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My Google job was tedious and pointless

washingtonpost.com

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Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#81

Post by komali2 »

I really hope this article doesn't take off.

I understand the pain of this person, but this has literally nothing to do with Google, and everything to do with: Recruitment Sucks.

It's a fucking annoying, mind boggling job. If you're external, there's a couple highs when you negotiate a salary or are selling a candidate on a position or in a business development meeting with some bigshot at an engineering firm. But mostly, it's calling 10 candidates a day (at least) even if you have nothing to pitch, because you're fishing for information but really because your boss told you you have to make 10 candidate calls a day or you're fired.

It's 5 business development calls a day, even if there really isn't anybody new to talk to, and if you already contacted you entire network that month, because... reasons? Because your boss said so. Hit your numbers, 5am hit the phones! Coffee is for closers ABC ALWAYS BE CLOSING

"I gotta stay late and make these calls," he says as he sucks the recruitment/sales koolaid, despite knowing that extra calls will literally lead to no extra money for himself or the company.

"I make 25 candidate calls a day because you never know what juicy tidbits of information a candidate might have," she says despite the fact that we all in the city know the same story - the oil and gas market is dead, everybody's losing their job, and any new project already has 5,000 applicants before the recruiters can touch "9" to dial out.

Browsing linkedin - copy paste name into the name field of Bullhorn, then email, hmm do they have a resume? Download, upload to Bullhorn. Skip the "create candidate from resume" option because it sucks. Do this 20 times a day - "we need to build out our system with good candidates so we're ready when a position opens," despite the fact that linkedin and oilandgasjobsearch.com search function are 10x better than Bullhorn's so I'll just be using that anyway.

God, sorry, rant, but this kid joined a job where you feel useless, where you know you'll be automated away, where you barely understand the field you're working in ("oh you're static tank mech E uh this position is looking for rotating"), where that super weird American/British "sales" culture has totally infiltrated and everyone gets their rocks off to Wolf of Wallstreet and glengarry glen ross.

So, long story short, I was in this kid's shoes a little over 2 years ago, and I fucked off to San Francisco, went to a bootcamp, now I'm frontend and it rates among the top 3 decisions I have ever made in my life, and I'm sure that so far it's the most significant and far-reaching decision in terms of longterm happiness.

In the bootcamp, I saw 2 projects come out from 3-month-trained frontend devs automate a large portion of my recruitment job. It's going.

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#82

Post by typetypetype »

aresant wrote: post #40

While the fluffy headline promises a revelation about Google, this article is actually a poignant lament on the future of work automation. The piece's author holds a humanities degree in Psych/Neuroscience. I point that out because while we've accepted that blue collar jobs are/were "going to be automated" or "going overseas", there's still a pervasive trope that an undergraduate degree provides some protection and i…

Well said!

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#83

Post by nxsynonym »

bistro wrote: post #6

Wouldn't working as a recruiter be tedious at any company?

Agreed.

I see this as a problem with HR and recruiting in general, not a Google problem.

The only reason this is news at all is because Google is in the title. Replace that with any other company name and it just describes another position that could either be automated or outsourced.

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#84

Post by cycrutchfield »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #24
cromwellian wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, a lot of people were upset over the election, and given what's happened over the last ten months, those feelings seem to have been justified. But yeah, god damn a company for having a culture where people don't go around acting like jerks towards one another. God forbid we grow out of Kindergarten and get back to the real world where people are unhappy and take out their frustrations by raking their cowor…

Given that a bunch of current and former Googlers have claimed that employees all the way up to the executive level keep and share lists of people they won't work with, there are alleged witch hunts, and people have made the statement they will quit the company if someone else isn't fired, it's hard to see how Google's culture has grown out of kindergarten. (Sources: Various internal G+ leaks during the Damore thing,…

Multi-billion dollar company has internal politics just like every other company. News at 11.

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#85

Post by weberc2 »

s73ver_ wrote: post #56
maxxxxx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think an executive should ever complain about an election. They should focus on making their company successful and a good work place.

