31–40 of 69 posts
Of course I love that they're seeking out entrepreneurial talent, but the article doesn't seem to make mention of how they're going to target that in interview questions. Definitely curious...
Soon, they'll put shit (err-- a chip) in your brain, then follow you around for 6 months.
"Its just a trial."
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I don't like those problems. IMHO, they encourage rationalizing things that probably just evolved/happened over time. The real answer for me is because no better shape happened or showed to be significantly better. Also, since almost all follow the same shape, it's harder for other shapes to enter the market. Winner takes all.
It's not arbitrary. "Because it can't fall in the hole" is a compelling geometric and safety reason. The circular manhole cover is the simplest shape that has this property.
Nevertheless, rectangular manhole covers are pretty common.
I went through 8 interviews (over the course of 8 months) before I got an offer from Google. By the time Google gave me the offer, I already accepted an offer from the other company. I told the HR of Google that their process sucks (of course, I said it indirectly) and she agreed with me. I'm glad to hear that Google is finally making changes here.
Are they still limiting it to only PhDs and Masters? That to me always struck me as their biggest mistake. The common perception from people in the industry is that many of the best programmers are self taught. That doesn't preclude doing a degree of course, however even the really good programmers I've met that did degrees say that they really ramped up their learning efforts after leaving university (and that was m…
God bless the manhole cover problem. That's been making the rounds for over a decade.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2164/2377255702_fec42f19b2.jp...
If ever asked I would try to convince them of the triangular merits.
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Are they still limiting it to only PhDs and Masters? That to me always struck me as their biggest mistake. The common perception from people in the industry is that many of the best programmers are self taught. That doesn't preclude doing a degree of course, however even the really good programmers I've met that did degrees say that they really ramped up their learning efforts after leaving university (and that was m…
I don't think they ever limited to only PhDs/Masters (I have 3 friends working for google, none of them holds a phd or masters degree)
Good to know they've unbent a little on that as well. Of course it then begs the question "how then do you hire good programmers?". Solving that problem would be really interesting (my pay might go up :D )
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It's not arbitrary. "Because it can't fall in the hole" is a compelling geometric and safety reason. The circular manhole cover is the simplest shape that has this property.
The reasons for making the access tunnel beneath cylindrical in shape are actually far more compelling (remove less material and create a stronger hole). Nevertheless, rectangular manhole covers are pretty common.
I never claimed the market was perfect. I find that perfect omniscient markets a terrible assumption to base analysis on.
The combination of superior cover safety and superior tunnel structure are pretty compelling, but not everyone chooses the optimal solution. That's just not how humans operate.
75,000 applications a week? Guess I shouldn't be surprised with how big of a company Google is, but still crazy to see that number.
By my rough calculations they're hiring 1 person for every 650 applications. That's quite the winnowing process. If they have two pre-qualifying rounds of CV burning where at each stage they trash 80% of the CVs, then they'd be down to about 26 before even talking to anyone. Now four rounds of interviews where 50% of the people are eliminated and you still have 1.625 people left...
Seriously, the recruiting folks told me that the vast majority of the "blind submit" resumes that came in via e-mail and website forms were unchanged duplicates of things already in the database.
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FWIW, most jobs at Google or any other big corp are very boring and menial. And you have to deal with politics.
Politics is what happens when three or more people get together to make a decision. It doesn't matter who you are, that is still true. The only way to avoid it is to work exclusively for yourself, and also somehow avoid all contact with customers. Good luck with that, and may the ramen noodles be with you, always.
