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I can't believe that the biggest (and supposedly "best") tech companies recruit from only a small selection of schools, and completely ignore 99% of application

I can't believe that the biggest (and supposedly "best") tech companies recruit from only a small selection of schools, and completely ignore 99% of applications from other schools. I used to think it was a total waste of talent, but the more experience I get in industry, the more I realize that it's probably for the best that so many of us are forgotten by the big companies. It gives me hope that we can escape the Google/Facebook duopoly that we live in now.

ummonk 5y ago
Most of the well funded fast growth startups that could meaningfully challenge big tech are actually even more picky about pedigree for entry level hires.
- cratermoon 5y ago
  Perhaps that's why they fail? They are trying to play by the same rules, on the same field, with the same types of people. A well-funded, fast-growth startup that hired from a pool of people who don't think and believe the same things as the big-tech hires might do better at addressing the problems that plague big tech.
Jach 5y ago
Part of it is just incredible laziness. One year my team was late in selecting intern resumes to interview for joining our team the next summer, and getting later because prospects who were contacted had already accepted internships elsewhere. When I was asked to help out selecting resumes to contact, they were all stored in a google drive folder with subfolders for each school. I asked for a list of who had already been contacted so I don't submit duplicates, and learned that the former guy doing it had just gone into the UC Berkeley folder and was picking files from there. One, no wonder they were taken, but two, come on... I downloaded everything into a flat local folder, and reviewed resumes by a mix of random selection with shuf and pdfgrep'ing some keywords I thought might be unique.
microtherion 5y ago
> tech companies recruit from only a small selection of schools I don't really think it's true. At least a few years ago, I saw statistics that one of the highest represented universities at Apple was San Jose State — simply due to being large and local. I recently had the opportunity to interview 3 fresh college graduates for Apple jobs, so out of curiosity, I looked up their colleges to see what kind of filters the recruiters are applying (I thought all 3 were well qualified). 2 of the 3 went to universities ranked between 10-20 in Computer Science in the US, the 3rd went to a college that is not ranked in any discipline in the US News rankings. So I highly doubt that the filtering is as narrow as is claimed. Unpredictable and not particularly accurate, I'll easily believe.
- google234123 5y ago
  I’ve found apple to be less prestige oriented in their hiring.

ummonk 5y ago

Most of the well funded fast growth startups that could meaningfully challenge big tech are actually even more picky about pedigree for entry level hires.

cratermoon 5y ago
Perhaps that's why they fail? They are trying to play by the same rules, on the same field, with the same types of people. A well-funded, fast-growth startup that hired from a pool of people who don't think and believe the same things as the big-tech hires might do better at addressing the problems that plague big tech.

Jach 5y ago

Part of it is just incredible laziness. One year my team was late in selecting intern resumes to interview for joining our team the next summer, and getting later because prospects who were contacted had already accepted internships elsewhere. When I was asked to help out selecting resumes to contact, they were all stored in a google drive folder with subfolders for each school. I asked for a list of who had already been contacted so I don't submit duplicates, and learned that the former guy doing it had just gone into the UC Berkeley folder and was picking files from there. One, no wonder they were taken, but two, come on... I downloaded everything into a flat local folder, and reviewed resumes by a mix of random selection with shuf and pdfgrep'ing some keywords I thought might be unique.

microtherion 5y ago

> tech companies recruit from only a small selection of schools I don't really think it's true. At least a few years ago, I saw statistics that one of the highest represented universities at Apple was San Jose State — simply due to being large and local. I recently had the opportunity to interview 3 fresh college graduates for Apple jobs, so out of curiosity, I looked up their colleges to see what kind of filters the recruiters are applying (I thought all 3 were well qualified). 2 of the 3 went to universities ranked between 10-20 in Computer Science in the US, the 3rd went to a college that is not ranked in any discipline in the US News rankings. So I highly doubt that the filtering is as narrow as is claimed. Unpredictable and not particularly accurate, I'll easily believe.

google234123 5y ago
I’ve found apple to be less prestige oriented in their hiring.