
Why "I'd Google it" is not an acceptable Interview Answer - JohnFx
http://softwareplusplus.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/why-id-just-google-it-is-not-an-acceptable-interview-answer/
======
xenophanes
"I'd google it" is a terrible answer to some questions, e.g. stuff people
ought to know like what recursion is. It's a great answer to other questions,
e.g. stuff not worth remembering (like API details you use infrequently).

Some things are simple enough you can (re)learn in 5 minutes with google.
Others aren't. Knowing which is which is a good skill. Trashing Google in all
cases equally is wrong.

------
jerryji
Maybe one that can be answered by 5 minutes of Googling is not an acceptable
interview question.

~~~
mdasen
It really depends on the question.

From the article: "what is a class?" can easily be answered as a definition
from a Google search, but that definition doesn't help you write a class, use
a class, etc. Similarly, you can search for a definition of a join, but if you
can't come up with an answer off the top of your head, you don't have the
skill to use a join.

This is different from, say, being asked what the "succ" method of the Ruby
Integer class does. Or, the preg_replace in PHP takes 5 parameters, which
position do you place the subject string in?

Those are two different types of questions. The first paragraph has questions
about key computer science/database topics that, if you don't know, it will
take learning and mastery to use them in a practical application. The second
paragraph has questions of an arbitrary nature - knowing argument order in one
language doesn't prove you understand regular expressions nor does knowing
what a somewhat ambiguously named method does - especially a method that is
also called "next" and can be accomplished as "var += 1" both of which seem
clearer.

But there definitely are some things that can be answered by searching that
don't necessarily mean that the person has a mastery of the topic that would
be required to actually use the definition. Now, the second set of questions
might be a clue that this isn't a good place to work since they emphasize
random knowledge that doesn't actually prove any competency, but that's
another story.

~~~
sunkencity
Yeah, if you don't know what a class is and is applying for a OO programming
job you don't qualify, and it's not OK to look it up on the job. That's
basically what the article is saying.

But at least googling for answers to inane questions is better than going
directly to asking your fellow coworkers. RTFM!!!

------
DenisM
Here's the summary of the article:

 _All else being equal it's better to know the answer than to have to look it
up. Also, the author of the article is going to assume all kinds of things
about you_

~~~
JohnFuex
I don't really think that captures what I was saying in the article. This
quote is a little more representative of the overall message:

"On the job, the goal is to solve problems and get things done using any tool
at your disposal. At the interview, the goal is to demonstrate why they should
hire you instead of one of the other candidates who also have access to
Google... A job interview is a competition, not a pass-fail test"

As for the comment that I am going to assume all kinds of things. Of course I
am and so will other managers. We are all human and make assumptions all the
time, often subconsciously. My point was just that it is in the candidate's
best interest to recognize what you may be communicating by deferring to
Google.

Getting mad about it doesn't help you get the job, so there is no sense in
that. The intent of the article was to HELP candidates put their best foot
forward with the benefit of some inside information from the other side of the
interview table.

~~~
DenisM
>A job interview is a competition, not a pass-fail test"

Yes, that's what it really means - "all else being equal during competition,
remembering things will get you ahead".

The problem I have with you article is that all else is not equal. This could
only work if you have an excess of qualified engineers. I have tons of
anecdotal data about severe draught of qualified engieneers and none on the
surplus, across Microsoft, Google, Amazon and funded Seattle startups. I am
yet to see any data on actual competition, so your position does not pass the
"inituition" test for me.

Are things that much different in the valley? It can't be, some of my data
comes from people getting offers to move to the Valley.

>As for the comment that I am going to assume all kinds of things. Of course I
am and so will other managers.

I think you are projecting.

------
dflock
It used to be that this was a valid interview tactic - asking people
hard/obscure stuff and seeing if you could get them to admit they didn't know,
then get them to explain where they'd go to find out. It used to be that there
were many different places to go to find disparate bits of technical know-how,
each specific to the task in hand. It used to be that knowing how to find out
was a valuable skill, required of any developer - every developer looks stuff
up, no-one can know everything.

This has changed a lot over the last few years - now the answer to all of that
is basically just 'Google it.'. The only value left in this interview tactic
is to probe the depth/breadth of the candidates knowledge and to see how they
respond when they get to the end of it, in an interview/pressured situation.
It's a good sign when they calmly admit they don't know and suggest sensible
strategies for finding out. It is, however, a terrible sign if their domain
knowledge stops before you get to 'What's a class?' - you really need to know
the important stuff, end of story.

I'm always shocked by the number of candidates that I've intervied who get
weeded out by questions like that.

