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And that's exactly why I would never apply for Google. Despite me having years of leading product teams and enterprise applications, the fact that I need to "st

And that's exactly why I would never apply for Google. Despite me having years of leading product teams and enterprise applications, the fact that I need to "study" for an interview is asinine.

dwild 8y ago
> Despite me having years of leading product teams and enterprise applications, the fact that I need to "study" for an interview is asinine. You no longer study? You stopped any form of education? I have an hard time believing that's actually true, but if it is, I guess you aren't a good fit for them either. I read on new technologies constantly, I learn new languages constantly, I haven't gone to any formation yet (I just finished my software engineering degree) but I will certainly. Continous learning is nothing new. They need someone able to adapt, which does means learn, and clearly in the case of Google, pretty quickly too. Studying to pass their interview process is no different than studying to apply X new principle.
- stagger87 8y ago
  "You no longer study?" This is a straw man. It is clear from the context of the discussion that 'studying' refers to the study of algorithms/data structures/etc that is typically questioned in CS job interviews.
- tlackemann 8y ago
  > You no longer study? You stopped any form of education? Oh please. I've always taught myself new concepts and am constantly reading books and learning new languages. Hell, I went from working in "big corporate" to starting my own business building video games, something I knew virtually nothing about because I was driven to do so. I learned Rust on my own, I taught myself 3D programming, I've taken classes on public speaking. These are things I didn't need to prove to anyone, I just felt motivated to because I felt it would benefit my career. > Studying to pass their interview process is no different than studying to apply X new principle. The fact there are websites dedicated to helping you study for Google's interview process means something is broken. You should be able to gauge a person's motivation and willingness to learn beyond knowing seven different algorithms from memory. If they want someone who can adapt, look to experience and have questions ready to prove that experience. I shouldn't need to recall information like flash cards. Applying to Google feels like studying for the SATs all over again. Two cents. Google isn't for me despite feeling I could make a big impact there knowing my motivation levels and work ethic. I highly discourage anyone from adapting a similar interview process.
QML 8y ago
How else can you have a standard benchmark for testing applicants against? The issue with just looking at background experience, in my belief, is that there’s too much noise, not enough data, to properly gauge someone.
- jimjansen1 8y ago
  Oh I don't know the same way every other class of job across every other sector in the economy evaluates their candidates? Imagine hiring a PhD in Physics to lead your Applied Research lab and asking them to derive Maxwells Equations from first principles as part of the interview Or hiring a new Surgeon and asking them to perform some obscure procedure they did twice in Med School before hiring. Absolutely absurd. You've been fooled into thinking this is an acceptable way to judge people.
democracy 8y ago
It's also absurd when the big companies invite you for a half-day interview with no intention to reimburse you for your time. I went for an Amazon interview and lost a day which for a contractor on a daily rate is quite a lot. Not making this mistake again :)

And that's exactly why I would never apply for Google. Despite me having years of leading product teams and enterprise applications, the fact that I need to "study" for an interview is asinine.

dwild 8y ago

> Despite me having years of leading product teams and enterprise applications, the fact that I need to "study" for an interview is asinine. You no longer study? You stopped any form of education? I have an hard time believing that's actually true, but if it is, I guess you aren't a good fit for them either. I read on new technologies constantly, I learn new languages constantly, I haven't gone to any formation yet (I just finished my software engineering degree) but I will certainly. Continous learning is nothing new. They need someone able to adapt, which does means learn, and clearly in the case of Google, pretty quickly too. Studying to pass their interview process is no different than studying to apply X new principle.

stagger87 8y ago
"You no longer study?" This is a straw man. It is clear from the context of the discussion that 'studying' refers to the study of algorithms/data structures/etc that is typically questioned in CS job interviews.
tlackemann 8y ago
> You no longer study? You stopped any form of education? Oh please. I've always taught myself new concepts and am constantly reading books and learning new languages. Hell, I went from working in "big corporate" to starting my own business building video games, something I knew virtually nothing about because I was driven to do so. I learned Rust on my own, I taught myself 3D programming, I've taken classes on public speaking. These are things I didn't need to prove to anyone, I just felt motivated to because I felt it would benefit my career. > Studying to pass their interview process is no different than studying to apply X new principle. The fact there are websites dedicated to helping you study for Google's interview process means something is broken. You should be able to gauge a person's motivation and willingness to learn beyond knowing seven different algorithms from memory. If they want someone who can adapt, look to experience and have questions ready to prove that experience. I shouldn't need to recall information like flash cards. Applying to Google feels like studying for the SATs all over again. Two cents. Google isn't for me despite feeling I could make a big impact there knowing my motivation levels and work ethic. I highly discourage anyone from adapting a similar interview process.

QML 8y ago

How else can you have a standard benchmark for testing applicants against? The issue with just looking at background experience, in my belief, is that there’s too much noise, not enough data, to properly gauge someone.

jimjansen1 8y ago
Oh I don't know the same way every other class of job across every other sector in the economy evaluates their candidates? Imagine hiring a PhD in Physics to lead your Applied Research lab and asking them to derive Maxwells Equations from first principles as part of the interview Or hiring a new Surgeon and asking them to perform some obscure procedure they did twice in Med School before hiring. Absolutely absurd. You've been fooled into thinking this is an acceptable way to judge people.

democracy 8y ago

It's also absurd when the big companies invite you for a half-day interview with no intention to reimburse you for your time. I went for an Amazon interview and lost a day which for a contractor on a daily rate is quite a lot. Not making this mistake again :)