What is Digg?157 Comments
- atlasdugged, on 11/14/2009, -12/+133Google chooses to let their recruiters act like this because they are making lots and lots of money and can get away with it. It doesn't necessarily mean they wind up hiring better employees, they just wind up hiring people who will put up with that kind of behavior.
- nmanguy, on 11/14/2009, -1/+121If she was on a phone interview, why didn't she just use Google to find out the info?
- Nidy1, on 11/14/2009, -1/+118"Hey Mike, can you grab me a beer?"
"Only if you can tell me how many beer bottles can fit standing up on the face of the moon."
"Go ***** yourself, I'll get it myself." - BREZZZ, on 11/14/2009, -2/+83About how many people in this country do you think are nervous at the moment? If 5% of them click an ad then how much money will we make?
- chevas, on 11/14/2009, -3/+78In 2004 I interviewed for a Creative Maximizer position for Google after I was given a glowing review by a current employee. All of the candidates in this round of hiring had to take a series of examinations where we were required to rewrite advertisement examples in order to "maximize" their effectiveness. As a writer, I knew I was fit for the job. I also understood that thorough research of Ad Words would help me tremendously, especially with a company that is out to "organize the world's information".
In preparation, I completed all of the Ad Words online tutorials and did extra reading and research to "maximize" my chances. :D I was candidly told that I effectively "crushed" the other candidates in the maximizing exercise. GPA I did not glow as bright as they wanted.
While I was an honors student in High School, my performance at University was inconsistent. I achieved honor roll many quarters (we weren't on the semester system) while others were laughable. My final GPA was 2.99. :| I was told by the recruiter that a 3.0 was their minimum requirement and therefore my performance in the maximizing examinations were irrelevant. Unfortunately, GPA is often not an accurate measure of intelligence or even work ethic.
I now work for Microsoft. - Numb51, on 11/14/2009, -1/+73My brother was/is a recruiter for Google, and he ACTS just like these douches in real life.
- blackinthmiddle, on 11/14/2009, -0/+68I don't know if you would call it slow math skills. I got the answer of 1000 with no problem. Then, since nobody was interviewing me, I was able to (calmly) fire up my calculator program and confirm that I was right. However, I can guarantee you that if you're a little nervous your brain can just leave you in an instant. And I'm sure it sucks even more that she was probably saying to herself, "Dammit, I *know* how to solve this problem. I'm just not going to get it now being as nervous as I am."
Most anyone who graduated high school would get this problem right. It's not hard. However, even simple problems can get you if you're stressed. Call it "nervous" math skills. - MtheoryX, on 11/14/2009, -6/+70Damn, that's pretty rough.
To be honest, although I consider myself pretty sharp with math, I'd hesitate a little bit given the situation, stress, and curveballs too.
What I want to know is... what if she got the job? What would it be? What would it pay? Benefits? Lifestyle?
Is it even worth it? - Radar3D, on 11/14/2009, -0/+57That would be my answer to every question they ask - "I'd look it up on Google."
- hollywoodphony, on 11/14/2009, -5/+50Man, I guess I'm glad I don't want to work for Google. To be honest, this sounds like a way to load up your company with a bunch of anal-retentive pricks without any real-world social skills and a huge sense of entitlement. Like the people at the Apple Store, only worse.
- xGrill, on 11/14/2009, -1/+40He is busy reading digg.
- FordSVT1, on 11/15/2009, -0/+39Congratulations, a job at MS is nothing to sneeze at.
- fandyllic, on 11/14/2009, -4/+42Ajax, not Google. Maps, see MapQuest. Gmail... is e-mail. Try again.
- Smyley, on 11/14/2009, -1/+38Probably shouldn't have read this right before I go to a job interview. Now I'm nervous.
- MrBenC, on 11/14/2009, -3/+39Good read. I've been considering applying to work for our soon-to-be-overlords for some time.
- stevenr21, on 11/14/2009, -6/+38i can't be the only one that just thinks this person is a moron.. that was a simple math problem.
- pe5t1lence, on 11/14/2009, -1/+31I'm pretty sure her interviews went badly because she constantly spoke without thinking. Those kind of questions require you to at least think it through if not actually attempt something on a piece of paper. I mean seriously, $70,000???
- wonnk13, on 11/14/2009, -0/+30this isn't a Google exclusive thing. All of my marketing and finance friends who interviewed at investment firms and such all got seemingly impossible riddles to answer. It's not the answer so much as how you think your way through it.
- SirBruce, on 11/14/2009, -1/+28The answers to many of these questions is simple: GOOGLE IT. It's a test to see if you're smart enough to know where to look for the answers using the service the very company you're hoping to work for provides.