------
philwelch
In my youth (which was like...1 or 2 years ago) I used the far more naive "I'm
not sure" or "I don't know" instead of "I'd Google it", and responded to the
follow-up "So how would you find out?" question with some vague account of my
research method (which included Google).

It turns out that a lot of problems require far more specific researching
skills, say, if you're writing code to automate some type of proprietary
system that Google knows nothing about. How do I automate a functional test? I
talk to the people who run the test manually. How do I learn how to do this
and that with a given box? I talk to the engineers who designed it.

"I'd google it" is the wrong, right answer. It's the right answer because you
should have some ability to research things you don't know. It's wrong because
there's no way Google will teach you what you need to know. Sometimes you need
to read a book or make an appointment with an engineer in the other building,
or run controlled experiments.

~~~
troystribling
When I have received the "I'd Google it" response to a question in an
interview I would the ask for the search terms, enter the query and discussed
the result.

~~~
adunsmoor
Agreed. I think it's up to the interviewer to redirect the responses towards
something more meaningful. For example, "what criteria would you use to
evaluate what you find on Google?" Or "how would you determine if the
information was up to date/accurate/etc.?" I've found that a person might jump
to the "I'd Google it" answer but still have a good knowledge of the problem
domain.

------
Kirby
It really does depend on the question. A lot of interview time, particularly
on phone screens, is "Does this person's resume reflect reality?" That's where
"What's a class?" and "How do you do a join in SQL?" come from, and if the
candidate can't easily answer, their resume is bloated, game over. Google it
is a bad answer.

Also realize that even though you consider something to be trivia, your
interviewer doesn't or the question wouldn't be asked. Saying, "I'd just
google it" is dismissive, and people don't like being dismissed.

What you can do is invoke Google techniques as part of a larger problem. Like,
"I forget the order of arguments to this function, but that's on Google, can
you tell me if I got it right?" When the point of the question isn't the
trivia, but the approach.

------
Gibbon
"I don't need to know the answer," he growled "if I know where to find the
answer." - Henry Ford

------
gurtwo
This article comes to my mind: <http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm>

It summarizes a model of possible levels of "knowledge", making a distinction
of Data, Information, Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom.

So in this context:

    
    
      API -> Information
      SQL join, class, OO paradigm -> Understanding
      Work experience -> Wisdom  
    

I believe a job interview should mainly focus on evaluating the candidate's
Knowledge and Understanding, not on Data or Information. One can argue that by
using Google long enough, it is possible to reach the upper levels, but that
comes at a price (you would need a lot of time).

------
maweaver
I didn't realize people thought it was an acceptable answer, I just thought it
was something people said afterwards (as in, "Can you believe he asked me
about the fourth argument to the foo function? In real life I'd have just
Googled it"). It's almost an insult to the interviewer (Of course I don't know
the answer, you shouldn't have expected me to).

As an aside, I hope people don't mean this literally. If I wanted to know what
the fourth parameter to function foo is, I have quick access to my language's
reference manual, and I look in there. I don't just pop it into Google and
hope whatever comes up is right.

------
lhorie
You can always make it sound like a plan of action: "I don't remember/know off
the top of my head, but I will after 5 minutes with Google". (Provided that
it's one of those ultra-specific questions that have nothing to do with the
actual job).

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much, since chances are that no one else
actually gets these questions right anyways.

------
zupatol
He argues that a job interview is a different situation than being at work
with access to google because it's 'a competition'. If he likes to select
people on things unrelated to the job, why not ask them to sing and dance too?

~~~
JohnFuex
Go ahead and pretend a job interview is not a competition. I hope that works
out for you.

Also, you seem to imply that I favor asking questions unrelated to the job
when my article says exactly the opposite, that I despise those questions and
only resort to them when I have two candidates who are running neck and neck
and I need a tiebreaker.

------
TweedHeads
Google is a tool every job should allow you to use.

Google for me is like an extension to my brain which doesn't have much more
available free space.

So, yes, "I'll google it" IS a valid answer.

~~~
JohnFuex
I think you might want to re-read the article because you seem to be
mischaracterizing the point. That point is: Yes Google is a critical tool to
do your job, but it doesn't differentiate you from other candidates when
interviewing so it is a worthless answer _in that context_.

------
viggity
Of course not, the appropriate answer is:

"I'll just Bing it!"

~~~
viggity
I know that we want to keep HN focused, but is all humor going to be down
voted from now on?

~~~
DanHulton
Always has been. Quick, witty quips that add nothing to the conversation are
the domain and downfail of Slashdot.

If you have any sort of filtering at all, all you get are useless, trashy
jokes and no real conversation.

~~~
cubicle67
(Score:4, Informative)

