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Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

dropbox.theresumator.com

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Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#31

Post by gcheong »

huangm wrote: post #5
sown wrote: post #4

>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution. I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right pedigree to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right" school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

Your problem is that you're taking job postings personally. Dropbox isn't posting a job posting to make an objective statement about what makes someone good. They're posting it to fill a position in their company. Your bachelors degree institution also isn't just a pedigree. You can't perpetually argue that 'everyone is equal'. People aren't equal, and where you went to school is a useful signal. Beyond all this, the…

I suppose then that I would be a good candidate for the next CEO of Apple given that I dropped out of the same school as Steve Jobs.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#32

Post by markerdmann »

sown wrote: post #4

>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution. I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right pedigree to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right" school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

This discussion reminds of the time we interviewed a senior in the EECS undergraduate program at Cal (who had a 3.9 GPA). To quote directly from the interview:

Interviewer: So, what was your favorite course? Interviewee: Oh.. probably Data Structures. Interviewer: Ok, great. Let's start with a question about that. What's the running time of a hash table lookup? Interviewee: Oh.. uh...

The rest of the interview continued along those lines. By contrast, another guy we interviewed who had earned his CS degree at Oregon State was a brilliant programmer.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#33

Post by mailanay »

sown wrote: post #4

>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution. I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right pedigree to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right" school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

Many companies put such requirements as filters to reduce number of applications they receive. Going through a huge list of resumes is time-consuming and not exactly what a start-up is looking forward to.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#34

Post by charlesmarshall »

hyperbovine wrote: post #20
sown wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not arguing that everyone is equal. What I am saying is that it is almost but not quite discrimination. I can't control with total fidelity what school I get in no matter how good a student I might be -- ie, if I'm good enough to go to MIT I can go to MIT. They can't let in anyone who is good enough to go to MIT because there is only so much space. And besides, I don't have the money to go there nor did I have th…

They can't let in anyone who is good enough to go to MIT because there is only so much space. Exactly. You hit the nail on the head--consequently, "good enough" doesn't cut it to get into MIT. You have to be the best of the best. Which means, if you're looking to hire the best of the best, you look for people who went to MIT. As you also rightly point out, this is not discrimination because clearly they'd be willing…

mit - best of the best .. that can afford it and fit in a niche they haven't filled you mean?

I think the trouble in this case would be the recruiting company that are reading them and only passing on the ones that tick all the right buzz word boxes ..

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#35

Post by sebg »

sown wrote: post #4

>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution. I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right pedigree to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right" school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

Disagree. The point is that it is a filter. A high percentage of people will not respond based on this criteria. But the people who believe that they are as good or better will respond anyway. These are the type of people you want to get - the ones that are willing to go around the system to get things done.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#36

Post by joubert »

sebg wrote: post #35
sown wrote: post #4

>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution. I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right pedigree to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right" school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

Disagree. The point is that it is a filter. A high percentage of people will not respond based on this criteria. But the people who believe that they are as good or better will respond anyway. These are the type of people you want to get - the ones that are willing to go around the system to get things done.

So it isn't really a requirement?

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#37

Post by sebg »

joubert wrote: post #36
sebg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The point is that it is a filter. A high percentage of people will not respond based on this criteria. But the people who believe that they are as good or better will respond anyway. These are the type of people you want to get - the ones that are willing to go around the system to get things done.

So it isn't really a requirement?

I have no relation to dropbox other than using it. My guess would be that it is a requirement if the person applying chooses to make it a requirement.

To me it's a question of reality. Within any interaction each person has a different version of reality. In order to interact, the participants have to agree on a common version of reality.

In this case - The applicant's reality should be that it is not a requirement. The company's reality is that it is a requirement. If the applicant can convince the company that the applicant's reality is the right one to use for the common ground, then the requirement is not a requirement.

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#38

Post by j_b_f »

idoh wrote: post #26
jpeterson wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. This requirement is just plain dumb, and bitterly disappointing given how much I've praised Dropbox and their product in the past. I won't be doing that anymore. I didn't go to a "top-tier" institution, for reasons I'd rather not discuss here. I have worked with a few graduates of these kind of schools, and I can say that their coding and problem-solving abilities were not any greater than my own and others w…

Often these requirements aren't literal. If you've got a background that is otherwise a good fit they might give you a look anyway.

Yeah, anyone who takes the formal requirements literally for a startup the size of Dropbox is probably not the type of person they're looking for. If you do a cover letter where you're like "I LOVE Dropbox and have used it for X years, have developed 10 Android apps (here are the links) and wrote a well-linked blog post on low-level networking over flaky 3G, oh and here's a ton of StackOverflow questions on mobile programming I answered" - you think they'll turn you away because you don't meet some arbitrary job posting requirement?

These postings are just written by other poor saps, on deadline, who generally just pull them out of their ass. They're not set in stone. (None of this applies to huge companies with rigorous HR screening of course.)

Re: Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer

#39

Post by sown »

jpeterson wrote: post #21
sown wrote: post #4

>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution. I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right pedigree to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right" school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

Agreed. This requirement is just plain dumb, and bitterly disappointing given how much I've praised Dropbox and their product in the past. I won't be doing that anymore. I didn't go to a "top-tier" institution, for reasons I'd rather not discuss here. I have worked with a few graduates of these kind of schools, and I can say that their coding and problem-solving abilities were not any greater than my own and others w…

Well, it is a good product and I will probably keep using them.
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