4 ms·

Ya, I've been the victim of "couldn't balance a B-Tree fast enough so you're not hired but you'll never see a B-Tree at work." You mention that there isn't a b

by barce 13y ago

Ya, I've been the victim of "couldn't balance a B-Tree fast enough so you're not hired but you'll never see a B-Tree at work." You mention that there isn't a better solution. IMHO, I disagree. I think Github has figured out a way. They've been around 5 years and haven't fired anybody and nobody has quit. Most firings are due to a job / job skill mismatch. At Github, they do a week long paid interview so both sides really know what they're getting into. I don't work at Github, but am such a fan of their company.

mseebach 13y ago
Github and many other high profile companies have the benefit of a much larger talent funnel than more average companies. They can literally sit back and wait for the proverbial rock-star ninja to make a passionate appeal to come and work for them. They can filter anyone without a 4.0 from a top school (not that they would, but that's not the point) and still be working with a bigger pool than lesser companies do, pre-filtering. Never mind actually selling yourself so those you might want to hire will actually accept your offer. Lesser companies simply have to take more chances on people if they want to have a shot at growing their teams. They will naturally fail more than companies that don't have to take that shot.
- igul222 13y ago
  True, they have a bigger talent funnel than smaller companies, but don't forget that they also need far more new hires than smaller companies. I wonder which factor dominates.
  - mseebach 13y ago
    I didn't say "small", I said "lesser". Also, GitHub just have 166 employees (https://github.com/about https://github.com/about) - presumably not all engineers. Any ten random selected medium sized software companies easily eclipses their volume.
pbiggar 13y ago
What make you think GitHub haven't fired anybody? I don't know that they have, but it seems very unlikely.
- stouset 13y ago
  In fact, they have fired a few people.
- marblar 13y ago
  Holman has in the past made the claim that nobody's quit. I wonder if that still holds up?
- barce 13y ago
  Ya, I got my info from Holman. My info's old.
beatpanda 13y ago
A friend of a friend was recently fired from Github. I don't know where you got this information from.

by barce 13y ago

mseebach 13y ago

Github and many other high profile companies have the benefit of a much larger talent funnel than more average companies. They can literally sit back and wait for the proverbial rock-star ninja to make a passionate appeal to come and work for them. They can filter anyone without a 4.0 from a top school (not that they would, but that's not the point) and still be working with a bigger pool than lesser companies do, pre-filtering. Never mind actually selling yourself so those you might want to hire will actually accept your offer. Lesser companies simply have to take more chances on people if they want to have a shot at growing their teams. They will naturally fail more than companies that don't have to take that shot.

igul222 13y ago
True, they have a bigger talent funnel than smaller companies, but don't forget that they also need far more new hires than smaller companies. I wonder which factor dominates.
- mseebach 13y ago
  I didn't say "small", I said "lesser". Also, GitHub just have 166 employees (https://github.com/about https://github.com/about) - presumably not all engineers. Any ten random selected medium sized software companies easily eclipses their volume.

pbiggar 13y ago

What make you think GitHub haven't fired anybody? I don't know that they have, but it seems very unlikely.

stouset 13y ago
In fact, they have fired a few people.
marblar 13y ago
Holman has in the past made the claim that nobody's quit. I wonder if that still holds up?
barce 13y ago
Ya, I got my info from Holman. My info's old.

beatpanda 13y ago

A friend of a friend was recently fired from Github. I don't know where you got this information from.