4 ms·

How do they determine the number of open requisitions? Seems like number of job postings is misleading since one posting could be used to hire multiple people.

by jey 9y ago

puzzle 9y ago
Exactly what I was thinking. Google, for one, likes to hire a lot of people under just two-three job descriptions. The author doesn't take any of that into account and it's not clear what the original analysts said, either — perhaps they compensated for this by calibrating numbers against historical employee headcount. Which is still broken, because, historically, Google had varying mixes of engineers vs. non-engineers, for example (but also: employees vs. contractors; lots could be said there).
- shados 9y ago
  Yeah, wouldn't surprise me. We have 2 public "open positions" for software engineers at my company, when the actual number is more like 80. We just don't post multiple time for the same role/level
spiznnx 9y ago
anecdote: I did a google team match two months ago as a new grad and was asked if I would be interested in "Search Infrastructure". I said yes and got set up with 5 calls with different Google Assistant teams.
kyrra 9y ago
As an example, lets look at Google Boulder office for software engineer. https://careers.google.com/jobs#t=sq&q=j&li=20&l=false&jlo=en-US&jl=40.0149856%3A-105.27054559999999%3ABoulder%2C+CO%2C+USA%3AUS%3A%3A7.34895525905058%3ALOCALITY&jld=20&jcoid=7c8c6665-81cf-4e11-8fc9-ec1d6a69120c&jcoid=e43afd0d-d215-45db-a154-5386c9036525&jc=SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING&je=FULLTIME& https://careers.google.com/jobs#t=sq&q=j&li=20&l=false&jlo=e... As of right now there are 5 postings. Software Engineer, Engineering manager, student research, and Software engineer new-graph/PhD. That "Software Engineer" title covers many job levels and teams. I can't even imagine how many people are hired under that same title in Mountain View or other locations.
- kerng 9y ago
  Wouldn't a company have to post every single position because of labor laws, etc. They can't just have one generic position to cover many, or? That would open the doors for bad hiring practices and just picking anyone you want (without proper due diligence) rather then the best candidate possible.
  - antoncohen 9y ago
    No, that is pretty much how they and other large tech companies hire. You apply as a SWE or SRE. Then you basically either pass their hiring bar or not. If you pass, they find out what you are interested in, what you would be a good fit for, and what team is interested in having you. There are exceptions of course, for specialized positions or knowledge. Or if they have big gaps to fill they might do targeted recruiting for them. I don't see why it would run awful of labor laws. They have a very structured hiring process, it doesn't allow much room for "picking anyone you want". If you pass they find a job for you.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > Wouldn't a company have to post every single position because of labor laws, etc No, labor laws in most of the US do not require posting any positions, much less every individual position. (Civil service may require posting civil service positions individually, or at least explicitly identifying the individual positions being hired under a combined posting, and labor agreements may specify requirements for how and where union-represented positions are posted. > They can't just have one generic position to cover many Yes, they can. > That would open the doors for bad hiring practices and just picking anyone you want (without proper due diligence) rather then the best candidate possible. Bad hiring practices are not generally illegal; those that are (racial discrimination, for instance) are prohibited directly rather than by prohibiting things that might open the door for them.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      What about H1B sponsorship? I thought that required some sort of advertising of the position at least.
CobrastanJorji 9y ago
Seems like they don't. A quick Google search (ha) seems to indicate that Alphabet's growing by about 10,000 people per year or so. Let's be fairly conservative and say 20% of those folks are programmers. That's still much more than 1,147 people. Besides that, the sentence "Amazon is hiring 1,147 people for its Alexa business unit alone" is very different than the headline, which is "Amazon Is Hiring More Developers." Not everyone working on Alexa is going to be a developer. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but as stated, this whole article fails the sniff test to me.
- johnkoetsier 9y ago
  Check the link on the second page of the article about what kinds of jobs are open in the Alexa division. Pretty solidly development/technical/product/research jobs
- ehsankia 9y ago
  20% sounds like a very low estimate for a Software Company. Especially since we are implicitly assuming 100% on Amazon's side. If you want to compare Apples to Apples, take 100% of each side.
tootie 9y ago
I don't if Amazon/Google would ever do this or even need to, but my last place used to open reqs and do interviews based on "pipeline" openings which means jobs we might need to staff quickly if new work comes in, but we're not going to call you back if it doesn't.