- NWVG, on 11/14/2009, -5/+31Google might want to rethink their interviewing tactics, because according to them "one of the best indicators of success within the company was getting the worst possible score on one of your interviews. We rank people from one to four, and if you got a one on one of your interviews, that was a really good indicator of success."
http://gawker.com/5392947/googles-broken-hiring-pr ... - burrdugg, on 11/14/2009, -2/+28Google wants to test her analytical thinking, and she answered the first question with a guesstimate. I can see where this interview is going.
- obsessedglobe, on 11/14/2009, -1/+26All these are valid questions; however, any large company is going to act this way in this economy. They're basically a big sieve that will weed out people through rigorous interviewing+randomness; instead of, capability and experience.
A good question to ask large organizations during such an interview would be, "Are the interview questions representative of the tasks I will be performing? Because they are, I require an 8hr work day to form and frame my response in a cultured fashion most akin to a professional working environment."
The worst part about this interview is that it is clear that good grades and a degree are not important in this job environment. The hubris of the employed should not be a barrier for those who are trying to gain real world experience, but sadly they are. - ToastPop, on 11/14/2009, -6/+31Right, because being too nervous to answer questions properly in an interview was because of how naive she was, and she just needed to know that "real life is hard" to prepare better.
- Billistic, on 11/14/2009, -2/+25My answer would be "You don't have computers giving you real time stats on this? I thought this was Google, sounds more like this is gurgle."
They'd hire me on the spot. - tgc1, on 11/14/2009, -8/+31I ***** hate when big companies play games when interviewing people.
DO YOU WANT ME TO WORK FOR YOU OR NOT?! I don't have time for these ***** games man. There are other companies that don't pull this *****, who I could be interviewing with right now. What makes your offerings worthy of my time? That's what workers should be asking these companies.
I hate the attitude most companies seem to have adopted these days. It was mentioned above in another post. This idea that people are looked down upon, and these companies recruiters and HR people act as though you should be sucking their ***** for a job. That you should feel lucky they even called you. Then they pull all these ***** games, ask asinine and stupid questions. I don't like it when companies ***** around and play games with you.
I've said it before and i'll say it again. Just because people work for a living, doesn't mean it's not still a business transaction. That's the way I look at work. I offer you my time and experience in exchange for a fair price. It's really quite simple.
Companies are quick to forget that it is THE PEOPLE that work for them that make them money. Without the people, the products dont' get to store shelves, sales people don't sell those products, and these CEO's and Shareholders would sit there with their dicks in their hands watching their stock price go through the floor. - Falldog, on 11/14/2009, -0/+23I agree. Let's completely disregard all the companies who have improved upon past products and ideas.
- nmanguy, on 11/14/2009, -0/+21Well, I'd like to see someone who says "I'd look it up on Lycos"
- kalvinb, on 11/14/2009, -3/+24This is what happens when companies have the attitude that you should be thankful for working for them rather than them having the attitude they should be thankful to have you.
As such companies should focus on what's on your resume that got them interested in you in the first place. Determining how much companies make in a day like it's a carnival game is not on my resume. Why not talk about current problems relevant to the position being applied for and get my take on possible solutions? Or ask how I went about solving specific complex problems in past positions?
I don't go into a company really caring what they do as long as it's legal and they can pay me what I'm worth. The company knows what they do and looking at my resume they should know I can do or not do what they want. The interview process should verify what's on the resume that made me hirable in the first place. - bigwhitecock, on 11/14/2009, -0/+20Actually as much as everyone hates to admit it, Microsoft invented ajax with their xmlhttp object in IE back in 1999. Although it went mostly unnoticed and unused until Google started creating real, nontrivial apps with it.
- akwok, on 11/15/2009, -0/+19I'm pretty sure that was a compliment...
- catalysis, on 11/14/2009, -4/+23Those seem like perfectly legitimate questions for a potential marketing manager. You want someone who can brainstorm marketing ideas and who can at least come up with a realistic estimate of revenues. Considering MBAs are a dime a dozen, any company would be stupid to hire someone just because they have a 3.6 GPA.
- digjam, on 11/14/2009, -7/+25MapQuest sucked big time before google maps were introduced...and think about 5 MB hotmail quota and 10 mb yahoo quota before google introduced 1 GB...mind it 1 GIGABYTES!
You can take that away from Google..they just changed the game alltogether. - Imortus, on 11/14/2009, -0/+18That was my first thought. I just searched for the info asked and it's all there - I think the test of the interview was to see if the applicant actually integrated Google in any meaningful way into their lives, such as using it to look up facts and answers to questions.
- Bentleyk9, on 11/14/2009, -0/+18After all her apparent research, she still managed to call Gmail "G-mail" multiple times in the article.
- diggbigwig, on 11/14/2009, -1/+18Interviews are always easier if you're sitting in your mom and dads basement.
