

Why I can’t work at Google - acav
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/19/why-i-cant-work-at-google/

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dmoy
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I didn't know anybody who worked at
Google before I joined, and a good chunk of my co-workers didn't either.

The author may be reading into the question "do you know anyone here?" too
much. It could easily be that the recruiters are just trying to figure out if
they can ask anyone inside for an internal reference. If not, no big deal. It
would just be another signal to use.

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devrelm
The article is just marketing. He mentions multiple times that he works for
Bright.com, "a San Francisco-based company that is building algorithmic tools
to match candidates and employers."

He is purposely reading into the "do you know anyone here?" question so that
he can make a story out of it.

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jemfinch
The author works for a company marketing a "a scientifically driven way to
quantify the match between a job candidate and an open position" and is making
claims derogating another mechanism for matching candidates and position. He's
not exactly an unbiased observer.

For the record, I've been involved in hiring here, and I've never asked
candidate who he knows at Google, I've never heard of a candidate being asked
such a question, I've never seen anything related to such questions on
interview feedback, and so on. If Hardtke's account is true (and that's
extremely doubtful), his experience bears no relation whatsoever to mine on
the either side of the interview table.

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erikpukinskis
His affiliation is fully disclosed in the article. I don't understand why
you're outing someone for "bias" when they describe it in the body of the
article. Are you trying to suggest that bias somehow means you're not allowed
to have opinions about things related to your work?

~~~
iends
I'm sure that's exactly what he was trying to imply...Are you trying to
suggest you're not a very good troll?

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datamart
Of the dozen or so interviews I went through to get to Google, I was never
asked the question, "Who do you know here?"

Of the hundred or so interviews I've given since I've been at Google, I've
never asked the question, "Who do you know here?"

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diego
If the author wants to work at Google _and_ believes that knowing someone at
Google is a prerequisite to get hired (doubtful) then he should try to connect
with Google employees. It's not that hard, there are tens of thousands of
them. Many of them participate in well known open source projects, and are
active on mailing lists, social networks, etc.

In other words, the author created a limitation in his mind and didn't bother
trying to overcome it. I'd call this anti-resourcefulness.

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halcyondaze
No offense, but why doesn't this guy just GET to know someone at Google? It's
not that difficult to do!

~~~
yen223
How would a person, who doesn't have a CS background, network with people at
Google?

I'm genuinely curious.

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mayank
Go to any Mountain View bar? Use LinkedIn to find FoFs who work at Google?
Attend a public Google event and talk to employees? Of those, I'd go with
finding social connections to an employee. Google has over 30k employees -- if
you're more than 1 or 2 degrees removed from a Google employee, you might be
doing something wrong.

~~~
antihero
It seems a bit weird to be like hey, I would like to be your friend so I can
get a job.

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tmhedberg
I've interviewed at Google NY, and though I do seem to recall being asked if I
knew anyone that worked there, I never got the impression that my answer
influenced the outcome of the interview process. It was just a friendly,
casual question asked as a way to break the ice.

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guyzero
Per other commenters, this is basically a hit piece on Google by claiming that
Google does something that it doesn't do to promote the author's own company
which seeks to improve hiring.

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DirtyMonkey
After interviewing at Google, I've ever been asked whom I already know there.