How do they determine the number of open requisitions? Seems like number of job postings is misleading since one posting could be used to hire multiple people.

by jey 9y ago

How do they determine the number of open requisitions? Seems like number of job postings is misleading since one posting could be used to hire multiple people.

puzzle 9y ago

Exactly what I was thinking. Google, for one, likes to hire a lot of people under just two-three job descriptions. The author doesn't take any of that into account and it's not clear what the original analysts said, either — perhaps they compensated for this by calibrating numbers against historical employee headcount. Which is still broken, because, historically, Google had varying mixes of engineers vs. non-engineers, for example (but also: employees vs. contractors; lots could be said there).

shados 9y ago
Yeah, wouldn't surprise me. We have 2 public "open positions" for software engineers at my company, when the actual number is more like 80. We just don't post multiple time for the same role/level

spiznnx 9y ago

anecdote: I did a google team match two months ago as a new grad and was asked if I would be interested in "Search Infrastructure". I said yes and got set up with 5 calls with different Google Assistant teams.

kyrra 9y ago

As an example, lets look at Google Boulder office for software engineer. https://careers.google.com/jobs#t=sq&q=j&li=20&l=false&jlo=en-US&jl=40.0149856%3A-105.27054559999999%3ABoulder%2C+CO%2C+USA%3AUS%3A%3A7.34895525905058%3ALOCALITY&jld=20&jcoid=7c8c6665-81cf-4e11-8fc9-ec1d6a69120c&jcoid=e43afd0d-d215-45db-a154-5386c9036525&jc=SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING&je=FULLTIME& https://careers.google.com/jobs#t=sq&q=j&li=20&l=false&jlo=e... As of right now there are 5 postings. Software Engineer, Engineering manager, student research, and Software engineer new-graph/PhD. That "Software Engineer" title covers many job levels and teams. I can't even imagine how many people are hired under that same title in Mountain View or other locations.

kerng 9y ago
Wouldn't a company have to post every single position because of labor laws, etc. They can't just have one generic position to cover many, or? That would open the doors for bad hiring practices and just picking anyone you want (without proper due diligence) rather then the best candidate possible.
- antoncohen 9y ago
  No, that is pretty much how they and other large tech companies hire. You apply as a SWE or SRE. Then you basically either pass their hiring bar or not. If you pass, they find out what you are interested in, what you would be a good fit for, and what team is interested in having you. There are exceptions of course, for specialized positions or knowledge. Or if they have big gaps to fill they might do targeted recruiting for them. I don't see why it would run awful of labor laws. They have a very structured hiring process, it doesn't allow much room for "picking anyone you want". If you pass they find a job for you.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Wouldn't a company have to post every single position because of labor laws, etc No, labor laws in most of the US do not require posting any positions, much less every individual position. (Civil service may require posting civil service positions individually, or at least explicitly identifying the individual positions being hired under a combined posting, and labor agreements may specify requirements for how and where union-represented positions are posted. > They can't just have one generic position to cover many Yes, they can. > That would open the doors for bad hiring practices and just picking anyone you want (without proper due diligence) rather then the best candidate possible. Bad hiring practices are not generally illegal; those that are (racial discrimination, for instance) are prohibited directly rather than by prohibiting things that might open the door for them.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    What about H1B sponsorship? I thought that required some sort of advertising of the position at least.

CobrastanJorji 9y ago

Seems like they don't. A quick Google search (ha) seems to indicate that Alphabet's growing by about 10,000 people per year or so. Let's be fairly conservative and say 20% of those folks are programmers. That's still much more than 1,147 people. Besides that, the sentence "Amazon is hiring 1,147 people for its Alexa business unit alone" is very different than the headline, which is "Amazon Is Hiring More Developers." Not everyone working on Alexa is going to be a developer. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but as stated, this whole article fails the sniff test to me.

johnkoetsier 9y ago
Check the link on the second page of the article about what kinds of jobs are open in the Alexa division. Pretty solidly development/technical/product/research jobs
ehsankia 9y ago
20% sounds like a very low estimate for a Software Company. Especially since we are implicitly assuming 100% on Amazon's side. If you want to compare Apples to Apples, take 100% of each side.

tootie 9y ago

I don't if Amazon/Google would ever do this or even need to, but my last place used to open reqs and do interviews based on "pipeline" openings which means jobs we might need to staff quickly if new work comes in, but we're not going to call you back if it doesn't.