Google Can’t Google?
Last year Google tried to convince me to join their ranks. I had a nice trip to Mountain View, a pleasant day of interviews, and a glimpse inside of their campus. All pretty cool. I ended up shutting down the process between the “we really want to hire you” and the “here’s the offer” phases, for any number of reasons that I won’t get in to tonight. Ok, just one of them. They were almost ready to make the “can’t refuse” offer but the process became bogged down when I couldn’t recall my college GPA. Given that I earned my degree in 1985 and have been earning a living by writing code since I was 15 or 16, this didn’t seem all that essential.
Funny thing is, I now have several more emails in my inbox from other Google recruiters. After reading these emails it appears that they don’t know that I interviewed there last year! Perhaps they don’t have this data in searchable form. Could that be?
The most recent email was actually kind of entertaining. I’m sure that its not proprietary, so I’ll share the best part with you:
So, before this amazingly comprehensive phone interview I am supposed to study the technical, competitive, and business aspects of their searching, mapping, blog searching, blogging, calendaring, document storage, finance, groups, social networking, and feed reading products.
Sure, and after I have done this and they invite me down, will they expect me to create dark matter from stuff found in the supply rooms, or to invent a unified field theory while standing at a whiteboard? Maybe I can do all of this while balancing on a Segway and sipping an Odwalla, just to make it challenging.
Strange.
[...] Google hiring funniness Jeff Barr is an evangelist at Amazon on its Web Services team. He’s getting some funky recruiting email, says that the recruiters don’t have a good database of who has interviewed there before. Doesn’t make one confident that they have their act together when it comes to hiring “Googly” people. Personally I think it’s funny when recruiters don’t use their own search engines and when they put up artificial blocks to try to filter idiots out. Anyone who does an hour’s worth of research with a search engine, like, say, Google’s, knows that Jeff is worth hiring and isn’t worth treating with a bit of the usual filtering bulls##t. Either hire him, or leave him alone. I also wouldn’t let newbie recruiters even get close to anyone who has a blog — I’d make sure that bloggers get handled by a real pro, not the amateur hour kind of hiring folks that are pitching Jeff currently. [...]
Pingback by Google hiring funniness « Scobleizer — 5/22/2007 @ 10:51 pm
I’m still in love with the Google Labs Aptitude Test.
http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/001031.html
Ali
Comment by Ali — 5/23/2007 @ 1:28 am
Passive candidate sourcing is nonsense and a waste of resources. There are many talented people out there that aren’t in the roles they want to be - dating all the way back to 9/11 - so recruiters need to look at top education and competencies. This takes management engagement.
I’m looking for full time management roles, preferably in mobile search. I’ve worked in technology intense companies that transformed industries and am hungry to do it again.
My bio is on my blog. My many endorsements are on Linkedin.
Comment by David Dalka — 5/23/2007 @ 3:49 am
Have you seen the “tips” Amazon suggests to prepare for an interview? The list of things to do to is equally comprehensive (if that’s the word you want to use to describe them).
Comment by Not Looking For a Job — 5/23/2007 @ 5:09 am
They’ve been doing the same thing to me for more than a year. I would politely decline the offer of an interview, then a few months later they’d spam me again. The last time they contacted me, they left a comment on my site. I had to explain to them that while I admire all the great things Google does, it wasn’t appealing to go from being Chief Technologist at a small company I love (Clear Ink) to being a lowly software engineer at Google, adding at least two hours a day to my commute to boot. It was as if they had no context at all on who I am.
Comment by Leon Atkinson — 5/23/2007 @ 7:08 am
[...] I just commented on Jeff Barr’s blog about how Google has clueless recruiters. [...]
Pingback by Leon Atkinson » Blog Archive » Jeff Barr on Google Recruiter Spam — 5/23/2007 @ 7:11 am
I have a friend I hooked into an interview at Google about two years ago, and the sheer cluelessness of the process was really frustrating. The job description changed while she was interviewing, and they couldn’t keep track of whether she was still in consideration, and they really didn’t even understand the industry they were trying to hire her into (not search).
Comment by Glenn Fleishman — 5/23/2007 @ 7:41 am
I had the same impression of cluelessness when I interviewed with them. I got calls and interviews from them 3 different time and twice by the same recruiter who apparently forgot he spoke to me already just months back!
