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In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

nytimes.com

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Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#61

Post by hkmurakami »

skrebbel wrote: post #53
hkmurakami wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

earlier in the interview he talks about preferring avoiding false positives over missing out on false negatives, so this practice does fit into their philosophy.

I suspected so. Still, as a super-amazingly competent genius engineer with no self esteem, I hope not many companies follow their lead.

imo such nice people do well by depending on nice friends who can introduce them to competent, well meaning teams (I know a few here and do my best to play matchmaker)

Btw I noticed you like C# (from your profile) so I automatically like you haha :)

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#62

Post by peterjancelis »

skrebbel wrote: post #53
hkmurakami wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

earlier in the interview he talks about preferring avoiding false positives over missing out on false negatives, so this practice does fit into their philosophy.

I suspected so. Still, as a super-amazingly competent genius engineer with no self esteem, I hope not many companies follow their lead.

You see yourself as a "super-amazingly competent genius engineer" yet lack self esteem?

What would stop you from applying at a company with a hiring PR strategy as described by Levchin? They aren't looking for confidence in all fields of life, just the technical job related part...

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#63

Post by [deleted] »

lmm wrote: post #39
eternauta3k wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "read mathematics at Edinburgh"?

It's standard (or slightly pretentious) British English; I guess the US equivalent would be "majored in math at Edinburgh" (which would be equally incomprehensible to a Brit)

[deleted]

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#64

Post by sergiosgc »

They aren't using the brain teasers right. The Idea is not to create a barrier to entry, nor is it to stress the candidate. The objective of the brain teaser is having the candidates think slow enough that the interviewer can observe how he approaches a problem.

It's hard, when using problems that are common, to really understand how the candidates gets to the answer. Often, he's building on pre solved sub problems he encountered on his professional life, so the resolution process didn't even occur at the interview.

I personally don't use brain teasers, because they stress out valid candidates who do not work well under pressure. However, I think teasers, when properly used, are valid tools in an interviewers toolbox.

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#65

Post by dasil003 »

hkmurakami wrote: post #45
rdouble wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Google's HR data set really "Big Data" or just "data?" Seems like it would fit into a normal database. Or maybe even an unwieldy Excel spreadsheet.

I quote my friend who works in "Big Data": "sometimes I think Big Data is just Excel on 128GB of RAM"

Not to go all senselessly pedantic, but doesn't Excel have a limit of like 55,000 rows?

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#66

Post by ig1 »

rorrr2 wrote: post #52
ig1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure where you've worked, but doing resource estimation for projects has been pretty important for most greenfield projects I've worked on. It's also good for sanity testing, it's a useful skill to be able to spot that something is out by an order of magnitude as it can allow you to catch problems early on.

Data-backed estimation is completely different from random guesses you will make during an interview. Not only that, even if your guesses are decent, multiplying them can drive you orders of magnitude in the wrong direction.

The underlying data might be different but the process is the same, you need to figure out what are the contributing factors, how they relate and establish an upper and lower bounds for the values you're assuming.

Once you have data you can make corrections to those bounds, but other than that the process is the same.

It's a skill that a lot of first time startup founders lack. They have no-idea how to estimate the market size for their startup, you need to understand the process of how to build an estimation model.

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#67

Post by hkmurakami »

peterjancelis wrote: post #62
skrebbel wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspected so. Still, as a super-amazingly competent genius engineer with no self esteem, I hope not many companies follow their lead.

You see yourself as a "super-amazingly competent genius engineer" yet lack self esteem? What would stop you from applying at a company with a hiring PR strategy as described by Levchin? They aren't looking for confidence in all fields of life, just the technical job related part...

there's probably a bit of sarcasm and hyperbole in his words ;)

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#69

Post by dpritchett »

lancewiggs wrote: post #13
tomlu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do ask those sorts of questions still, but I wouldn't call them brainteasers.

In which case this is lifted in part out of the McKinsey interview play book. A behavioural interview and a case study, with a resume review frost up. Keeping the case studies consistent across a set of interviewees for the best calibration. Making them realistic problems rather than academic exercises or quizzes means multiple paths can be taken to a variety of right answers. Laszlo and many others inside his area a…

As a developer I've never heard good things about McKinsey. Can you tell us your perspective on their value proposition and the relevance of their hiring methodology?

The best I've heard about them is that they provide political cover for executive agendas that might not play well absent validation from a third party with some academic credentials.

Re: In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal

#70

Post by hkmurakami »

dasil003 wrote: post #65
hkmurakami wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quote my friend who works in "Big Data": "sometimes I think Big Data is just Excel on 128GB of RAM"

Not to go all senselessly pedantic, but doesn't Excel have a limit of like 55,000 rows?

He's saying his file has way more rows than that, so maybe they upped the limit in the more recent versions of excel? (I think he also wrote a bunch of VBA and hooked into some external systems too)
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