3 ms·

There certainly are magic bullets. Look at any software engineer who has ever interned at Google. For anyone else, the hiring process is uncertain, chaotic, and

by nxc18 10y ago

There certainly are magic bullets. Look at any software engineer who has ever interned at Google. For anyone else, the hiring process is uncertain, chaotic, and basically random. Success is a function of your past performance, your appearance, the emotional reaction your interviewer has to you, your interviewers mood and frame of mind during the interview, how stressed you happen to be that day, etc. There are exceptionally strong candidates who are rejected by the Google process and poor candidates who make it through. The latest thing in the Google interview crapshoot is a new emphasis on GPA - I've never (in the past two years) heard of someone with less than a 3.5 even being considered for an interview and they ask for a transcript with the application. There are lots of exceptional candidates who push themselves into hard subjects, work on personal projects, and lead on campus that are ignored because of that magic number. On the other hand, once you have that Google internship, every other tech company is falling over themselves to interview you and extend an offer - I've never heard of a Google intern not getting ab excellent full time offer months before graduation. Group affiliation helps, too. On my campus there is a very strong and old computing interest group with a strong alumni network. Every year, company recruiters do interviews directly with that group of people before even considering applicants at the career fair.

VLM 10y ago
"a new emphasis on GPA" That's just an attempt at legalized illegal age discrimination. Given the statistical average grade inflation of a fifth of a point per decade, my 3.4 in the 80s is worth a 4.0 in 2016 but if the real intention is to avoid hiring people over 30 for whatever reason, it'll work as a strategy.
existencebox 10y ago
Let me rebuke both parts of your statement. I both got a google internship with a well sub 3.5 GPA; and have since then gotten both accepted and rejected at equivilent tier bigCos with that (and other "prestigious" establishments) on my resume and nonetheless saw a good mix of clean and chaotic hiring processes. What I'm trying to say is there is NO silver bullet; as other sister comments say, it's a crapshoot even with your cards all in order. I believe the aspects you list of the "normal" level of chaos are quite accurate, my tailoring to your statement is merely one that the leg up helps less than you seem to imply. (from both my and peers in similar situations's anecdotes.) I make this statement not to be pessimistic but to be optimistic. Someone without G on their resume shouldn't feel helpless, they are not alone, and they are not in an impossible or insurmountable situation. The only "real" path I've found, regardless of who or what background you have, is to just keep bullheadedly driving towards your goals and building the skills required to do this more effectively. Everything else for me has been ephemeral and less impactful. (I would note, you're right re: network, but I bucket that more under a skill you can build than something implicit, since for better or worse, networking is a skill one must practice in modern professional life as one mechanism to support ones stability)

by nxc18 10y ago

VLM 10y ago

"a new emphasis on GPA" That's just an attempt at legalized illegal age discrimination. Given the statistical average grade inflation of a fifth of a point per decade, my 3.4 in the 80s is worth a 4.0 in 2016 but if the real intention is to avoid hiring people over 30 for whatever reason, it'll work as a strategy.

existencebox 10y ago

Let me rebuke both parts of your statement. I both got a google internship with a well sub 3.5 GPA; and have since then gotten both accepted and rejected at equivilent tier bigCos with that (and other "prestigious" establishments) on my resume and nonetheless saw a good mix of clean and chaotic hiring processes. What I'm trying to say is there is NO silver bullet; as other sister comments say, it's a crapshoot even with your cards all in order. I believe the aspects you list of the "normal" level of chaos are quite accurate, my tailoring to your statement is merely one that the leg up helps less than you seem to imply. (from both my and peers in similar situations's anecdotes.) I make this statement not to be pessimistic but to be optimistic. Someone without G on their resume shouldn't feel helpless, they are not alone, and they are not in an impossible or insurmountable situation. The only "real" path I've found, regardless of who or what background you have, is to just keep bullheadedly driving towards your goals and building the skills required to do this more effectively. Everything else for me has been ephemeral and less impactful. (I would note, you're right re: network, but I bucket that more under a skill you can build than something implicit, since for better or worse, networking is a skill one must practice in modern professional life as one mechanism to support ones stability)