Comment by Thomas Han — 5/23/2007 @ 8:31 am
http://kentsimperative.blogspot.com/2007/05/hr-woes-in-outside-world.html
We are personally aware of the case of one very talented, exceptionally qualified intelligence professional (with technological specialization in some areas Google was rapidly seeking to expand into), who liked the idea of trading in all of the black world for sunny California instead. This individual, whose particular expertise and background was more than simply unique, found out that the schizophrenia of the Googleplex ….
Comment by Kents Imperative — 5/23/2007 @ 9:04 am
Jeff,
Great post, and one that I can understand completely. I interviewed with Google 2 years ago, received an offer, then I turned it down. Since that time, several Google recruiters have contacted me, and one very famous Amazonian-turned-Googler contacts me occasionally (you know who I’m talking about here) to let me know that the bridge has not been burned. Interesting stuff.
Comment by Pete Abilla — 5/23/2007 @ 9:20 am
My favorite is I received an email from a recruiter, he asked if he could call at time X, he never called, and then sent an email four days later pointing me to their career page. Thanks!!
No wonder this is how they recruit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artificialignorance/508004186/
Comment by Jeremy Pepper — 5/23/2007 @ 9:21 am
ROFL.
I get asked all the time if we’ll sell out to [insert big company here]. When “big company” = Google, I always laugh at the question and reply “Well, I’m a college dropout, so they’d probably pay a ton of money for my company and then promptly fire me since my GPA isn’t up to snuff.” :)
Comment by Don MacAskill — 5/23/2007 @ 9:32 am
[...] Today, he notes how the company seeking to organize the worlds information is actually a little disorganized in their approach to recruiting the web services equivalent of what Bon Jovi was to the leather pants and hairspray industries in the 80s. …Funny thing is, [after turning down an offer from Google last year] I now have several more emails in my inbox from other Google recruiters. After reading these emails it appears that they don’t know that I interviewed there last year! Perhaps they don’t have this data in searchable form. Could that be? [...]
Pingback by Utah Tech Jobs : Blog Archive : Oops. We don’t know you as well as we wish we did — 5/23/2007 @ 9:39 am
[...] Jeff Barr posts about his experience with Google’s recruiters: [...]
Pingback by Jeff Barr’s Google Recruiting Driveby : Venture Chronicles — 5/23/2007 @ 11:03 am
I went through the process a couple of years back, wasted almost 6 months until I was told they WOULD LOVE TO hire me, but not for the role I was interviewing for. Over those 6 months, during every single interview I mentioned the fact that I was really only interested in the specific role we were discussing.
I too had a recruiter call me back a few weeks ago, who hadn’t even bothered to google me to see if anything in my life had changed in the interim…
Comment by Jeremy Toeman — 5/23/2007 @ 1:00 pm
A lot of the google recruiters I have been contacted by are individuals who have their own recruiting companies (don’t officially work for google) and have their own google email address to say “no, really, we work for google.
I don’t know how much access they have to each others’ works and how much they all share with google anyway. They also appear to me to be disconnected from each other when they contact me.
Comment by emad — 5/23/2007 @ 1:20 pm
I’m still a bit shocked they wanted your GPA from 20 years ago. A somewhat more rational hiring process would probably recognize that is no longer a very useful indicator of much of anything, given the amount of time that has passed. Sounds like a holdover from their fresh-out-of-Stanford mindset.
Reminds me of when I put in an application for some government work, and they default asked for my high school (!!) transcripts (reading off whatever checklist they had). I replied “ah, I have bachelors and masters degrees.” They promptly shelved the request. :)
Comment by Kevin Briody — 5/23/2007 @ 1:28 pm
[...] Jeff Barr from Amazon relates and entertaining story about some interview experiences he’s had with Google, and I found this bit rather funny: They were almost ready to make the “can’t refuse” offer but the process became bogged down when I couldn’t recall my college GPA. Given that I earned my degree in 1985 and have been earning a living by writing code since I was 15 or 16, this didn’t seem all that essential. [...]
Pingback by Recruiting Oddness | seattleduck — 5/23/2007 @ 1:36 pm
That’s nothing. For one job I was computer-tested twice and interviewed twice by four people at three different locations, on different days. What a waste of gas.
