4 ms·

He only had a BSCS from Stanford and had been a VP of Engineering at Yahoo leading over 300 engineers. Facebook turned him away, and as someone else mentioned

by Ologn 13y ago

He only had a BSCS from Stanford and had been a VP of Engineering at Yahoo leading over 300 engineers. Facebook turned him away, and as someone else mentioned here, Twitter. It kind of puts in perspective that blog post from yesterday that claimed companies in Silicon Valley can't find rock star ninja engineers ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7259845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7259845 ).

integraton 13y ago
It almost makes him a folk hero for anyone else running up against the "cultural fit" barrier.
- flomo 13y ago
  I think that would be an incorrect way of reading it. At his level, he would be negotiating executive responsibility and a huge salary. I'm sure any of these companies would love to have had him as a "senior engineer".
chadillac 13y ago
"Stanford right across the street... that must be pretty handy for recruiting efforts." - Me "Hah! Yeah, we hire them to answer our phones." - Them
throwwit 13y ago
I've known quite a few programmers that really should have access to the types of resources these big companies command; but just end up in situations simply paying the bills.
kkwok 13y ago
To be fair, we don't know what position he was interviewing for at Facebook.
peterwwillis 13y ago
It does sound difficult to find someone who has an engineering degree, a stadium-touring band and practices ninpo.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
This isn't all that unusual. Most people realize that hiring processes are really random. In some ways just hiring anyone who applies, firing them after 90 days if they don't work out, and keeping track of who has been through once is probably a better system overall. The recent work on how SAT scores don't predict college success is similar. There is a huge amount of influence around 'fit' and environment. Some people just "click" and some people don't. Genius rock star programmers that don't click are poor employees, and some times former washouts that do click are your key hires. Hard to predict.
- DanBC 13y ago
  > This isn't all that unusual. Most people realize that hiring processes are really random. In some ways just hiring anyone who applies, firing them after 90 days if they don't work out, and keeping track of who has been through once is probably a better system overall. "EMPLOYERS: avoid employing unlucky people by immediately tossing half the CVs in the bin" - Viz top tip.
  - ChuckMcM 13y ago
    I'll have to remember that one :-) But on a more serious note, its been interesting to see the different sort of talent location ideas that have emerged. So I person I met a long time a go as a production assistant for the TV series Robotica was trying to come up with a new series and I suggested "American Hacker" where folks would go on the show and compete for a spot at Facebook or something. His comment though was pretty funny which was "That won't work Chuck because too many people are like you and they don't care about being on TV, you really need people who will cut off their own leg if you promise to put them on during prime time." Which was a sad sad commentary. Things like the Stripe CTF contests are good recruiting tools, hackathons kinda sorta, resume scanning and the 5 - 10 person interview panel? Hard to get repeatable results.
    - ableal 13y ago
      > I'll have to remember that one :-) Also hilarialously wortwhile is the C. Northcotte Parkinson take "The Short List, or Principles of Selection" (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=c.+northcote+parkinson+candidate+selection https://www.google.com/search?q=c.+northcote+parkinson+candi... )

by Ologn 13y ago

integraton 13y ago

It almost makes him a folk hero for anyone else running up against the "cultural fit" barrier.

flomo 13y ago
I think that would be an incorrect way of reading it. At his level, he would be negotiating executive responsibility and a huge salary. I'm sure any of these companies would love to have had him as a "senior engineer".

chadillac 13y ago

"Stanford right across the street... that must be pretty handy for recruiting efforts." - Me "Hah! Yeah, we hire them to answer our phones." - Them

throwwit 13y ago

I've known quite a few programmers that really should have access to the types of resources these big companies command; but just end up in situations simply paying the bills.

kkwok 13y ago

To be fair, we don't know what position he was interviewing for at Facebook.

peterwwillis 13y ago

It does sound difficult to find someone who has an engineering degree, a stadium-touring band and practices ninpo.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

This isn't all that unusual. Most people realize that hiring processes are really random. In some ways just hiring anyone who applies, firing them after 90 days if they don't work out, and keeping track of who has been through once is probably a better system overall. The recent work on how SAT scores don't predict college success is similar. There is a huge amount of influence around 'fit' and environment. Some people just "click" and some people don't. Genius rock star programmers that don't click are poor employees, and some times former washouts that do click are your key hires. Hard to predict.

DanBC 13y ago
> This isn't all that unusual. Most people realize that hiring processes are really random. In some ways just hiring anyone who applies, firing them after 90 days if they don't work out, and keeping track of who has been through once is probably a better system overall. "EMPLOYERS: avoid employing unlucky people by immediately tossing half the CVs in the bin" - Viz top tip.
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  I'll have to remember that one :-) But on a more serious note, its been interesting to see the different sort of talent location ideas that have emerged. So I person I met a long time a go as a production assistant for the TV series Robotica was trying to come up with a new series and I suggested "American Hacker" where folks would go on the show and compete for a spot at Facebook or something. His comment though was pretty funny which was "That won't work Chuck because too many people are like you and they don't care about being on TV, you really need people who will cut off their own leg if you promise to put them on during prime time." Which was a sad sad commentary. Things like the Stripe CTF contests are good recruiting tools, hackathons kinda sorta, resume scanning and the 5 - 10 person interview panel? Hard to get repeatable results.
  - ableal 13y ago
    > I'll have to remember that one :-) Also hilarialously wortwhile is the C. Northcotte Parkinson take "The Short List, or Principles of Selection" (e.g. https://www.google.com/search?q=c.+northcote+parkinson+candidate+selection https://www.google.com/search?q=c.+northcote+parkinson+candi... )