Nothing you said contradicts preordained's claim that a lot of Google's current hype is due to ego validation. In addition to having the highest average salarie

Nothing you said contradicts preordained's claim that a lot of Google's current hype is due to ego validation. In addition to having the highest average salaries in tech, Google has purposely made their hiring process very stringent, not because the techniques that they use more accurately predict job success rates, but because by making their job openings harder to obtain (in proportion to applications), they increase the subjective value of those job openings in the eyes of potential candidates. It's premium branding, plain and simple, and the fact that Google employees have to justify the effort and time they put in to get hired in the first place partially explains why Google is rated so highly by current/past employees. I'd be really curious to learn how much Google spends in man-hours for each hire in comparison to other tech companies.