Comment by PJ at Ferodynamics — 5/23/2007 @ 1:46 pm
Hey money hides all. Google makes a lot of people a lot of money. So people tolerate their “evil” and their silliness. Once the money dries up (or at least growth), then watch out for the scandals and reality behind the scenes (already started happening with Schmidt’s $1 salary and $500K security budget, Brin’s wife getting google investment, etc…).
Oh and did you realize the founder of YouTube was married/engaged to Jim Clark’s daughter and investors for YouTube and Google are similar? Google is not magic, just money.
Comment by Googly Eyed — 5/23/2007 @ 1:48 pm
I’ve also had multiple recruiters from Google contact me and not realize that I’d had various discussions with other Grecruiters.
Very odd.
Amazon and/or A9 seem much better organized about this. They call/email like clockwork and always seem to know about previous discussions.
Comment by Jeremy Zawodny — 5/23/2007 @ 2:30 pm
I had an interview with someone named Rajiv who was in charge of Ad Agency Relationships. The guy was a moron. He couldn’t answer basic questions about how an agency is structured. He had been a banker before taking the position… probably had a great GPA but didn’t know the first thing about the real world.
Comment by George Farina — 5/23/2007 @ 3:40 pm
[...] Source: Jeff Barr’s Blog Author: Jeff Barr Link: http://www.jeff-barr.com/?p=1047 Techmeme permalink [...]
Pingback by BlogNerds.com | Tech Blog | Tech News » Google Can’t Google? - Last year Google tried to convince me to join their ranks. (Jeff Barr/Jeff Barr’s Blog) — 5/23/2007 @ 3:47 pm
I guess the 2 events happened in the same Map pass before Reduce had time to start. Or did your first negative answer had a Pragma: no-cache header?
The internal talks I give at Google about API Evangelism usually have a slide about you as a good role model.
You’ll always been welcome at the Googleplex to chat about APIs while sipping an Odwalla:-)
P@
Comment by Patrick Chanezon — 5/23/2007 @ 3:57 pm
A friend recently got a Google recruitment email. I think they’ve taken the carpet bombing approach to recruiting lately.
Comment by Eliot — 5/23/2007 @ 4:00 pm
Heh, I’d rather work for Yahoo! than Google any day. Funny how much hype there is around getting a job at GOOG.. trying to recall who else had that hype. Netscape I know, not sure about Apple.
Comment by Eric Rice — 5/23/2007 @ 5:00 pm
I am a technology manager and was clear upfront that I am no longer a hands on programmer. Every person I spoke with I explained that these days, I manage programmers, but don’t do any programming myself. I spoke with 7 people and 7 times I declared that I don’t program any longer. They kept pushing me through the process and then I heard nothing for a few weeks. I called the recruiter back to check where things were and was told: “We decided to pass since you were not a programmer”. Sheesh, couldn’t we have figured that out 3 months and 7 conversations ago?…big waste of time. BTW, with 10,000+ employees, don’t you think they need a manager or two?
Comment by Not a Programmer — 5/23/2007 @ 5:01 pm
Anyone who would work at GOOG today is either a) terribly afraid of risk, b) likes insanity, or c) has no other options.
There are SOO many better things one can do with their energy and SOO many better companies offering upside financial potential.
Comment by John B — 5/23/2007 @ 5:32 pm
Hey, I can do you one better. I used to work at Google, then quit, and then a year later got a cold email from a recruiter. No reply, of course, when I wrote back. I imagine they outsource a lot of recruiting, probably hard to keep all the contacts straight.
Comment by Nelson Minar — 5/23/2007 @ 6:53 pm
I’d rather hire someone who earned their way and respects customers…regardless of GPA, school name or degree at all. Really? does it matter? Smart people are everywhere, I don’t even claim my MBA anymore as most are jerks who don’t respect customers, don’t really understand the development process and are often delusional. Jeff…keep up the good work, you are making a difference.
Comment by David Armstrong — 5/23/2007 @ 7:57 pm
How to recruit, by degree (PhD, a must), Google test, innovative ideas. or by Programming skills. Can a guy like Bill Gates with no degree be recruited.
