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I'd rather spent 6 hours on a toy project instead of the 200+ hours I spent studying for Google. Solving problems on a white board is very different compared to

I'd rather spent 6 hours on a toy project instead of the 200+ hours I spent studying for Google. Solving problems on a white board is very different compared to solving problems on a computer with a plain text editor. I did significantly better in another interview where I was given a laptop connected to a projector instead of having to stand and write on a white board for 4 hours in one day. The skills I would have to hone to do well in a Google style interview are very different from the skills I would have to improve to excel at my job. I wonder if Google prefers this system because the type of people that are willing to spent hundreds of hours honing their interview skills are also the type of people that are willing to invest a lot of their free time into their job beyond what is required.

Caveman_Coder 9y ago
> "...instead of the 200+ hours I spent studying for Google" That sounds like an exaggeration. I'd bet that very few people who work here had to spend that much time preparing...
- mancerayder 9y ago
  I interviewed there as an SRE many years ago (early-mid 2000's) and I was asked about mathematical algorithms, whether I'd published any books in tech, and what open source I contributed to. I would have needed to study for a year or more of math since I never studied math in college, and I wasn't just out of college. Even someone with a computer science degree, once they've been a professional for a few years, would need to crack open college textbooks again to pass a Google interview. Unless they did math as a hobby, which I will refrain from commenting on at this time.
- DoreenMichele 9y ago
  I got a job at Aflac on my first try. I was even offered my choice of jobs as I qualified for more than one position. I applied because my mother suggested it. It was outside of the field I desired to go into. A coworker of mine spent 5 years applying and reapplying and trying to improve their qualifications until they finally got hired. I don't see any reason to question the statement that GP invested 200 hours.
- OnionBlender 9y ago
  It isn't an exaggeration. In the same time span (2 months) I spent about 90 hours playing Oxygen Not Included and about 60 hours playing Darkest Dungeon. And that was me trying to play games less. When I started I didn't know what dynamic programming meant and I didn't know how to implement a breadth first search. (I thought it required a priority queue). So a lot of time was spent reviewing things like N Queens and dijkstra's algorithm because I hadn't touched it since university. In the end I spent too much time on things I never got asked and I should have been practicing on paper instead of a computer.

Caveman_Coder 9y ago

> "...instead of the 200+ hours I spent studying for Google" That sounds like an exaggeration. I'd bet that very few people who work here had to spend that much time preparing...

mancerayder 9y ago
I interviewed there as an SRE many years ago (early-mid 2000's) and I was asked about mathematical algorithms, whether I'd published any books in tech, and what open source I contributed to. I would have needed to study for a year or more of math since I never studied math in college, and I wasn't just out of college. Even someone with a computer science degree, once they've been a professional for a few years, would need to crack open college textbooks again to pass a Google interview. Unless they did math as a hobby, which I will refrain from commenting on at this time.
DoreenMichele 9y ago
I got a job at Aflac on my first try. I was even offered my choice of jobs as I qualified for more than one position. I applied because my mother suggested it. It was outside of the field I desired to go into. A coworker of mine spent 5 years applying and reapplying and trying to improve their qualifications until they finally got hired. I don't see any reason to question the statement that GP invested 200 hours.
OnionBlender 9y ago
It isn't an exaggeration. In the same time span (2 months) I spent about 90 hours playing Oxygen Not Included and about 60 hours playing Darkest Dungeon. And that was me trying to play games less. When I started I didn't know what dynamic programming meant and I didn't know how to implement a breadth first search. (I thought it required a priority queue). So a lot of time was spent reviewing things like N Queens and dijkstra's algorithm because I hadn't touched it since university. In the end I spent too much time on things I never got asked and I should have been practicing on paper instead of a computer.