

How Bad Hiring Practices Can Slow Down a Company - manimaran
http://insidetech.monster.com/careers/articles/7632-the-google-example-how-bad-hiring-practices-can-slow-down-a-company?utm_source=nlet&utm_content=it_c1_20100304_USEF

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yummyfajitas
From the article: " _I’m picking on Google today because I ran into an article
written by a recent Google applicant who walks the reader through an interview
process that appears to be designed to exclude the most qualified applicants
for a marketing job._ "

He concludes google excluded their "most qualified applicants" because they
declined to hire someone who can't apply that complicated mathematical
practice of division:

 _“Say an advertiser makes $0.10 every time someone clicks on their ad. Only
20% of people who visit the site click on their ad. How many people need to
visit the site for the advertiser to make $20?” I froze. The problem sounded
easy but I didn’t want to cause an awkward silence trying to solve it.

“Um…well, ok. So, 20 out of 100 people click on the ad. Every ten clicks make
one dollar…and you need 20 of them…” That’s as far as I got before I resorted
to guessing answers, none of which were right. I was panicking and I couldn’t
do a thing about it. My nerves were taking over. Anna could sense this and
began to give me hints. None of them helped my frazzled brain.

After five painful minutes the annoyed interviewer gave me the answer. “100
people make two dollars, and two times ten is twenty. The answer is 100 people
times 10 which is 1,000 people.” She made it sound so easy; I felt like a
moron. As if she enjoyed my misery, she immediately fired off another math
problem._

FAIL.

~~~
owinebarger
You might be surprised how widespread the non-understanding of division is
among the normal population. That includes the accounting profession, who have
mastered addition and subtraction, and possibly multiplication as well.

It's not clear whether an understanding of division is really required for
Google's marketing or not.

~~~
sethg
IIUC one of the key acronyms in the advertising world is “CPM”, the cost of an
ad per thousand people in its audience. That word “per” is division.

~~~
owinebarger
Actually, it's a decimal point shift, which is a little easier than general
division.

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gyardley
This monster.com article picked a terrible example, since the person
complaining on Business Insider wasn't so bright. But there's plenty of other
articles out there to choose from if you're looking for critiques of the
Google hiring process.

In my personal experience, Google was weak on follow-up and internal
organization: "we'll get back to you in a week" was actually five weeks, and
three months after that a different recruiter called me up to interview for
the same job. I came away feeling like they didn't have their act together.

Of course, this was a few years ago.

~~~
aplusbi
I had a similar experience - from first phone call, to last (rejection) phone
call was about 4 months.

Their actual interview process wasn't bad however. They never asked me any
trick/puzzle questions. Everything was based on coding, algorithms and
designs.

4 months, however, is inexcusable. If I was actively looking for a job at the
time I would have given up on google long before they got back to me.

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JoeAltmaier
The Air Force fails most pilot candidates. Not because they aren't qualified;
because they have an abundance of candidates. They have to screen somehow, and
choosing folks that not only have the requisite skills or trainability, but
also have additional perhaps unrelated skills is as good a screen as any.

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mgrouchy
Honestly, I read the article that this article mentions. To me it seems like
the person who took the interview probably isn't cut out for google. Thats not
necessarily a knock against the person, I'm probably not cut out for google.

I think the reality here is that there is nothing about googles hiring
practices that is slowing them down to me it seems that google's hiring
practices are very deliberate and they get exactly the type of candidates they
want.

~~~
skipsjh
Every company has their own way of interviewing candidates. Some of the ways
they measure a candidate might not make sense to an outside observer. I think
Google has every right to hire with a math bias. If they are looking for
analytical mindset in every position, then they should be asking math
questions.

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mbrubeck
If only Google listened to Rob Enderle, their business might be as successful
as Dell's MP3 player business (the last venture I remember Enderle being
involved in).

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jeremytliles
Although I agree with most of the premises of the article, I was dumbfounded
by the assertion that marketing is a creative role that doesn't require
mathematical skills. Marketing is quite analytical in nature, and is not about
dreaming up ad campaigns (that is advertising). So Google's sins in this case
were: 1) an inexperienced interviewer; 2) a rude interviewer. Despite these
flaws, Google accomplished its goal, which was to rule out a candidate with
poor analytical skills.

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ableal
I recommend chapter 5 of Parkinson's Law, titled "The Short List, or
Principles of Selection":

 _Only a little thought is needed to convince us that the perfect
advertisement would attract only one reply and that from the right man._

If not informed, you'll at least be amused.

(Search is your friend, but I recommend buying two copies of the whole book -
you'll want a loaner. There are sequels, nearly as good.)