Comment by DigitalGuru — 5/23/2007 @ 10:51 pm
They keep trying to hire me but I keep telling them it would be better to just acquire my company :)
Comment by Kevin Burton — 5/24/2007 @ 12:47 am
[...] ??Google?????????????????Google??????????????????????????????????????????Google??????????? ????????????????????Google?????????????????????Google??????????blog????? ???????Amazon??????????Google????????????????????????Google??????????? ????????????Google??????????????????????????Jeff Barr?Amazon.com ??????????Google???????????Amazon????Jeff?Google???????????????????????? ?Google?????????????Google Campus??????????????????Jeff???Google??????????????????????? [...]
Pingback by MY SNG LIFE ?????: Blog Archive : Amazon??????Google????? — 5/24/2007 @ 1:26 am
But what about the free food!!! Ha,Ha!
Patty Zambrano
Comment by Patty Zambrano — 5/24/2007 @ 5:07 am
[...] I got two emails on Tuesday from Google. Seems like Jeff Barr, whom I know a little bit got similar recruiting emails. Coincidence that all of this happened on Tuesday? [...]
Pingback by Was Tuesday Google hiring day? | clock — watching time, the only true currency — 5/24/2007 @ 5:28 am
[...] Jeff Barr recalls the interview process he went through with Google - he didn’t join - and shares an email from a Google recruiter, outlining the laundry list of steps you need to do, just for the phone interview! In preparation for your phone interview: [...]
Pingback by Want a Job at Google? Why You May Not Make it Past the Phone Interview | Marketing Pilgrim — 5/24/2007 @ 5:40 am
I could almost write a book about my experiences with Google recruitment. I was contacted, raved over, told I was “perfect”, then silence for three weeks until I contacted them. They said, “Oh, I thought I’d contacted you!” and explained they were considering someone else now and would I be interested in a different position? Said I was, but then that fell through for reasons which were “confidential”. Then they contacted me again out of the blue six months later and asked if I still wanted the first job, but clearly weren’t pleased when I couldn’t remember the finer details of the ‘test’ they’d given me to complete six months earlier! Like what the answer to Question B on Page 2 was… anyway, I’ll stop ranting but it was by far the most bizarre, stressful and poorly-handled recruitment process I’d ever seen. Best company to work for? I doubt it.
Comment by Rich Minx — 5/24/2007 @ 6:14 am
[...] Seems one recent Google recruit, Jeff Barr, is a little miffed at the recruitment process at Google. According to Jeff… “…they were almost ready to make the “can’t refuse” offer but the process became bogged down when I couldn’t recall my college GPA. Given that I earned my degree in 1985 and have been earning a living by writing code since I was 15 or 16, this didn’t seem all that essential.” [...]
Pingback by The Human Capitalist » Confessions of a Google Recruit — 5/24/2007 @ 6:25 am
Google is far too concerned with such relatively minor trappings as GPA and particular schools when it comes to people with real world experience. I personally know of more than one very talented person with years of experience that Google won’t give the time of day to once it finds out the schools they attended. It will cost Google in the long run and I think it’s already starting to show.
Comment by Been There — 5/24/2007 @ 7:21 am
Is there anyone who hasn’t been contacted by Google?
A friend of mine started working there recently and was asked to provide the names of five people he thought were talented. He gave my name, and sure enough, I got a call from a completely clueless recruiter who had no idea why he was calling me, other than that my name was on the list. At one point he said ‘I’m looking at your website, but I can’t really figure out what you do’.
He then tried to shoe-horn me into a product manager role, before asking me to send him my CV. I laughed. I haven’t given out a CV for at least seven years, and I’m not about to start now. If they want me for the skills and knowledge I have, then that’s one thing. If they just want a bum on a seat, I’m not interested.
Comment by Suw — 5/24/2007 @ 9:16 am
I got contacted by a recruitment firm last year looking for SEO talent. I told her that the only way she’d tempt me back into the formal and fulltime workforce was with a job offer from Google, Amazon etc. She squealed and said “Oh it says here they’re with Google”. I took the time to explain what the job description (that I hadn’t seen) probably said and what it meant in plain english. I was right. She promised to come back to me when Google start using her as their recruiter.
I guess recruiters have a specific set of skills - and the job they’re recruiting for isn’t in there ;)
Comment by Sarah — 5/24/2007 @ 1:40 pm
It sounds like Google is so optimized to hire fresh graduates who are ready to swap college campus life for corporate campus life that they have no idea how to hire someone with an “off-campus” life.
