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Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

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Re: Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

#71

Post by ncruces »

Retric wrote: post #58
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #33

I went to a small rural high school in the 1980s. Taught myself to code, started a business writing software, entered and won the regional science fair and placed second in the CS division of the International Science and Engineering Fair in 1987. Won a prestigious NASA internship, got glowing letters of recommendation from my NASA mentors. Took every AP class available to me (all both of them). Graduated third in my…

Prestigious schools are ranked in part based on how selective they are which incentivizes rejecting people rather than having some standard and growing to accommodate everyone who meets it. This incentivizes them to make admissions seem somewhat random so people that are unlikely to make the cut also apply. Even less selective schools want to reject some applicants simply to maintain a consistent number of students y…

Above a certain threshold, and if you can't raise admissions, a random selection process is perfectly fair.

It's certainly fairer, IMO, than having a perfectly objective ranking system that mirrors biases in society, and then using affirmative action to counteract those biases.

Re: Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

#72

Post by Retric »

ncruces wrote: post #71
Retric wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prestigious schools are ranked in part based on how selective they are which incentivizes rejecting people rather than having some standard and growing to accommodate everyone who meets it. This incentivizes them to make admissions seem somewhat random so people that are unlikely to make the cut also apply. Even less selective schools want to reject some applicants simply to maintain a consistent number of students y…

Above a certain threshold, and if you can't raise admissions, a random selection process is perfectly fair. It's certainly fairer, IMO, than having a perfectly objective ranking system that mirrors biases in society, and then using affirmative action to counteract those biases.

Fair isn’t necessarily the most important metric for schools. If your parent is a billionaire it’s perfectly rational for them to prefer you over somewhat more qualified applicants.

Re: Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

#73

Post by teaearlgraycold »

scottlamb wrote: post #56
altgoogler wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googler here. L4 requires experience. New grad hires are L3.

Oh, you're right, I spaced. I've been away from Google for a few years now, and I remembered the titles and Lx being off from each other but had it mixed up. Thanks for speaking up; I was wondering what the deal was with the downvotes. * L3 = Software Engineer II, entry level. (There's no Software Engineer I.) * L4 = Software Engineer III. * L5 = Senior Software Engineer. * L6 = Staff Software Engineer. * ...

Aren't interns L2?

Re: Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

#74

Post by woodruffw »

shaburn wrote: post #50
woodruffw wrote: post #22

There's some incongruity here: college admissions are by no means fair, but they also don't evaluate for nearly the same things as Google's hiring process does. Put another way: colleges aren't qualified or equipped to make the kinds of determinations that Google does when hiring engineers, and being hired as a Google engineer prior to going to college isn't any particularly strong signal that you're prepared to go t…

Then what are the comp sci departments screening for and why?

We don't have any indication that he was rejected by a department; he may have been filtered outright before any CS department could have a say.

Re: Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

#76

Post by tzs »

Gunax wrote: post #68
9991 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but it is 10 times harder. A black woman with Zhong's resume would have gotten in everywhere, and you know it. Anyways, it's not me that's saying it: https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/ They recently won a court case you may have heard of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_Fair_Admissions_v... But that decision is too late for this guy.

Not of all these schools participate in AA. Caltech notably does not.

The most likely reasons he didn't get into Caltech are probably:

1. Caltech is a lot smaller than most of the others, only admitting a little over 400 per year.

2. Caltech puts more emphasis on producing researchers than most of the others do.

Re: Hired by Google as L4 but rejected by top colleges

#80

Post by oldbbsnickname »

MAANG isn't hiring officially, and only for critical roles and senior engineers on the q.t. It's an ostensible belt-tightening that's really about repress wages and placating Wall St. by extracting even more money during economy-wide years of massive profits. MAANGs don't have below L3 or L4. L3 or L4 is entry-level while IC6-7 are senior, and IC7-9 are custom tailored, under-specified roles of engineers who can make a million or more in TC.

Mandatory bragging: When I glance left, I can see a reflection of the top of UT tower and the capitol in my window. Also, I-35 S traffic is backed up as far as the eye can see and I-35 N is inching along like lukewarm molasses.

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