18 ms·

Didnt the creator of home-brew not end up getting a job at google?

minimaxir 8y ago
That 2015 tweet (https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?s=21 https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?s=21) helped popularize the Google Interview memes, but things like Cracking the Code Interview still existed long before then.
- brobdingnagians 8y ago
  One of the reply tweets linked an allegorical article about the pitfalls of whiteboard interviewing that I enjoyed quite a bit: http://www.unlimitednovelty.com/2011/12/can-you-solve-this-problem-for-me-on.html http://www.unlimitednovelty.com/2011/12/can-you-solve-this-p...
  - bradleyjg 8y ago
    It’s totally fair to slag on whiteboard interviews, I hate them too. But it’s worth pointing out that there aren’t any great options out there. The traditional sit and have a chat interview is insanely biased towards people like the interviewer and doesn’t at all guarantee technical competence. The take home project feels like a big imposition to a lot of people, especially those that are currently employed, and raises concerns about cheating. The whiteboard interview except on a laptop has some advantages but has problems of comfort with the environment. I think a whiteboard or laptop interview with a cleaned up realistic problem, not a thinly disguised implement Dijkstra’s, is the least bad option around.
    - mixmastamyk 8y ago
      Strongly prefer the take-home project as long as it is confined to less than 4 hours. The gun-to-head aspect of the other choices significantly dominates other concerns in my experience.
  - gawkface 8y ago
    That creme brulee article was delicious, thanks for sharing!!
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
umanwizard 8y ago
I always see this trotted out as proof of how bad Google’s interview process is, and I always wonder: what makes people think creating homebrew was particularly difficult or impressive? Package managers are a dime a dozen. It has also never been conclusively explained what “invert a binary tree” means (see the tweet a sibling comment linked to — that’s what the Homebrew guy claimed he wasn’t hired for not being able to do).
- notyourday 8y ago
  There are more people in the world using homebrew than what most of Google engineers single handedly wrangled or produced -- excluding google products that came out of Google Labs that we now use. So if you want someone who can take shitty lemons and create a tasty lemonade out of it he is definitely your guy. Here's the thing - outside some special projects for which people are hired without going through the standard interview process Google does not want those who can take shitty lemons and convert them to tasty lemonade. Google wants specific kinds of butts that fit into a specific kind of seat. It wants the most homogeneous high output monkeys that would do what they are told, such as spitting out a code to invert a binary tree.
- crdoconnor 8y ago
  Package management is a task filled with subtle pitfalls that is much, much harder than it looks on the surface. It's a lot like syncing files - e.g. how Dropbox looked similarly deceptively easy to build but really wasnt. IMHO the fact that the homebrew guy didn't get hired and that golang package management was a dumpster fire for years isn't coincidental. Both were part and parcel of a systemic bias that plagues Google's culture that they're blissfully unaware of.
  - philwelch 8y ago
    Google doesn’t do package management well because they don’t do package management at all; they have a monorepo. If anything, the systematic bias is that Google built their way around an entire class of problems that others still face.
CydeWeys 8y ago
I've seen people who otherwise did well at the coding parts of the interview not get an offer because they came off as a jerk, and no one wants to work with a jerk. There's way more to hiring decisions than raw engineering talent. Teamwork matters a lot too.
- seattle_spring 8y ago
  Ironic, considering 3 of my interviewers during my last on-site with Google were complete jerks.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    That sucks. Remember, you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you. For what it's worth, all my Google interviewers were nice.
    - ummonk 8y ago
      Interesting. Two of the interviews in my onsite loop at Google felt test; one of them was incredibly disinterested and unhelpful - by far the worst interviewer I've ever had. I haven't bothered with Google this time around - combine the risk of jerk interviewers with the glacial pace of their interview process and it's not really something I'm interested in doing. And that's not even considering any personal reservations regarding the Damore firing or the massive payout to Rubin.
  - UncleMeat 8y ago
    Give that feedback to your recruiter. Committees can tell interviewers to get more training.
romed 8y ago
This guy’s response to not being offered a job validated the decision.