Comment by eas — 5/24/2007 @ 3:07 pm
[...] Amazon Evangelist Turned Down By Google Because He Forgot His College GPA Amazon Evangelist Turned Down By Google Because He Forgot His College GPA “Last year Google tried to convince me to join their ranks. I had a nice trip to Mountain View, a pleasant day of interviews, and a glimpse inside of their campus. All pretty cool. I ended up shutting down the process between the “we really want to hire you” and the “here’s the offer” phases.” - Jeff Barr, Amazon Web Services Evangelist[news] [technology] [amazon] [industry news] [...]
Pingback by Amazon Evangelist Turned Down By Google Because He Forgot His College GPA « Tons of Fresh News — 5/24/2007 @ 11:40 pm
Nice story. In fact the first of its kind which talks about evils of Google’s selection process. Why do you need to callback SSC marks when you have already impressed them with your tech skills - that’s what they were looking for before calling you.
Comment by Nitesh Gautam — 5/25/2007 @ 2:16 am
[...] I came across this comment (yup, Sometimes, I go that deep in comments) over one of the random jumps which went like - [...]
Pingback by Do you need Resume | Net 2.0 — 5/25/2007 @ 1:20 pm
I had back-to-back phone interviews with the Director of Business Development followed by the Business Development Director. When I asked one how his job was different from the other, half the conversation was wasted on tracking down the coordinator who gave out his title incorrectly.
Comment by Ian Kennedy — 5/25/2007 @ 2:00 pm
There will come a day when the music will stop for Google and there will be more people than chairs left. You need look no further than Microsoft if you want evidence.
When the euphoria dies down and Adwords and Adsense run their natural course, Google will need just as many talented sales and marketing folks to get deals done, think laterally about JV’s, find solutions to the clients problems and ultimately keep going when the technical folks want to stop.
Business is about balance and the danger with stacking the deck full of wonderfully talented super geeks who can code and who have the “right” academic qualifications with impressive GPA’s is that you will always need people who can sell what they design and build.
There are just some things that you cant teach at University, no matter how hard. Tom Peters definition of an MBA is Profit = Revenue minus costs. Thats it. Period. Ok, this might be a slightly cynical perspective, but my fear is that Google is way too influenced by a score on a piece of paper.
I had the privilege of visiting the Googleplex this week and while I was in awe of what they have achieved, knew that it was no place for me to work given my lack of academic qualifications and the fact that I am a simple sales and marketing guy.
Comment by Simon Chen — 5/25/2007 @ 4:24 pm
[...] The reported cluelessness of Google’s interview process compares quite badly with the brilliance of Microsoft’s, who really don’t fool around when hiring people. Expectations! [...]
Pingback by Peter Van Dijck’s Guide to Ease » Blog Archive — 5/25/2007 @ 6:57 pm
Want to get hired by Google ? Think Again……
Just found a nice and interesting post related to how Google recruiters do their jobs when decide to hire someone.Of course there will be a lot of you that can come and tell success stories too, but I think this one is says a lot about the new face of…
Trackback by Alexa's blog - Project management, Php Programming, Security, News and other cool stuff. — 5/26/2007 @ 1:35 am
[...] Via Paul Kedrosky, I find a Jeff Barr post on Google recruiters who don’t know their candidates’ previous history with Google. I think this happens with everyone. I went through the interview process with Google and was eventually turned down; a few weeks later, a recruiter called me about a position at Google with the exact same title… [...]
Pingback by yardley.ca / dash » Yeah, me too. — 5/26/2007 @ 9:44 am
“Heh, I’d rather work for Yahoo! than Google any day.”
That has got to be the most retarded thing I read all year.
Comment by Davan Welles — 5/26/2007 @ 10:13 am
Is Amazon.com any better? The recruiters may be more organized, but isn’t Amazon infested with the D.E. Shaw, “my SATs are better than yours” attitude? Could someone get an offer without disclosing their SATs/college GPA?
Comment by Another Jeff — 5/27/2007 @ 2:06 pm
Investment banks are better at hiring people than Google? Wow.
Comment by Bipit — 5/27/2007 @ 11:01 pm
[...] Not all is rosy though for some potential recruits - as told here by Jeff Barr. [...]
