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The interviews at google are hard enough such that only a fraction of software engineers can make it through. Thus by statistics and logic, the majority of the
by crimsonalucard 7y ago
The interviews at google are hard enough such that only a fraction of software engineers can make it through.
Thus by statistics and logic, the majority of the worlds engineers cannot get past the google interview. This is not something I am thinking, this is a statistical reality.
Literally, in order for those engineers to work anywhere else the algorithm questions must be significantly easier in other companies outside of the elite FAANG. This is inline with logic and my observations.
My question is... for googlers who have spent time outside of google at a more scrapy startup. Does the interview filter actually create a better class of engineers? Do you learn much more working at google then you would at a company who's engineers typically can't get into google? What's the experience like if there is any?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not worshipping googlers or asking for tips. A real dichotomy exists in the interview stage for the few engineers who pass and the majority who don't... I'm just curious if this dichotomy becomes obvious outside of the interview... like on the job? Do you notice a difference when working with a google engineer vs. someone who probably can't ever get into google. It's a complicated question with a complicated answer. I'm not really looking for some humble answer telling me that google engineers aren't that much different from other engineers when the interview essentially disproves this statement by filtering out everyone except for a certain type of person.
I want an honest and candid answer.
- opportune 7y agoOk sure I’ll give you an honest and candid answer. It’s basically analogous to top schools. Yes the average engineer at Google is going to be better than the average engineer at some random company because google generally has a higher hiring bar. Similarly your average student at Harvard is going to be a better student than your average student at Random State University. As a result you will on average learn more than at most other companies. Of course there are trading firms, quant hedge funds, and a few other big tech companies with even higher hiring bars where you will learn more. And some of the things you learn, anywhere, while very useful to getting stuff done at where you work, will not be readily transferable elsewhere. But large companies as I’ve said before are basically all the same. The people you interact with are a vanishingly small subset of the entire company so it doesn’t even really make sense to speak in terms of what it’s like at the entire company. The interviewing filter mostly does one thing which is that it biases the engineers at google to be generally good at solving data structures and algorithms. This, by the way, is a skill that can be taught — and even though it might roughly approximate engineering ability it doesn’t map directly.
- crimsonalucard 7y agoThanks for being candid, is this inline with your experience? Have you worked at a smaller company and google as well? Your logic is really sound but I'm also asking this question for the purposes of gathering anecdotal experiences as well. Your answer is great, btw, I just noted that you used the word "average" over a personal example so I wanted to get an idea of where you're coming from.