
Pass the Rap Genius Tech Interview, Get $1,000 Cash - jsomers
http://news.rapgenius.com/Lemon-introducing-the-rap-genius-genius-granttm-pass-our-technical-interview-get-s1000-cash-lyrics
======
famousactress
_" Location—you can’t get the true RG cult effect working remotely, so only
apply if you live in NYC or are willing to relocate."_

I wish companies would stop saying this shit. The honest translation is
usually _" We have no idea what it would mean to run a remote team and there's
so much on our plates right now that we're not putting any energy into
considering it"_

Which is fine! I'd much rather people say that than this _" It's impossible to
be as awesome as we are without sitting next to each-other"_ bullshit. It has
the downside of sending the message to others that you might know what you're
talking about, via actual experience.

~~~
simonw
It's perfectly possible that they know exactly what it would take to run a
remote team, and have decided that the additional overhead isn't worth it for
their current stage.

~~~
ktsmith
It's also possible that they are completely clueless about what it would take.
It appears they live and work out of the same space. This doesn't strike me as
a particularly mature company.

------
wheaties
Wow and here I thought that passing a "Tech Interview" just got you a job
offer. Now I learn that this company, unlike every other company full of
geniuses, is impossible to join. Makes me want to join them even more!

Reminds me of this other company that called me up out of the blue and said
"We're only looking for Rockstars. Are you a Rockstar?" That also made me want
to join that company in a heart beat. So many choices...

~~~
bcbrown
It gets you a job offer and $1000. You get the money even if you don't accept
the job.

I think it's a good idea. I wouldn't have considered applying, because I'm not
looking for work. But if they were local, I'd apply just for the $1000, and
then they'd have a chance to sell me.

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joshuaellinger
What a nice bunch of kids... I hope they find a business model someday.

All snark aside -- If I were a NYC Ruby guy, my main reservation is that it
feels like a road to nowhere. If you want me to join a cult, give me something
more than "trust us because A15Z gave us $15M".

~~~
ronilan
_> I hope they find a business model someday._

No chance. There is absolutly nothing one can do with a lot of retargetable
traffic. /s

~~~
presty
[http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/rap-genius-
enterprise/](http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/01/rap-genius-enterprise/)

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xwowsersx
So. Freaking. Lame.

This whole post, the whole idea, just oozes arrogance and immaturity. I have
no interest in working for a company that is so proud of how impossible it is
to get through their interview process. I respect companies that make the
effort to try to understand the individual strengths and weaknesses of their
prospective hires and work to slowly build up a diverse team of people that
are smart and thoughtful. Rap Genius isn't doing anything that requires every
single person working there to be "brilliant" and certainly not as measured by
some BS interview process.

~~~
mcphage
> Rap Genius isn't doing anything that requires every single person working
> there to be "brilliant" and certainly not as measured by some BS interview
> process.

Well said. "Are you AWESOME enough to annotate text? Only the BEST OF THE BEST
text annotators need apply!"

------
yelnatz
On the other hand, you get to work with these people:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAzQPll7Lo)

~~~
acchow
How is the culture at rap genius? Is there a diverse culture or have they been
hiring other people that look and behave like them?

Is it a frat house?

~~~
freework
> Is it a frat house?

Most startups are

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porter
Is it just me or are all those annotated links super confusing? I tried
clicking on their jobs page link, but it just gave me this slow loading pop up
thing with zero helpful or related info. Cool idea on the $1k though.

~~~
sejje
Not just you. I wanted to see the jobs page and failed.

Doesn't take brilliant to fix that...

~~~
corin_
I could be wrong but after spending 2 minutes finding out about them, I think
that sort of thing is their actual business, not just a small flaw in a blog
post?

~~~
nawitus
I guess their reasoning is that since they create one UI "idea" on their main
product, it should therefore be used absolutely everywhere. Clearly people
want to open popups and click one thing on the popup again when they actually
just want to click the link.

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ForHackernews
This seems like a really silly PR stunt. If you're interviewing for a job that
pays tens of thousands of dollars, why do you care about $1000?

It'd be like Amazon offering a "Launch a bestselling book, get a $500 gift
card" promo.

~~~
eigenvector
It's just like startups that advertise "join us and we'll get you all the
latest Apple gear!"

People who earn SV developer salaries can afford all the latest Apple gear (or
as much of it as they want, anyway).

~~~
markkanof
That's a little different. In that case they aren't trying to lure you in with
the monetary value of Apple gear, what they are really saying is you won't
have to worry about working with crappy hardware. It's assumed that you think
the latest Apple gear is the best tool for the job. That May or may not be
correct, but that's for you to decide.

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scottrblock
I get the whole eat your own dog food thing, but having to click twice to get
to the actual career page can't be good for conversion.

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soneca
Weird thing. I am not even a developer and I felt the urge to try it. My point
is: doesn't this give incentive to not-that-good developers who might "just in
case" pass it and get $1,000? Therefore increasing noise, which is one of the
worst things to deal with in hiring?

If I had to plan a bogus hiring strategy that a spy would implement on a
competitor and f*ck it up, this is what I would have thought!

~~~
TallboyOne
I'd agree, but if the interview is very hard then you automatically screen
them all out anyway.

~~~
soneca
Probably not "automatically", someone will losing a lot of time screening out
this "lottery seekers". And stressing also, which could mess up his ability to
find the really good ones.

------
bithive123
Is this page an example of what Rap Genius does? Because I see two links in
the post: one of them pops up a dialog that appears to contain no information;
the other link pops up a dialog containing a miniature version of the photo in
the post I am looking at. Color me unimpressed.

------
amscanne
The headline is weird (and misleading).

The body of the post says: "anyone we offer an engineering job gets $1,000
cash".

Just because someone passes your technical interviews doesn't mean you'll
extend them a job offer. There's a ton of other factors (cultural fit,
attitude, references, experience, etc.).

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throwaway720
Life imitating art -- it's fantastic that there is a real life Entertainment
720, funded by Andreessen Horowitz no less.

I sometimes can't tell if they're actually serious about this or they're just
some bros pulling a prank on the industry.

------
_pmf_
Wow, look at how smart these guys are and how awesome it must be to work with
such geniuses!

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zinxq
I'm now way more hipster just from reading their jobs page.

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nicolethenerd
So yes, this is gimmicky - that said, it may work for them anyways. It
certainly gets their name out there - it got them to the front page of HN, and
it got me to read their jobs page (and be tempted by their perks) - which I
probably would've never done under other circumstances.

Anecdote - my significant other found his current job when he heard a startup
was raffling off a netbook at their info session. He had no interest in the
company - he just showed up to try and win the netbook (which, as it happens,
he did) - next thing he knew, they sold him on their pitch, he became engineer
#4, and four years later, he's still there.

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hngeniuos
They are so cool
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T92-MTJYmFc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T92-MTJYmFc)

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OhHeyItsE
somebody gave these clowns $15m. That makes me sad.

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gailees
This could be a new way to bootstrap -- have all your engineers interview at
RG.

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nnoitra
An engineering company with appreciation of Philsophy. That's a first. I'd
apply but I don't know any Ruby and I'm not brilliant.

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Swannie
Opportunity cost of screening the CV deluge, and interviewing all the people
that have actively lied on their CV to get to interview stage?

HUGE!

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kbelbina
Do you have to accept to get the $1,000. Would be a pretty fun test.

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mctx
What does the interview involve?

~~~
hack_edu
About 3 hours of exercises out of an upper division CS textbook interspersed
with not-so-subtle references to alcohol and cocaine.

------
khnd
how do i win??

