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Eric Schmidt: “It Is A War For Talent”

44 points by davidedicillo 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
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- ihodes 16y ago
  EDIT: The original statement was to the effect of "if a company thinks it's safe => it fails". Gosh, that's a sweeping statement. It's a nice little sound-bite, but do you actually believe it? The real problem with your statement is that it's a tautology: if a company thinks it's safe, it fails. Since we can assume that all companies fail eventually (with maybe a few outliers) it's right to think that your statement is true for all companies who think they're safe at any point, and doesn't apply to companies who do not think they're safe (whether or not they fail).
  - conover 16y ago
    You shouldn't be able to delete comments that have replies attached to them...
    - T_S_ 16y ago
      I think people use it as a karma kick save. Show mercy.
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  - zeraholladay 16y ago
    I didn't see the original comment, so I can't say that I agree with it. However, I do believe that overly comfortable companies create an internal inertia preventing innovation and change. This inertia is the insidious culture of the status quo. It's a failure to adapt. My mother worked for the newspaper industry and I got to see this firsthand. Unfortunately, there's no dramatic death spiral like a Yeats poem -- just a slow steady decline over the years.
mikecane 16y ago
What kind of "talent"? The egregious metadata of Google Books has been brought up in book circles again and again. Fixing that should not require the kind of hiring hoops that programmers go through. Librarian and other specialist degrees existed long before there was ever a Google. Some things Google just doesn't want to be bothered with. (And when it comes to books, ditto for Apple.) [typo edit]
- ig1 16y ago
  There's no significant return to google for fixing the metadata. It's not that google can't do it, it's that they don't want to do it. Google is a company which is about scale. Hiring librarians is not a scalable solution to fixing metadata. Figure out a way to automate that fixing and I'm willing to bet Google will offer to hire you. edit: As it happens I actually looked at working on a fairly similar problem for my undergraduate thesis (automated dating of works of unknown provenance) so if someone wants to talk about ideas for how to fix it feel free to email me.
  - alanh 16y ago
    > Hiring librarians is not a scalable solution to fixing metadata. I’m skeptical of this line of reasoning. If we can’t hire librarians to label all those books, how did we ever get people to write, edit, bind, read, distribute, and finally scan them?
  - waterlesscloud 16y ago
    It's pretty obvious that Google just wants the raw data of the books for later projects, and the concept of making them available to the public as they have is nothing more than the thinnest of fig leaves. They're getting far, far more value from the libraries they're scanning than they are providing back to the world, and it's because of their atrocious metadata processes. And if someone figures out how to automate the process, you'd be a fool to be "hired" by Google. That's something that should be paid for at a much higher rate than any salary.
    - ig1 16y ago
vinhboy 16y ago
Just out of curiosity, any "talent" here, on HN, being aggressively recruited by google/facebook? Or is this some other kind of "talent" they are looking for. Wouldn't most talented people want to start their own company anyways?
- ajslater 16y ago
  They email every six months.
- jfb 16y ago
  It depends on what you want to work on. There are problems that only get interesting at scale; people who are good at solving them will likely always be working square jobs, because square jobs willol haved the capital to misallocate and create said interesting-scale problems. There are also problems where there is no immediately obvious way to disrupt an existing market, many of which are fascinating. And there are many, many, many talented hackers whose risk appetite is such that they're happy to trade ev for security. And then again, too, "talent" is too gnarled a word to be meaningful intercontextually. The "talents" that Schmidt is shopping for may very well be disjoint from those that pg seeks out.
- spudlyo 16y ago
  I get LinkedIn In-Mail from both Facebook and Google recruiters periodically. It's nice to feel wanted, and I get a certain enjoyment out of politely rejecting google recruiters. This is a lot more fun than subjecting myself to their grueling and ego shattering interview process. As to your second question, some people are smart enough to know that running a business is not one of their core competencies.
- alexgartrell 16y ago
  I have offers from both and am deciding presently. I don't know that they're "aggressively" recruiting me though. The reason I'd rather work for them than start my own company (now) is that I'm interested in infrastructure. I could go start a company and be an architecture astronaut (and never sell any infrastructure to anyone), or I could go to Google/Facebook and learn the kind of domain specific knowledge that I can only get at a Google or Facebook.
wyclif 16y ago
The comments in that TechCrunch thread are why I don't read TechCrunch anymore. Mike Arrington really needs to mod the trolls.
brown9-2 16y ago
Looks like someone is lifting xkcd's "Online Communities" map in the background of that picture of Schmidt (or paying homage, I hope).
- tonystubblebine 16y ago
  The map: http://map.web2summit.com/ http://map.web2summit.com/
phlux 16y ago
I went through a ~2-3 month interview process with google at the end of which they said "You did great, it looks like we will have an offer to you tomorrow" The next day, I got a call from them saying "Well, unfortunately we wont be giving you an offer, because you dont have a PMP certification." (When I went into the process, for an infrastructure PM, I stated that my lack of a PMP cert may hurt me - they said "Oh no, we don't want people to come here with a predisposition of the process they feel they need to impose on how we work" -- I was so freaking enraged over that experience.) I was later told "You scored really well on the interview process, why not apply for another position?" To which I only had a big FU to the whole experience.
- endtime 16y ago
  I had a similarly frustrating experience interviewing for an internship there. I'm very happy to be doing what I'm doing right now (CTO of a startup) but the experience with Google still left a bad taste in my mouth, and it makes me reluctant to apply to them rather than e.g. Facebook or MSFT in future.
- prodigal_erik 16y ago
  Yeah, the latency of their hiring amazes me. I lean towards small shops, but for some reason I entertained a phone screen from them a few years ago. Well, they called me several weeks later hoping for an onsite, but I had already interviewed for, accepted, and started another position in the meantime. I don't see why they would expect anyone good to remain available long enough for them to have a chance with, unless the candidate has singled out Google as the only place they're even considering for a month if not an entire quarter.
  - hga 16y ago
    Yeah, that reminds me of my Thinking Machines experience. I later heard it took them another two tries to fill the position I was applying for, I think I heard the second guy timed out on them as well.
nradov 16y ago
The contrary view is that 'talent' doesn't actually matter. http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm
bni 16y ago
This reminds me of William Gibsons "New Rose Hotel" short story. A couple of more years and switching jobs will be "defection". Bring on the teenage prostitutes, neurotoxins and japanese coffin hotels.

