompts the user for the required parameters to perform a query.
    */
-  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException {
+  public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
     String queryString = System.getProperty("query");
     if (queryString == null || queryString.isEmpty()) {
       System.out.println("The query property was not set, using default.");
@@ -82,7 +81,7 @@ public static void run(
       final PrintStream out,
       final String queryString,
       final long waitTime,
-      final boolean useLegacySql) throws IOException {
+      final boolean useLegacySql) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
     BigQuery bigquery =
         new BigQueryOptions.DefaultBigqueryFactory().create(BigQueryOptions.getDefaultInstance());
 
@@ -95,20 +94,28 @@ public static void run(
             .build();
     QueryResponse response = bigquery.query(queryRequest);
 
+    // Wait for the job to finish (if the query takes more than 10 seconds to complete).
+    while (!response.jobCompleted()) {
+      Thread.sleep(1000);
+      response = bigquery.getQueryResults(response.getJobId());
+    }
+
     if (response.hasErrors()) {
-      throw new RuntimeException(
-          response
-              .getExecutionErrors()
-              .stream()
-              .<String>map(err -> err.getMessage())
-              .collect(Collectors.joining("\n")));
+      String firstError = "";
+      if (response.getExecutionErrors().size() != 0) {
+        firstError = response.getExecutionErrors().get(0).getMessage();
+      }
+      throw new RuntimeException(firstError);
     }
 
     QueryResult result = response.getResult();
     Iterator<List<FieldValue>> iter = result.iterateAll();
     while (iter.hasNext()) {
       List<FieldValue> row = iter.next();
-      out.println(row.stream().map(val -> val.toString()).collect(Collectors.joining(",")));
+      for (FieldValue val : row) {
+        out.printf("%s,", val.toString());
+      }
+      out.printf("\n");
     }
   }
   // [END run]
diff --git a/bigquery/cloud-client/src/test/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySampleIT.java b/bigquery/cloud-client/src/test/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySampleIT.java
index 38359596e21..fff489c9e86 100644
--- a/bigquery/cloud-client/src/test/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySampleIT.java
+++ b/bigquery/cloud-client/src/test/java/com/example/bigquery/SyncQuerySampleIT.java
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@
 import org.junit.runners.JUnit4;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.PrintStream;
 
 /**
@@ -43,7 +42,7 @@ public void setUp() {
   }
 
   @Test
-  public void testSyncQuery() throws IOException {
+  public void testSyncQuery() throws Exception {
     SyncQuerySample.run(
         out,
         "SELECT corpus FROM `publicdata.samples.shakespeare` GROUP BY corpus;",
@@ -55,7 +54,7 @@ public void testSyncQuery() throws IOException {
   }
 
   @Test
-  public void testSyncQueryLegacySql() throws IOException {
+  public void testSyncQueryLegacySql() throws Exception {
     SyncQuerySample.run(
         out,
         "SELECT corpus FROM [publicdata:samples.shakespeare] GROUP BY corpus;",