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Whenever you see a selection system that is very specific and continues to build specific criteria - this happens in corporate policies, admissions, interviews,

Whenever you see a selection system that is very specific and continues to build specific criteria - this happens in corporate policies, admissions, interviews, and also seen often in evolution - your suspicions should constantly be raised. The more specificity, the better systems get at optimizing for a few local maxima while potentially ignoring other (or most) maxima entirely. For example we have a fairly "locally optimized" single column spine for something that stands upright, but if we were to design something that stands upright (such as a building) we would rarely use a single column. Anyway, I wonder what Google does to mitigate such a threat from their specific systems described in the article. Further I wonder if they collect any data that might tell them whether their process turns people away, because I've heard lots of horror stories (especially on HN) about the Google interview process. The article doesn't seem to mention whether or not the interviewees enjoy the process. I suspect nobody (at Washington Post or Google) bothered to ask them. (Not that I can blame Google, I've never heard of a company asking recently hired employees about how they could make the interview process better. But I figured the WaPo would have interest in writing that story) The article ends with: > To make sure they don’t miss out on top talent, Google employs a team of full-time screeners to sift through applications. The company would not say how many people are employed in these roles, but it said the group is "sizeable." I suspect at the end of the day their screeners and recruiters are about as "average" as other companies of their size. Numbers certainly wouldn't make up for quality. Just my anecdote, but here's the first part of the email a Google recruiter sent me: > I'm a talent scout on the Engineering Staffing Team at Google. I came across your details and feel that you could be the sort of person we are looking for to work in a new role we're hiring for in our Mountain View HQ, called 'Performance Engineer' for which we're looking for a candidate with a combination of compiler, high performance software design and computer architecture experience. I'm not known for much, but for what I am it's exclusively JavaScript.

jmillikin 13y ago
> Further I wonder if they collect any data that might tell > them whether their process turns people away, because > I've heard lots of horror stories (especially on HN) > about the Google interview process. The article doesn't > seem to mention whether or not the interviewees enjoy the > process. I suspect nobody (at Washington Post or Google) > bothered to ask them. There's a fair amount of internal discussion every time a Google Hiring Horror Story comes up in the media. It's worth noting that in those stories, the interview day is generally the only part that goes well. It's all the other stuff (especially scheduling and candidate communication) that needs work.
cromwellian 13y ago
Google does have another outlet, which is acquisitions. When a company is acquired, generally, a big chunk of the employees get hired without the normal interview process. Some of them are essentially on probation, and if they perform well, they are made permanent. Others end up not getting converted. Google also hires contractors and interns, and some of those get 'converted' to full time employees, essentially with the contracting/intern period as one big job interview.
- zaphar 13y ago
  Whether the employees get interviewed at Google or not depends on the size of the acquisition, at least for engineering positions. That's largely for logistical reasons. The vast majority of acquisitions of software engineers involve interviewing.
cbr 13y ago
if we were to design something that stands upright (such as a building) we would rarely use a single column. We kind of do that: elevator cores.
- cma 13y ago
  We dont design them, but the canonical upright objects stand on one column... trees
cperciva 13y ago
Not that I can blame Google, I've never heard of a company asking recently hired employees about how they could make the interview process better. Google sent me a survey after I turned down their job offer (back in 2006). Among other things, I wrote "this recruiter is nearly single-handedly responsible for me not coming to work for you". A couple years later I heard that she had gotten promoted.

jmillikin 13y ago

> Further I wonder if they collect any data that might tell > them whether their process turns people away, because > I've heard lots of horror stories (especially on HN) > about the Google interview process. The article doesn't > seem to mention whether or not the interviewees enjoy the > process. I suspect nobody (at Washington Post or Google) > bothered to ask them. There's a fair amount of internal discussion every time a Google Hiring Horror Story comes up in the media. It's worth noting that in those stories, the interview day is generally the only part that goes well. It's all the other stuff (especially scheduling and candidate communication) that needs work.

cromwellian 13y ago

Google does have another outlet, which is acquisitions. When a company is acquired, generally, a big chunk of the employees get hired without the normal interview process. Some of them are essentially on probation, and if they perform well, they are made permanent. Others end up not getting converted. Google also hires contractors and interns, and some of those get 'converted' to full time employees, essentially with the contracting/intern period as one big job interview.

zaphar 13y ago
Whether the employees get interviewed at Google or not depends on the size of the acquisition, at least for engineering positions. That's largely for logistical reasons. The vast majority of acquisitions of software engineers involve interviewing.

cbr 13y ago

if we were to design something that stands upright (such as a building) we would rarely use a single column. We kind of do that: elevator cores.

cma 13y ago
We dont design them, but the canonical upright objects stand on one column... trees

cperciva 13y ago

Not that I can blame Google, I've never heard of a company asking recently hired employees about how they could make the interview process better. Google sent me a survey after I turned down their job offer (back in 2006). Among other things, I wrote "this recruiter is nearly single-handedly responsible for me not coming to work for you". A couple years later I heard that she had gotten promoted.