That 2015 tweet (https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?s=21 https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?s=21) helped popularize the Google Interview memes, but things like Cracking the Code Interview still existed long before then.

brobdingnagians 8y ago
One of the reply tweets linked an allegorical article about the pitfalls of whiteboard interviewing that I enjoyed quite a bit: http://www.unlimitednovelty.com/2011/12/can-you-solve-this-problem-for-me-on.html http://www.unlimitednovelty.com/2011/12/can-you-solve-this-p...
- bradleyjg 8y ago
  It’s totally fair to slag on whiteboard interviews, I hate them too. But it’s worth pointing out that there aren’t any great options out there. The traditional sit and have a chat interview is insanely biased towards people like the interviewer and doesn’t at all guarantee technical competence. The take home project feels like a big imposition to a lot of people, especially those that are currently employed, and raises concerns about cheating. The whiteboard interview except on a laptop has some advantages but has problems of comfort with the environment. I think a whiteboard or laptop interview with a cleaned up realistic problem, not a thinly disguised implement Dijkstra’s, is the least bad option around.
  - mixmastamyk 8y ago
    Strongly prefer the take-home project as long as it is confined to less than 4 hours. The gun-to-head aspect of the other choices significantly dominates other concerns in my experience.
- gawkface 8y ago
  That creme brulee article was delicious, thanks for sharing!!

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

umanwizard 8y ago

I always see this trotted out as proof of how bad Google’s interview process is, and I always wonder: what makes people think creating homebrew was particularly difficult or impressive? Package managers are a dime a dozen. It has also never been conclusively explained what “invert a binary tree” means (see the tweet a sibling comment linked to — that’s what the Homebrew guy claimed he wasn’t hired for not being able to do).

notyourday 8y ago
There are more people in the world using homebrew than what most of Google engineers single handedly wrangled or produced -- excluding google products that came out of Google Labs that we now use. So if you want someone who can take shitty lemons and create a tasty lemonade out of it he is definitely your guy. Here's the thing - outside some special projects for which people are hired without going through the standard interview process Google does not want those who can take shitty lemons and convert them to tasty lemonade. Google wants specific kinds of butts that fit into a specific kind of seat. It wants the most homogeneous high output monkeys that would do what they are told, such as spitting out a code to invert a binary tree.
crdoconnor 8y ago
Package management is a task filled with subtle pitfalls that is much, much harder than it looks on the surface. It's a lot like syncing files - e.g. how Dropbox looked similarly deceptively easy to build but really wasnt. IMHO the fact that the homebrew guy didn't get hired and that golang package management was a dumpster fire for years isn't coincidental. Both were part and parcel of a systemic bias that plagues Google's culture that they're blissfully unaware of.
- philwelch 8y ago
  Google doesn’t do package management well because they don’t do package management at all; they have a monorepo. If anything, the systematic bias is that Google built their way around an entire class of problems that others still face.

CydeWeys 8y ago

I've seen people who otherwise did well at the coding parts of the interview not get an offer because they came off as a jerk, and no one wants to work with a jerk. There's way more to hiring decisions than raw engineering talent. Teamwork matters a lot too.

seattle_spring 8y ago
Ironic, considering 3 of my interviewers during my last on-site with Google were complete jerks.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  That sucks. Remember, you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you. For what it's worth, all my Google interviewers were nice.
  - ummonk 8y ago
    Interesting. Two of the interviews in my onsite loop at Google felt test; one of them was incredibly disinterested and unhelpful - by far the worst interviewer I've ever had. I haven't bothered with Google this time around - combine the risk of jerk interviewers with the glacial pace of their interview process and it's not really something I'm interested in doing. And that's not even considering any personal reservations regarding the Damore firing or the massive payout to Rubin.
- UncleMeat 8y ago
  Give that feedback to your recruiter. Committees can tell interviewers to get more training.

romed 8y ago

This guy’s response to not being offered a job validated the decision.