44 points by davidedicillo 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

ihodes 16y ago
EDIT: The original statement was to the effect of "if a company thinks it's safe => it fails". Gosh, that's a sweeping statement. It's a nice little sound-bite, but do you actually believe it? The real problem with your statement is that it's a tautology: if a company thinks it's safe, it fails. Since we can assume that all companies fail eventually (with maybe a few outliers) it's right to think that your statement is true for all companies who think they're safe at any point, and doesn't apply to companies who do not think they're safe (whether or not they fail).
- conover 16y ago
  You shouldn't be able to delete comments that have replies attached to them...
  - T_S_ 16y ago
    I think people use it as a karma kick save. Show mercy.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- zeraholladay 16y ago
  I didn't see the original comment, so I can't say that I agree with it. However, I do believe that overly comfortable companies create an internal inertia preventing innovation and change. This inertia is the insidious culture of the status quo. It's a failure to adapt. My mother worked for the newspaper industry and I got to see this firsthand. Unfortunately, there's no dramatic death spiral like a Yeats poem -- just a slow steady decline over the years.

mikecane 16y ago

What kind of "talent"? The egregious metadata of Google Books has been brought up in book circles again and again. Fixing that should not require the kind of hiring hoops that programmers go through. Librarian and other specialist degrees existed long before there was ever a Google. Some things Google just doesn't want to be bothered with. (And when it comes to books, ditto for Apple.) [typo edit]

ig1 16y ago
There's no significant return to google for fixing the metadata. It's not that google can't do it, it's that they don't want to do it. Google is a company which is about scale. Hiring librarians is not a scalable solution to fixing metadata. Figure out a way to automate that fixing and I'm willing to bet Google will offer to hire you. edit: As it happens I actually looked at working on a fairly similar problem for my undergraduate thesis (automated dating of works of unknown provenance) so if someone wants to talk about ideas for how to fix it feel free to email me.
- alanh 16y ago
  > Hiring librarians is not a scalable solution to fixing metadata. I’m skeptical of this line of reasoning. If we can’t hire librarians to label all those books, how did we ever get people to write, edit, bind, read, distribute, and finally scan them?
- waterlesscloud 16y ago
  It's pretty obvious that Google just wants the raw data of the books for later projects, and the concept of making them available to the public as they have is nothing more than the thinnest of fig leaves. They're getting far, far more value from the libraries they're scanning than they are providing back to the world, and it's because of their atrocious metadata processes. And if someone figures out how to automate the process, you'd be a fool to be "hired" by Google. That's something that should be paid for at a much higher rate than any salary.
  - ig1 16y ago

