7 ms·

Sergey Brin's Resume Pre-Google

50 points by ashishbharthi 17y ago

alilja 17y ago
The movie review idea is very interesting. It sounds like what Netflix is doing. I hate to be one of those crazy predictors, but I wonder if Google will ever partner with Netflix on that topic. It seems like a good idea.
- mikit 17y ago
  Written in Python... That changes my perspectives on what is a 'new' language.
  - micampe 17y ago
    oh well, Python hasn't really been a 'new' language since version 2.0.
    - pgbovine 17y ago
      i don't think python got super popular until ~2004, but it's been around and used for research prototypes and niche hacking since the mid-1990's
  - eru 17y ago
    Python has been around since the early 90ies. (Or even late 80ies?) Of course it's a much better language today than it was back then --- e.g. it got lexical scoping.
    - abossy 17y ago
      Python was started in Dec. 1989 and "appeared in 1991" according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)
petercooper 17y ago
It's missing the photo: http://nexuslex.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/1996-sergey-brin.jpg http://nexuslex.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/1996-sergey-brin...
FreeRadical 17y ago
Even then it's quite impressive
- pw0ncakes 17y ago
  It's top 1%, but quite under-impressive compared to how talented and impressive he actually is, which establishes the very low utility of resume evaluations. I worked at a hedge fund and we rejected people with more impressive resumes, and it only takes about 6 interviews before you realize how low the correlation is between how someone looks on paper and how smart they actually are.
  - pgbovine 17y ago
    perhaps there's a quasi-inverse correlation ... e.g., superstars like sergey don't care about putting in a ton of time to polish up their resume and make it sound all fancy and stuff (they're busy building google in their dorm room), whereas people who are good (but not great) make all sorts of efforts to polish up their resume and look their best.
  - scott_s 17y ago
    Getting first-author papers in both VLDB and ACM SIGMOD your second year as a grad student (which means they were probably submitted his first year) is phenomenal.
    - abossy 17y ago
      Not to mention he received his bachelor's degree in three years, so he was really submitting those papers when most students his age were seniors.
cool-RR 17y ago
I didn't know he worked at Wolfram Research, that's interesting.
pgbovine 17y ago
the two papers he got published were in VLDB and SIGMOD, which are the two top conferences in databases and data management ... even pre-google, this guy had cred!
Aegean 17y ago
It looks like a fairly standard Phd student resume to me. I don't really see much extra in it. Yes there are some published papers, but so have many Phd students. Regarding google success, I would say him studying the right subject and doing the right things (start a startup) mattered much more than his CV and interests.
bravesirrobin 17y ago
Nice, but I'm not sure this resume would get him an interview at Google today.

50 points by ashishbharthi 17y ago

The movie review idea is very interesting. It sounds like what Netflix is doing. I hate to be one of those crazy predictors, but I wonder if Google will ever partner with Netflix on that topic. It seems like a good idea.

mikit 17y ago
Written in Python... That changes my perspectives on what is a 'new' language.
- micampe 17y ago
  oh well, Python hasn't really been a 'new' language since version 2.0.
  - pgbovine 17y ago
    i don't think python got super popular until ~2004, but it's been around and used for research prototypes and niche hacking since the mid-1990's
- eru 17y ago
  Python has been around since the early 90ies. (Or even late 80ies?) Of course it's a much better language today than it was back then --- e.g. it got lexical scoping.
  - abossy 17y ago
    Python was started in Dec. 1989 and "appeared in 1991" according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)

petercooper 17y ago

It's missing the photo: http://nexuslex.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/1996-sergey-brin.jpg http://nexuslex.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/1996-sergey-brin...

FreeRadical 17y ago

Even then it's quite impressive

pw0ncakes 17y ago
It's top 1%, but quite under-impressive compared to how talented and impressive he actually is, which establishes the very low utility of resume evaluations. I worked at a hedge fund and we rejected people with more impressive resumes, and it only takes about 6 interviews before you realize how low the correlation is between how someone looks on paper and how smart they actually are.
- pgbovine 17y ago
  perhaps there's a quasi-inverse correlation ... e.g., superstars like sergey don't care about putting in a ton of time to polish up their resume and make it sound all fancy and stuff (they're busy building google in their dorm room), whereas people who are good (but not great) make all sorts of efforts to polish up their resume and look their best.
- scott_s 17y ago
  Getting first-author papers in both VLDB and ACM SIGMOD your second year as a grad student (which means they were probably submitted his first year) is phenomenal.
  - abossy 17y ago
    Not to mention he received his bachelor's degree in three years, so he was really submitting those papers when most students his age were seniors.

cool-RR 17y ago

I didn't know he worked at Wolfram Research, that's interesting.

pgbovine 17y ago

the two papers he got published were in VLDB and SIGMOD, which are the two top conferences in databases and data management ... even pre-google, this guy had cred!

Aegean 17y ago

It looks like a fairly standard Phd student resume to me. I don't really see much extra in it. Yes there are some published papers, but so have many Phd students. Regarding google success, I would say him studying the right subject and doing the right things (start a startup) mattered much more than his CV and interests.

bravesirrobin 17y ago

Nice, but I'm not sure this resume would get him an interview at Google today.