5 ms·

No need for downmods; nostrademons works at Google. However, won't HN people applying through that method just be sent in to a black hole?

nostrademons 17y ago
If you're someone whose username I'd recognize, you can send me a resume (my e-mail is in my HN profile) and I can refer you. That sends you to the top of the pile that HR looks at (technically, I think it's two separate queues, and they empty the referral queue before they look at the slushpile), though you still have to get through the interview process. I got in through a referral - I'm guessing it helps quite a bit. And there's a nifty bonus for me if you're accepted. :-)
- indiejade 17y ago
  Does Google even hire people who care any more? Does it only hire people who interview really well? From what I've gathered, most people who get through the HR disaster there these days (old times are exempt; decentralizing hiring is the first sign of impending disaster) really aren't that smart; maybe they've merely perfected a sort of slimy smooth-talking (literally speaking), typical of most salesmen. As much as I want to still love Google, it's getting harder every day. Even my original suggestion regarding pixel space amounts on the search results page template seems to have been implemented recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498660 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498660. Yeah, I'm a wee bit irked; I think I deserved a bit more than the lie-wielding form rejection email from my application somewhere back in early 2005 or so. And don't even get me started on the fact that Google went and doubled the limit of receiving pay on my AdSense account sometime last year; so I've still not even seen anything from that. So as much as I still want to love Google, it is getting harder every day. Your comment regarding "Nooglers" is actually pretty funny considering how many of them, like me, have probably been really diligent in their quest to get hired just about anywhere.
  - abossy 17y ago
    I know Nostrademons in person, who was recently hired by Google, and I can vouch that he does care, is extremely smart, and isn't a slimy salesman. Though it's getting larger, and hence more bureaucratic (from what I've heard on the outside), Google still has the best data in the world and hence attracts world-class engineers.
- arfrank 17y ago
  Besides a referral what got you in there? I can't imagine, from what I've read, that it is an easy task once they give you call back.
  - nostrademons 17y ago
    If you believe my recruiter, it was previous startup experience, strong CS fundamentals, and good JavaScript knowledge. In other words, I had a skill set that they needed and seemed like a person who could get things done. Pretty standard stuff. The interview process was less difficult than I thought it would be. 1 phone screen, 4 (supposed to be 5, but one never showed up) in-person interviews over a day. I'd thought I'd flubbed it when I got out, but apparently the interview feedback was quite positive. If I had to guess what makes most candidates bomb, it's that they don't have sufficient depth in the positions they're interviewing for. For example, at the end of one of my interview problems, the interviewer asked me "And how would you attach that event handler?" And I replied "Well, if it was IE, I'd use element.addEventListener('mouseover', fn, true). If it was a standards-compliant browser, I'd use element.attachEvent('mouseover', fn)." Note that that's wrong - it's backwards. But the interviewer didn't care. He just wanted to make sure that I was aware of those functions, because so many of the people he interviews would just say element.onmouseover = fn. Similarly, most of the disastrous product-manager interviews I've heard of have been because the candidate would give handwavey answers and couldn't clarify what he meant or figure out how to support his opinions with data, even when prompted by the interviewer. Google culture really prizes precision, perfectionism, and strong opinions backed up with data - if you're used to finding the first Google hit on the web, implementing something by copying and modifying that, and then saying "Okay, it's done," you really won't fit in here.
    - shiranaihito 17y ago
      What's wrong with "element.onmouseover = fn", by the way?
      - bd 17y ago
        In this way you can attach just one function to the event. Other way allows for more flexibility. http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_tradmod.html http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_tradmod.html http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_advanced.html http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_advanced.html But I guess interviewer was not implying onmouseover was "wrong", just probing how much does candidate know about the topic.

nostrademons 17y ago

If you're someone whose username I'd recognize, you can send me a resume (my e-mail is in my HN profile) and I can refer you. That sends you to the top of the pile that HR looks at (technically, I think it's two separate queues, and they empty the referral queue before they look at the slushpile), though you still have to get through the interview process. I got in through a referral - I'm guessing it helps quite a bit. And there's a nifty bonus for me if you're accepted. :-)

indiejade 17y ago
Does Google even hire people who care any more? Does it only hire people who interview really well? From what I've gathered, most people who get through the HR disaster there these days (old times are exempt; decentralizing hiring is the first sign of impending disaster) really aren't that smart; maybe they've merely perfected a sort of slimy smooth-talking (literally speaking), typical of most salesmen. As much as I want to still love Google, it's getting harder every day. Even my original suggestion regarding pixel space amounts on the search results page template seems to have been implemented recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498660 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498660. Yeah, I'm a wee bit irked; I think I deserved a bit more than the lie-wielding form rejection email from my application somewhere back in early 2005 or so. And don't even get me started on the fact that Google went and doubled the limit of receiving pay on my AdSense account sometime last year; so I've still not even seen anything from that. So as much as I still want to love Google, it is getting harder every day. Your comment regarding "Nooglers" is actually pretty funny considering how many of them, like me, have probably been really diligent in their quest to get hired just about anywhere.
- abossy 17y ago
  I know Nostrademons in person, who was recently hired by Google, and I can vouch that he does care, is extremely smart, and isn't a slimy salesman. Though it's getting larger, and hence more bureaucratic (from what I've heard on the outside), Google still has the best data in the world and hence attracts world-class engineers.
arfrank 17y ago
Besides a referral what got you in there? I can't imagine, from what I've read, that it is an easy task once they give you call back.
- nostrademons 17y ago
  If you believe my recruiter, it was previous startup experience, strong CS fundamentals, and good JavaScript knowledge. In other words, I had a skill set that they needed and seemed like a person who could get things done. Pretty standard stuff. The interview process was less difficult than I thought it would be. 1 phone screen, 4 (supposed to be 5, but one never showed up) in-person interviews over a day. I'd thought I'd flubbed it when I got out, but apparently the interview feedback was quite positive. If I had to guess what makes most candidates bomb, it's that they don't have sufficient depth in the positions they're interviewing for. For example, at the end of one of my interview problems, the interviewer asked me "And how would you attach that event handler?" And I replied "Well, if it was IE, I'd use element.addEventListener('mouseover', fn, true). If it was a standards-compliant browser, I'd use element.attachEvent('mouseover', fn)." Note that that's wrong - it's backwards. But the interviewer didn't care. He just wanted to make sure that I was aware of those functions, because so many of the people he interviews would just say element.onmouseover = fn. Similarly, most of the disastrous product-manager interviews I've heard of have been because the candidate would give handwavey answers and couldn't clarify what he meant or figure out how to support his opinions with data, even when prompted by the interviewer. Google culture really prizes precision, perfectionism, and strong opinions backed up with data - if you're used to finding the first Google hit on the web, implementing something by copying and modifying that, and then saying "Okay, it's done," you really won't fit in here.
  - shiranaihito 17y ago
    What's wrong with "element.onmouseover = fn", by the way?
    - bd 17y ago
      In this way you can attach just one function to the event. Other way allows for more flexibility. http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_tradmod.html http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_tradmod.html http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_advanced.html http://www.quirksmode.org/js/events_advanced.html But I guess interviewer was not implying onmouseover was "wrong", just probing how much does candidate know about the topic.