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Google has strong data that it does predict job performance, better than GPA, college degree and so on. What are your aggregate data showing that Google is wron

Google has strong data that it does predict job performance, better than GPA, college degree and so on. What are your aggregate data showing that Google is wrong on this?

newfeatureok 7y ago
I’d be curious to see this data. Have a link?
- bretpiatt 7y ago
  Google's 2013 study called Project Oxygen says different, "The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas." [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/20/the-surprising-thing-google-learned-about-its-employees-and-what-it-means-for-todays-students/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/...
  - BlueTemplar 7y ago
    Since when the last two are "soft skills" ??
inertiatic 7y ago
The poster you're responding to is arguing that their process has poor recall, not poor precision necessarily.
taeric 7y ago
Does it? Because their strong data haven't helped them not screw up their messenger space. Or to have a fast email web client. Indeed, they seem to be going backwards on that chart. They flopped on wave and Google plus, hard. Those are the kinds of mistakes that kill most companies. Even Google glass still somewhat rankles and has left me with no confidence in any of their consumer things. And I say this as a happy Google fi user. In that I'm not convinced any alternative is worth moving to. Still can't fathom why Android is wasting fully half of my storage for "system". I'm not claiming they are crap. But I do have a hard time making all the things they do that are beyond the industry. Other than spend a ton of money.
- chillacy 7y ago
  I don’t think those products failed due to poor engineering, google just hasn’t been great at social (if you don’t count YouTube). Other companies which use the same interview techniques are winning in those exact product spaces.
  - taeric 7y ago
    But, then what are they succeeding at? If engineering hasn't helped them not kill most of their products, what is it helping do? And again, it is more than just social. ChomeOS? Even still a thing? How is android wear doing nowadays? Again, I'm not claiming they are bad at engineering. I honestly don't feel qualified to judge. But I don't know that they are qualified to judge success of new hire, either. Their main success seems to be to simply suffocate the talent pipelines of the industry by hiring the top talent first. But not by actually using it.
    - ThrowawayR2 7y ago
      > "If engineering hasn't helped them not kill most of their products, what is it helping do?" Engineering does not set direction, they just build what they're told to. There are entire product management, market research, and similar teams that help senior management decide what to build. This is the case at most large software companies.
      - taeric 7y ago
        This is orthogonal to my question. Yes, direction can be set independent of engineering. But a string of failures, at best, shows a string of misused engineering resources. Which just leads back to my challenge of why do they think they know what a successfull candidate is?
    - chillacy 7y ago
      > I'm not claiming they are bad at engineering Nope, you're actually claiming that they're bad at product. Maybe you can question their product management or marketing hires? Their most successful product is still search, followed by android and youtube. Their stock is up 300% in the past 5 years.
chillacy 7y ago
My understanding is that they stopped asking brain teasers because they found no correlation with job performance. Which is good because for awhile it seemed like other companies were cargo culting questions like “why are manhole covers round”
amznthrowaway5 7y ago
What is "job performance"? I assume job performance in this case means getting promotions or good reviews. How well correlated are promotions to actual ability? In my experience they are mostly just political.

Google has strong data that it does predict job performance, better than GPA, college degree and so on. What are your aggregate data showing that Google is wrong on this?

newfeatureok 7y ago

I’d be curious to see this data. Have a link?

bretpiatt 7y ago
Google's 2013 study called Project Oxygen says different, "The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas." [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/20/the-surprising-thing-google-learned-about-its-employees-and-what-it-means-for-todays-students/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/...
- BlueTemplar 7y ago
  Since when the last two are "soft skills" ??

inertiatic 7y ago

The poster you're responding to is arguing that their process has poor recall, not poor precision necessarily.

taeric 7y ago

Does it? Because their strong data haven't helped them not screw up their messenger space. Or to have a fast email web client. Indeed, they seem to be going backwards on that chart. They flopped on wave and Google plus, hard. Those are the kinds of mistakes that kill most companies. Even Google glass still somewhat rankles and has left me with no confidence in any of their consumer things. And I say this as a happy Google fi user. In that I'm not convinced any alternative is worth moving to. Still can't fathom why Android is wasting fully half of my storage for "system". I'm not claiming they are crap. But I do have a hard time making all the things they do that are beyond the industry. Other than spend a ton of money.

chillacy 7y ago
I don’t think those products failed due to poor engineering, google just hasn’t been great at social (if you don’t count YouTube). Other companies which use the same interview techniques are winning in those exact product spaces.
- taeric 7y ago
  But, then what are they succeeding at? If engineering hasn't helped them not kill most of their products, what is it helping do? And again, it is more than just social. ChomeOS? Even still a thing? How is android wear doing nowadays? Again, I'm not claiming they are bad at engineering. I honestly don't feel qualified to judge. But I don't know that they are qualified to judge success of new hire, either. Their main success seems to be to simply suffocate the talent pipelines of the industry by hiring the top talent first. But not by actually using it.
  - ThrowawayR2 7y ago
    > "If engineering hasn't helped them not kill most of their products, what is it helping do?" Engineering does not set direction, they just build what they're told to. There are entire product management, market research, and similar teams that help senior management decide what to build. This is the case at most large software companies.
    - taeric 7y ago
      This is orthogonal to my question. Yes, direction can be set independent of engineering. But a string of failures, at best, shows a string of misused engineering resources. Which just leads back to my challenge of why do they think they know what a successfull candidate is?
  - chillacy 7y ago
    > I'm not claiming they are bad at engineering Nope, you're actually claiming that they're bad at product. Maybe you can question their product management or marketing hires? Their most successful product is still search, followed by android and youtube. Their stock is up 300% in the past 5 years.

chillacy 7y ago

My understanding is that they stopped asking brain teasers because they found no correlation with job performance. Which is good because for awhile it seemed like other companies were cargo culting questions like “why are manhole covers round”

amznthrowaway5 7y ago

What is "job performance"? I assume job performance in this case means getting promotions or good reviews. How well correlated are promotions to actual ability? In my experience they are mostly just political.