Pingback by Eight Black » Blog Archive » In The War For Talent, Google Leads The Way. — 5/28/2007 @ 1:05 am
[...] In Google Hiring Funniness, Robert Scoble writes about a highly-regarded candidate that Google was chasing: Jeff Barr is an evangelist at Amazon on its Web Services team. He’s getting some funky recruiting email, says that the recruiters don’t have a good database of who has interviewed there before. Doesn’t make one confident that they have their act together when it comes to hiring “Googly” people. [...]
Pingback by Keep Track of Who You Interviewed at KnowHR Blog — 5/29/2007 @ 2:44 am
After reading this, now I am not surprised or feel too bad about my experience with Google’s hiring process… I interviewed with them in last December, and it lasted through January. In February, their recruiter told me that they were done with my interview. In March she told me that they were working on my offer. In April their “big boss” told me that they were very close to make an offer. In May, the boss told me that they were “ready to make the offer”. Now it’s June, and I still have not hear the offer, or decline, for that matter. Sometime I do wonder, if it takes more than 6 months to hire someone, how can they maintain agility in their business. Or, is it because the one who has the final say on hiring, is constantly changing his/her mind of whether to bring someone on board? Anyway, it’s almost a surreal experience. I am very disappointed.
Comment by Terry Lu — 5/30/2007 @ 4:52 am
I think Google interview completely sucked. They don’t distinguish the interview process for a devloper from a tech manager, it is striking they asked the same questions for both developer and manager and they treat tech manager as a code monkey as well. I don’t like SteveB, but he said something I completely agree: how the heck a random collection of people doing their own things will generate value? Google is stil a young company, its current success doesn’t guarantee anything in the future. Google is getting very arrogant now.
Comment by GoogSuck — 5/30/2007 @ 8:32 am
[...] Philly sheds light on the part of the Google hiring process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders Published May 31st, 2007 customer service Apropos of Mr. Jeff Barr’s experience with Google, I too found Google rather GPA-centric. I was directed to a position in their advertising department by a family friend for an entry-level AdWords position (as I was going to be fresh out of college). A day later I was contacted by the recruiter and followed that up with a phone interview (presumably to make sure I wasn’t a weirdo/psycho/anti-”fun!” person)… [...]
Pingback by Philly sheds light on the part of the Google hiring process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders « the empirical skeptic — 5/31/2007 @ 9:10 am
[...] Philly sheds light on the part of the Google hiring process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders Published May 31st, 2007 customer service Apropos of Mr. Jeff Barr’s experience with Google, I too found Google rather GPA-centric. I was directed to a position in their advertising department by a friend for an entry-level AdWords position (as I was going to be fresh out of college). A day later I was contacted by the recruiter and followed that up with a phone interview (presumably to make sure I wasn’t a weirdo/psycho/anti-”fun!” person)… [...]
Pingback by Philly sheds light on the part of the Google hiring process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders « the empirical skeptic — 5/31/2007 @ 7:03 pm
[...] Apropos of Mr. Jeff Barr’s experience with Google, I too found Google rather GPA-centric. I was directed to a position in their advertising department by a friend for an entry-level AdWords position (as I was going to be fresh out of college). A day later I was contacted by the recruiter and followed that up with a phone interview (presumably to make sure I wasn’t a weirdo/psycho/anti-”fun!” person)… [...]
Pingback by Introducing, the part of the Google hiring process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders « the empirical skeptic — 5/31/2007 @ 8:18 pm
[...] Apropos of Mr. Jeff Barr’s experience with Google, I too found Google rather GPA-centric. I was directed to a position in their advertising department by a friend for an entry-level AdWords position. A day later I was contacted by the recruiter and followed that up with a phone interview (presumably to make sure I wasn’t a weirdo/psycho/anti-”fun!” person)… [...]
Pingback by Introducing, the part of the Google hiring process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders « the empirical skeptic — 6/1/2007 @ 4:53 pm
I cannot believe the narcissism and arrogance displayed in some of these postings. What’s with the gratuitous insults? Generally, anyone who is so bitter about an experience has had their EGO hurt. So they didn’t roll out the red carpet and set up an entire entourage just for you? Awwwwww… poor babies! No company is perfect. Get over it. I really would like to be able to say to some of you guys, “Just be glad you have a paycheck.” But — this is America, after all, land of the overweight, Big Mac eating, George W. Supporter. Oh well…..
