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Why Google's hiring process is broken

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Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#131

Post by noarchy »

jquery wrote: post #87

My own personal "horror" story. Google reached out to me, unsolicited, for a web developer position. I wasn't looking, but I thought cool, I'll at least talk to them. The recruiter kept asking me about how good my Java was. I repeated what it said on my resume, that I only used it in college, but that my OO skills were strong and transferable. Afterwards the recruiter emailed me, and said I wasn't a good fit because…

I don't know anything about their recruiters, but in my own experience with other companies, the recruiters know eff-all about what is really required for the job.

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#132

Post by rachelbythebay »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #88

Lots of interesting stories. Disclaimer, I worked at Google for 4 years ('06 - '10) and interviewed a lot of folks (it was always a part of the job) and did a number of phone interviews too. The process then (as perhaps now) was broken and some folks within Google understood that. The process and goals were pretty simple, hire smart people that get things done. The process was aimed at finding smart people who get th…

They might also have problems keeping the "BASF" people that somehow managed to get in anyway. If hiring is job 1, retention probably should be job 0.

(BTW, your internal epitaph was posted as requested. Hope things are well with you...)

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#133

Post by mdwrigh2 »

jimbokun wrote: post #70
kenjackson wrote: post #10

Asked me to rate my skills in a list of 14 programming languages. Really? I'd love to know what they did with that data. It seems almost completely useless except to say "Tim does not know any Javascript, indicated by his zero score on that."

Also, doesn't this fly in the face of Google's heavy reliance on internally developed tools? In my Google interviews, they made it clear I should just name a language I know to solve the problems on the white board, not because they particularly cared about the language, but because they wanted to see my thought process solving a problem in a real programming language. Of course, it had to be one of Google's "approve…

Its not X years of experience in language Y, but rather rate your self from 1-10 on these 14 languages. They'll then pair you up with someone who knows the language you're working with well enough to understand the code in your interview. Also, I've always been told that for the people who rate themselves a 10 in a given language they'll occasionally pull out the big guns to interview (Gosling interviewing a Java developer?).

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#134

Post by Stormbringer »

javert wrote: post #55
yid wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his point was that he acted in good faith -- with the expectation that Google would reciprocate -- and was essentially let down without courtesy. Even a simple "sorry, we're unable to interview you, our apologies for asking you to get an extension" would have gone a long way, even if just for the word-of-mouth reputation.

Yep. Re: Google's word-of mouth reputation: On the one hand, I feel kind of stupid bitching about my experience with Google, even though it really did happen. I don't like bitching. On the other hand, as we hackers talk about this kind of issue at Google, maybe they'll eventually listen and shape up a bit if there really are systemic problems, and that's a win for everyone. I actually tried giving Google "suggestions…

Why would you care? Essentially when you boil it down to eesentials (ie what pays for your paycheck) Google is an advertising company with a terrible track record on human rights and privacy.

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#135

Post by acgourley »

danielha wrote: post #54

Every few weeks or so I'm contacted by the same Google recruiter asking if I'm interested in an engineering opportunity. After a while, I responded by asking who had referred me. He answered: "Referrals are confidential, but this person knows you from your days at ." Awful. Plus I'm a shitty programmer.

Pretty ridiculous to try and hire a founder fresh off a VC round for an engineering position. That's enough of a tip off right there.

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#138

Post by Matt_Cutts »

javert wrote: post #55
yid wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his point was that he acted in good faith -- with the expectation that Google would reciprocate -- and was essentially let down without courtesy. Even a simple "sorry, we're unable to interview you, our apologies for asking you to get an extension" would have gone a long way, even if just for the word-of-mouth reputation.

Yep. Re: Google's word-of mouth reputation: On the one hand, I feel kind of stupid bitching about my experience with Google, even though it really did happen. I don't like bitching. On the other hand, as we hackers talk about this kind of issue at Google, maybe they'll eventually listen and shape up a bit if there really are systemic problems, and that's a win for everyone. I actually tried giving Google "suggestions…

I think Google does listen and try to improve in response to feedback. Interviews and hiring can be especially hard, because of the number of resumes, phone screens, and interviews involved. For what it's worth, I think the interview and screening process has gotten better over the years, even if we have a ways to go.

Sorry to hear about your experience though.

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#139

Post by peter_severin »

I had a relatively good interview experience with Google. I wasn't hired but I felt that the process was fair. True, it was long and I had to invest some significant time to freshen up my algorithm skills. But overall I was left with a good impression.

I do think that Google puts too much accent on algorithms and college-level CS. I consider myself a good programmer. I created two moderately successful Micro ISVs in my free time. I contributed a huge chunk to the product at my corporate job. I get things done. However I felt that this is not what Google looks for even if the say they do.

Re: Why Google's hiring process is broken

#140

Post by pkteison »

alienfluid wrote: post #34

I haven't had an interview in over 6 years, but I have been approached by multiple recruiters in the same time span. I actually dread the day I choose to switch jobs and have to face another technical interview - considering that my knowledge of college-level CS has declined over time. It's not because I am less skilled now than I was before, it's because you don't have to constantly create fantastically fast algorit…

I went back into tech interviews recently after a 4 year break. It only took two weekends of skimming my old books to get enough up to speed to pass some whiteboard tech interviews, although I don't think I was quite ready for Google level challenges, I'd have probably wanted another week of brushing up for that. If you don't have a few weekends, the quick course is give yourself a graph problem and code it in 30 minutes, critique yourself for 30 minutes, repeat 4 times, go interview. You won't find anything harder on a whiteboard than a graph search, and the practice will be good for you on easier problems.
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