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I Didn't Get Hired to Google

googleyasheck.com

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Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#91

Post by stillsut »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #88
stillsut wrote: post #86

This rejection is symbolic of a large problem emerging in the tech talent pool, similar to the "not-an-MBA" that we've seen ruin the management culture. Large companies where you can learn a ton, and work with smart and motivated people, are filtering based on not entirely relevant CS trivia. They still have many viable candidates as anyone coming out of a university has four years where their job is explicitly to le…

Standard algorithms and data structures stuff are not that esoteric. I think companies are absolutely right in insisting that candidates know such basic topics like big O notation or various sorting algorithms. Nobody is asking them to go major in CS, it's perfectly possible to learn these things on one's own.

As we know in math intense subjects, being familiar with != performs well on a contrived question, for example you'd probably fail your calculusII exam if you took it right now, at least I would. Even though you might have a better intuitive understanding of integration after having worked in the real world and forgotten the exact rules. Same for big-O factoids.

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#92

Post by stillsut »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #89
stillsut wrote: post #86

This rejection is symbolic of a large problem emerging in the tech talent pool, similar to the "not-an-MBA" that we've seen ruin the management culture. Large companies where you can learn a ton, and work with smart and motivated people, are filtering based on not entirely relevant CS trivia. They still have many viable candidates as anyone coming out of a university has four years where their job is explicitly to le…

>The stuff ends up being so esoteric, that rarely will these trainees actually be able to use this knowledge for their own programs (i'm open to counterexamples here). In my own work I have to use the hyperloglog[1] algorithm pretty often. If I didn't know CS basics it would be a complete blackbox to me. Or say someone is building a database and needs to make sure that chances of personally identifiable information g…

Thanks, interesting examples.

Could we drill into hyperloglog and how you use it? Is it a bioinformatics app? Otherwise why are you using this approximation technique on modern hardware?

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#94

Post by icomefromreddit »

akjainaj wrote: post #12

Posts of people crying so much about not getting hired by a company (usually Google) are top cringe. It's like writing on Facebook that you feel miserable because a girl rejected you. Just move on, kid.

Is sad and cringe:

https://twitter.com/GoogleyAsHeck

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#95

Post by lomnakkus »

guitarbill wrote: post #56
segmondy wrote: post #11

No surprise. You can learn a lot in a year, but you can't level up your computer science knowledge in a year. Some people might be offended or disappointed by this comment, but don't. Just keep your heads down, learn a lot, expose yourself to lots of different things and the experience will come with that. With that said, I'm not surprised that he didn't get a phone interview. Even if Google knew about him, they migh…

> You can learn a lot in a year, but you can't level up your computer science knowledge in a year. This makes no sense? Level up to what? CS degree level? Because correct me if I'm wrong, but the majority of interview questions are based on CS 101 (or the equivalent). So literally the first year. Guess it depends what kind of depth of knowledge you want/need. Again, if you're only doing it for interviews and not to g…

Depends very much on where you're interviewing, I think.

(Not that I support the use of "how do you reverse a linked list using only one pointer?" type questions at all. It only encourages "cramming for the exam" vs. actually have a broad understanding of "why would I even need to do that?" and "what is the cost of stack space and could we allocate more?", etc.)

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#96

Post by ipunchghosts »

yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #18
ipunchghosts wrote: post #15

You didnt get hired at google because you have no life, no sense of self. Your entire blog is about how you make yourself hireable by google. Who cares what google wants. What do you want?

Surely you can communicate that sentiment without wording it quite so harshly?

This strikes me quite a bit as stuff mentioned in the "No More Mr Nice Guy" book. Im not sure how to word it softer. What would you have done?

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#97

Post by Spoom »

ohstopitu wrote: post #53
segmondy wrote: post #11

No surprise. You can learn a lot in a year, but you can't level up your computer science knowledge in a year. Some people might be offended or disappointed by this comment, but don't. Just keep your heads down, learn a lot, expose yourself to lots of different things and the experience will come with that. With that said, I'm not surprised that he didn't get a phone interview. Even if Google knew about him, they migh…

Knowledge - yes it can be gained in a year. Experience - nope nope nope nope nope! I'm sure everyone here can relate too - What you learnt in university was not as useful as real life experience (even when working on your own side projects). While he spent his time (a lot of it too) on learning how to game Google's interview process, he didn't seem to consider experience at all :S (I mean, 8 months learning algorithm…

Google optimizes for new grads. To a certain extent, experience can actually make the interview process harder (because they will expect more of an experience candidate than a new grad).

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#98

Post by dTal »

jasode wrote: post #6

Title says: "I Didn't Get Hired. Here's Why." Body says: "Why didn't I get hired? I don't know why." Real question to HN readers: Do you believe this type of inconsistency also affects writing code ? In other words... if a hiring manager notices this muddled writing in a blog post, is it fair to think the programming output will also be muddled? (e.g. function names, architecture, engineering the organization of micr…

Yes. I think the skill of writing down exactly what you mean is common to both code and prose - in particular, the kind of careful thought required to figure out what you're trying to say, well before you start working out how to say it.

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#99

Post by voidr »

> Recruiters look at hundreds of resumes every day, and they are highly tuned to detecting quality candidates and rejecting those who don't match up with their model. For some reason, I just didn't fit the profile. They probably are doing me a favor.

They would be doing you a favour if they would tell you why you were rejected and give you advice moving forward. In this case they are just doing themselves a favour by not bothering to give you anything meaningful.

> but if you're good enough for Google, you'll eventually get in.

If you don't get in the first time, you might want to ask yourself: is Google good enough for you?

> Recruiters know what works, and what doesn't. So respect their decision and be polite.

A lot of recruiters are incredibly incompetent, they don't always know what works and what doesn't and they can just reject you due to their own incompetence. You should always be polite, because being rude rarely earns you any favours, not because the recruiters are always right, and you should feel sorry for them.

> There are a lot of places where I can strive for greatness and have that effort rewarded.

This is why you should never be hung up on one person from one big company rejecting you.

Re: I Didn't Get Hired to Google

#100

Post by nunez »

tyingq wrote: post #4

He made an extensive repository of information on how to get hired at Google[1], gave talks on the subject[2], and studied full time for 8 months[3]. And it's not that he interviewed and didn't get the job...they didn't even let him interview, not even the phone screen. That's pretty rough. [1] https://github.com/jwasham/google-interview-university [2] https://googleyasheck.com/presenting-at-code-fellows/ [3] https:/…

This seems like so much work for getting a job into one place.
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