One of the most salient features of our Tech Hiring culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.
@imrj
Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, deserves a lot of credits for digging in the data and finding out that the Google style of interviews - that everybody copied in order to be the next Google - was a total waste of time.
A. On the hiring side, we found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.
Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at Google is particularly good at hiring. We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship. It’s a complete random mess, except for one guy who was highly predictive because he only interviewed people for a very specialized area, where he happened to be the world’s leading expert.
@imrj
Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, deserves a lot of credits for digging in the data and finding out that the Google style of interviews - that everybody copied in order to be the next Google - was a total waste of time.
nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in...