- angers, on 11/14/2009, -1/+17Lesson learned. If I ever get an interview with Google, I'm taking out my calculator. =P
- LordVance, on 11/14/2009, -0/+16Everyone seems to be missing the point of the questions; they aren't trying to see who gets it right and who gets it wrong. They want to see how you would work your way through a question like that. It is clear that whatever answer you come to has to be based on an initial assumption that has a snowballs chance in hell of being correct. The idea is whether your initial assumption is orders of magnitude off of the correct answer, and then how you would use that initial assumption to find the answer.
The answer itself is irrelevant. - Prodigy1990, on 11/15/2009, -0/+13^^ thats why he doesnt work for google.
- concusion, on 11/14/2009, -3/+15exactly, how is anyone supposed to guess how many ads gmail makes
but 1/4 click rate is very high.
but i agree Google probably misses great employees with this method of interviewing - KibibyteBrain, on 11/14/2009, -6/+18If you can't instantly multiply 10*20*5 in your head nearly instantly, maybe you shouldn't work for a F500 company in a salaried position.
- blackinthmiddle, on 11/14/2009, -2/+14Well obviously you don't have to guess with the math question that asks how many people are needed to generate $20. For the, "How much money do you think google makes daily from gmail ads" question, I would have simply thought, ok, they probably make the vast majority of their money from ads. It has to be in the billions. To make the math easy, I would have just guessed they made $12 billion a year from ad revenue, then did a rough division in my head to get to about $30 million a day. I have no idea if this is right.
Obviously if you actually knew how much they made per year from ad revenue, you could look like a genius answering the question. But it's basic arithmetic once you actually know the numbers. To me, they couldn't care less that you could do basic math. They're either trying to see if you can figure out orders of magnitude (obviously, they're not making thousands per year from ad revenue; it would have to be at least 100 of millions and more likely billions of dollars) or they want to know that you actually read up on how much they make per year. The latter is not impressive because again, once you know, it's just math. I will say this much; as much as I sympathized with the girl, you have to admit that her answer of $70K was just flat out horrible! Does she really think that google only makes $25 million per year from ad revenue? Considering google makes the vast majority of it's money from ad revenue, is she saying that google makes about as much money as A-Rod? I understand she was nervous as *****, but it didn't make her look good.
Finally, that female interviewer seemed like a real bitch. People are desperate for work nowadays. A little compassion goes a long way. Sounds like she needs someone to give her a good *****! - gameboyhippo, on 11/14/2009, -2/+13What!? Digg is siding with someone who lacks the math skills to work for Google? I mean, give me a break. If you're going to work for Google, you should know basic math! I would have jotted down some numbers on the notepad that would have been in my hand during the interview and calculated the answer. I would never hire someone who couldn't come up with the answer to that last question.
- rcflyr, on 11/14/2009, -0/+11While you can cheat, they stated at the beginning of my interview that you cannot use a computer during the interview.
- crocodilexp, on 11/15/2009, -0/+10She failed in so many ways:
- On the ad revenue question, she threw a guesstimate first, and then tried after-the-fact to go through logical steps to justify the guess (instead of going the other way). I bet they don't appreciate that sort of thinking.
- Estimated users click on 1/4 of the e-mail ads shown. The interviewer admits he "lost her" there, and I see why. The estimate is order-of-magnitude off (and if that's her own rate, she's easily distracted).
- Failed a simple (20/0.10)*20% math problem after taking 5 minutes on it. I can see how someone can get stuck on a simple question given the pressure, but she did not manage to get back on track. - crocodilexp, on 11/15/2009, -1/+10The math question was "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?"
$20 / 0.10 = 200 clicks * 20/100 clicks/visitor = 1000 visitors.
This is not math, this is 2nd grade arithmetic. The girl took *5 minutes* and did not answer this. Now, I understand stress and an expectation that questions would be more difficult. However, if she cannot handle this she's barely qualified to be a cashier let alone work for Google.
The other question she failed was about ad revenue. She goes through the right motions, but estimates that a Gmail user would click on 1/4 of the ads shown. That guess is way out of the ballpark. Does she click on 1/4 of the ads while reading e-mail? If so, I'd surely *not* be hiring her, way too easily distracted...
She comes across as a smooth-talking MBA with zero hard skills, and a whiny spoiled brat too. - HonoredMule, on 11/14/2009, -0/+9A job that needs to test candidates' abilities under pressure is a job that will regularly /put/ employees under pressure, and probably isn't desirable nor worth the remuneration.
- hollywoodphony, on 11/14/2009, -2/+11"Don't conform to traditional thinking by conforming to our way of thinking."
- diggbigwig, on 11/14/2009, -2/+10Failed the interview, huh? Let it go and cheer up little fella, it'll be okay.
- Dundaman, on 11/14/2009, -1/+9what is stopping you?
- valarking, on 11/15/2009, -0/+8An advertiser for MS who can't pick up on obvious implied meanings?
Sure... -
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