I remember many executives complaining about Obama being elected. Hell, I remember many telling their employees they had to vote against him otherwise they could "lose their jobs". (In the metaphorical sense, not that the executive would find out who they voted for and fire them).

If this happened, that's bad and it should be stopped, the same as in this election. However, I think it's perfectly reasonable for a politician to say "politician X supports policy Y which will negatively impact our profit by $Z".

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#86

Post by FeepingCreature »

s73ver_ wrote: post #56
maxxxxx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think an executive should ever complain about an election. They should focus on making their company successful and a good work place.

I remember many executives complaining about Obama being elected. Hell, I remember many telling their employees they had to vote against him otherwise they could "lose their jobs". (In the metaphorical sense, not that the executive would find out who they voted for and fire them).

And That Is Also Wrong.

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#87

Post by fixermark »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #64
mulletbum wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? When the election is making their company have a difficult time becoming a more successful work place? I think it's a company, people can say what they like, if Google doesn't like it as a whole, they can fire said employee.

Nobody is arguing Google's right to express political opinions, but the fact that their culture does so is counterproductive to a meritocratic structure. They seem to be more concerned about virtue signalling than creating an environment that focuses on professional and economic growth.

It's like the culture was shaped by having a "Don't Be Evil" motto or something.

(Also, it's interesting that you separate politics and meritocratic structure. It is by politics that the things that are merit-worthy are decided---you can be the best developer in the world, but if you're developing the wrong thing, you're not adding value).

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#88

Post by trgv »

cromwellian wrote: post #54
maxxxxx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think an executive should ever complain about an election. They should focus on making their company successful and a good work place.

Sundar Pichai had to deal with dozens of Google Employees who were away on holiday visiting family who were being blocked by Trump's executive order from returning to the country, like a dual-nationality Canadian/Iranian scientist. Did it ever occur to you that in a company with a huge immigrant population, or 2nd generation immigrants with family, many of whom were impacted by this wave of xenophobia and nationalism…

So Trump is objectively bad and it's important for business executives and higher-ups to openly acknowledge this. In the workplace. Got it.

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#89

Post by komali2 »

Kyragem wrote: post #15

It doesn’t say anything about what it is to actually work at Google. Maybe rephrase to working in HR sucks. I doubt this person even worked at MTV. I worked at Google and it is an amazing place to work at (beercart Friday!) the only reason I left is because living in the Bay Area sucks.

>HR sucks

Yes.

>living in the Bay Area sucks

Where'd you move to? I'm at the "trying out South Bay" stage, next I'm going to try downtown SF but after that I'm curious where people generally go. I was considering Vietnam and doing the remote work thing.

Re: My Google job was tedious and pointless

#90

Post by untog »

miketery wrote: post #66
untog wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is being downvoted and I wish it wasn't, because it's a great example of the exact issue at hand. You might say that it is overly emotional, or too reactionary, or that the tone isn't appropriate, but think - really think! - what it would be like to wake up one morning to the unexpected shock that a President has been elected on the very possible platform of kicking you out of the country and ruining the li…

Except, that's the point - people are overly emotional. All this waking up the next morning and the world is different is such a stretch. Nothing has changed.

I'm going to guess you aren't in the US on a visa.

"Nothing has changed" is such an absurdly wrong way of looking at the issue. Say you're stood in the street alone. That's normal. Now there's a man stood in front of you with a knife, and he's looking at you threateningly. But he hasn't stabbed you! Nothing has changed. Your body is still unpunctured, so why are you worrying?

Throughout his campaign, Trump made overt threats to immigrants and the lives they live in the US. The fact that your entire future becomes incredibly uncertain within the space of 24 hours is absolutely something to get emotional about. To pretend otherwise is silly.

As is the idea that turning up to the office without being overtly emotional would somehow mean you're absolutely fine. That stress is going to come out one way or another, personally I think that expressing it (yes, including crying!) is a lot better than the alternatives.

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