Comment by Passive Observer — 6/2/2007 @ 6:55 pm
Does anyone know of a Google recruiter for content/marketing/editorial positions? I would think that especially in light of the YouTube addition, they would have recruiters in this area. Despite my qualifications “impressing” other big companies, I can’t get an indication of whether or not Google is even interested… I’ve been in touch with a very personable IT recruiter, but he says he doesn’t have contact with any potential content/marketing/editorial recruiters. Is he just blowing me off or what? Does anyone know of a contact? You can email me at me@jenniferneeley.com. Any (non-hostile please!) thoughts are much appreciated :) Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Comment by Jennifer — 6/4/2007 @ 12:52 pm
I am going thru the preliminary Google Recruitment process…I was just asked for my GPAs from college and grad school (30 years ago…)
I don’t think I’ve actually ever been asked for my GPA before in all these years!
What a turnoff. “Oh, it’s a very important part of our process…and we can’t proceed without it.”
And this from Stanford guys, inventors of the “A,B,C, no Credit” grading system?
Comment by Eric — 6/6/2007 @ 7:45 pm
[...] Apropos of Mr. Jeff Barr’s experience with Google, I too found Google rather GPA-centric. I was directed to a position in their advertising department by a friend for an entry-level AdWords position. A day later I was contacted by the recruiter and followed that up with a phone interview (presumably to make sure I wasn’t a weirdo/psycho/anti-”fun!” person)… [...]
Pingback by Hiring at Google, the process that doesn’t involve marrying one of the founders « the empirical skeptic — 6/9/2007 @ 1:57 pm
[...] you just stumble on a gem. At Jeff Barr’s Blog, we are enlightened to discover that Google is interested in hiring Jeff. They want Jeff. They have [...]
Pingback by boojies » Google's Recruiting Practices — 6/24/2007 @ 1:14 am
Despite all the negative expereinces, can anyone hook me up with a Google recruiter? I have great GPAs! You can email me at susancampbell07@gmail.com. Thanks!
Comment by Susan — 6/30/2007 @ 8:23 am
Do you have a actual contact number or email address for a google recruiter? I would like to contact them directly. Thank you.
Comment by Aline — 7/22/2007 @ 8:14 am
What is quite interesting is this post appears to be top most search result in http://www.live.com ( search word : google interview process )
:)
Comment by Vasu — 8/19/2007 @ 8:02 pm
I’ve recently been contacted by a google recruiter and am going through the first steps. Hopefully i’ll have better luck than the bitter individuals here! :) My grades/gpa are not as high as most, however they need to realize that geniuses don’t care about grades ;p
Comment by Random Passerby — 11/1/2007 @ 6:22 pm
Boy am I glad I didn’t get that job as a Recruiter in Google!
Comment by Noel — 11/14/2007 @ 7:21 am
I been there too… Seven interviews with Google to be turned down in favor of “someone” with more “management experience”. The whole process took over 6 months and the funny thing was that 99% of the time spent in interviews was about technical stuff (operations) and not management; even though the role has a managerial part. The most weird thing is that the position - two months after they turned me down - is still available on their web site. It sounds to me that they just want to drive people mad and give Yahoo some more customers :)
Comment by John Boy — 12/10/2007 @ 7:07 pm
It proves how thier recruiting methods do not work. I do not think they know how to identify exceptional talent. Even when it is clearly articulated and demonstrated. GPA 3.6, Top 5 in my class at WIT.
I especially enjoyed the post from Eric — 6/6/2007 @ 7:45 pm
Comment by Rich — 12/12/2007 @ 5:11 am
It proves how thier recruiting methods do not work. I do not think they know how to identify exceptional talent. Even when it is clearly articulated and demonstrated. GPA 3.6, Top 5 in my class at WIT
Comment by ?? — 12/21/2007 @ 7:39 pm
[...] Jeff Barr from Amazon relates and entertaining story about some interview experiences he’s had with Google, and I found this bit rather funny: They were almost ready to make the “can’t refuse†offer but the process became bogged down when I couldn’t recall my college GPA. Given that I earned my degree in 1985 and have been earning a living by writing code since I was 15 or 16, this didn’t seem all that essential. [...]
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