vinhboy 16y ago

Just out of curiosity, any "talent" here, on HN, being aggressively recruited by google/facebook? Or is this some other kind of "talent" they are looking for. Wouldn't most talented people want to start their own company anyways?

ajslater 16y ago
They email every six months.
jfb 16y ago
It depends on what you want to work on. There are problems that only get interesting at scale; people who are good at solving them will likely always be working square jobs, because square jobs willol haved the capital to misallocate and create said interesting-scale problems. There are also problems where there is no immediately obvious way to disrupt an existing market, many of which are fascinating. And there are many, many, many talented hackers whose risk appetite is such that they're happy to trade ev for security. And then again, too, "talent" is too gnarled a word to be meaningful intercontextually. The "talents" that Schmidt is shopping for may very well be disjoint from those that pg seeks out.
spudlyo 16y ago
I get LinkedIn In-Mail from both Facebook and Google recruiters periodically. It's nice to feel wanted, and I get a certain enjoyment out of politely rejecting google recruiters. This is a lot more fun than subjecting myself to their grueling and ego shattering interview process. As to your second question, some people are smart enough to know that running a business is not one of their core competencies.
alexgartrell 16y ago
I have offers from both and am deciding presently. I don't know that they're "aggressively" recruiting me though. The reason I'd rather work for them than start my own company (now) is that I'm interested in infrastructure. I could go start a company and be an architecture astronaut (and never sell any infrastructure to anyone), or I could go to Google/Facebook and learn the kind of domain specific knowledge that I can only get at a Google or Facebook.

wyclif 16y ago

The comments in that TechCrunch thread are why I don't read TechCrunch anymore. Mike Arrington really needs to mod the trolls.

brown9-2 16y ago

Looks like someone is lifting xkcd's "Online Communities" map in the background of that picture of Schmidt (or paying homage, I hope).

tonystubblebine 16y ago
The map: http://map.web2summit.com/ http://map.web2summit.com/

phlux 16y ago

I went through a ~2-3 month interview process with google at the end of which they said "You did great, it looks like we will have an offer to you tomorrow" The next day, I got a call from them saying "Well, unfortunately we wont be giving you an offer, because you dont have a PMP certification." (When I went into the process, for an infrastructure PM, I stated that my lack of a PMP cert may hurt me - they said "Oh no, we don't want people to come here with a predisposition of the process they feel they need to impose on how we work" -- I was so freaking enraged over that experience.) I was later told "You scored really well on the interview process, why not apply for another position?" To which I only had a big FU to the whole experience.

endtime 16y ago
I had a similarly frustrating experience interviewing for an internship there. I'm very happy to be doing what I'm doing right now (CTO of a startup) but the experience with Google still left a bad taste in my mouth, and it makes me reluctant to apply to them rather than e.g. Facebook or MSFT in future.
prodigal_erik 16y ago
Yeah, the latency of their hiring amazes me. I lean towards small shops, but for some reason I entertained a phone screen from them a few years ago. Well, they called me several weeks later hoping for an onsite, but I had already interviewed for, accepted, and started another position in the meantime. I don't see why they would expect anyone good to remain available long enough for them to have a chance with, unless the candidate has singled out Google as the only place they're even considering for a month if not an entire quarter.
- hga 16y ago
  Yeah, that reminds me of my Thinking Machines experience. I later heard it took them another two tries to fill the position I was applying for, I think I heard the second guy timed out on them as well.

nradov 16y ago

The contrary view is that 'talent' doesn't actually matter. http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_07_22_a_talent.htm

bni 16y ago

This reminds me of William Gibsons "New Rose Hotel" short story. A couple of more years and switching jobs will be "defection". Bring on the teenage prostitutes, neurotoxins and japanese coffin hotels.