Google May Try To Recruit You For a Job Based On Your Search Queries 182
HughPickens.com writes: If Google sees that you're searching for specific programming terms, they may ask you to apply for a job as Max Rossett writes that three months ago while working on a project, he Googled "python lambda function list comprehension." The familiar blue links appeared on the search page, and he started to look for the most relevant one. But then something unusual happened. The search results split and folded back to reveal a box that said "You're speaking our language. Up for a challenge?" Clicking on the link took Rossett to a page called "foo.bar" that outlined a programming challenge and gave instructions on how to submit his solution. "I had 48 hours to solve it, and the timer was ticking," writes Rossett. "I had the option to code in Python or Java. I set to work and solved the first problem in a couple hours. Each time I submitted a solution, foo.bar tested my code against five hidden test cases."
After solving another five problems the page gave Rossett the option to submit his contact information and much to his surprise, a recruiter emailed him a couple days later asking for a copy of his resume. Three months after the mysterious invitation appeared, Rossett started at Google. Apparently Google has been using this recruiting tactic for some time.
After solving another five problems the page gave Rossett the option to submit his contact information and much to his surprise, a recruiter emailed him a couple days later asking for a copy of his resume. Three months after the mysterious invitation appeared, Rossett started at Google. Apparently Google has been using this recruiting tactic for some time.
Google may try....lots of things (Score:2)
too cool for google (Score:5, Funny)
My queries in the past few years have never triggered that, so google must not have interest in say advanced compiler theory, aspect oriented extensions to scripting languages, atomicity and failure recovery for clustered filesystem design.....google you're too lame for me I guess
Re:too cool for google (Score:5, Funny)
Re:too cool for google (Score:5, Insightful)
Silly, you need to be hitting google.co.jp when you do that, and using kanji
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Meh. I'm sure they use some kind of machine learning algorithm, and especially given the relatively small number of examples they have available to train such an algorithm, it's probably not terribly accurate so that they only let through the people whose queries are matched very strongly. After all, for privacy (and practicality) reasons they can't very well have a person actually look at the queries.
tl;dr: The algorithm probably misses lots of people who Google would otherwise consider good candidates.
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Says the AC.
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not at all, I have a good job already, thanks. hence the cool searches
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So why can't you afford a proper keyboard?
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Don't confuse laziness for poverty
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They probably also found a selfie you sent, automatically applied the latest AI image analysis techniques to it using a whole airplane hanger full of compute servers, and determined that you are not sufficiently, ahem, *equipped* to work at Google.
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Google has called me for positions in which I have no interest
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No, but they have found mine and called my phone on three separate occasions. I had no interest in either the positions or locations for which they were seeking candidates.
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You wanted to be a high priced call girl? Performance counts as much as looks for that occupation, and in person interview is the only way such is secured
I just tried it (Score:5, Funny)
I searched for "C# DataGridView Windows Forms ADO.NET"
Google gave me a sidebar that said, "You might have better luck searching with Bing!"
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Yeah, Bing only excels at one thing: searching for porn. No other search engine even comes close.
For anything else, Bing is the worst choice.
Optimizing for technical over people skills (Score:1)
Re:Optimizing for technical over people skills (Score:4, Insightful)
over time they will have tons of brilliant engineers that can solve puzzles but can't work with other people or understand user's problems.
I have been an engineer for 30 years, have managed to meet only a handful that are actually brilliant, none of them have had any inkling of being bad at working with other people or understanding user's problem. In fact, their social skills were about where their engineering skills were. Smart is smart. Stop believing childish myths.
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Um, I believe you're misreading his post. He appears to be asserting that the truly brilliant engineers he met also had excellent social skills.
Personally, I find this extremely hard to believe. Maybe for some other sectors of engineering, such as civil engineering, where being a lead engineer is really more of a project-management role, it would make sense, but not in software engineering. I've worked with plenty of software engineers (and also electrical engineers who did software), and I wouldn't say
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You got all of that from a guy getting a job offer from a search query?
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Google can only hope they have that problem. Right now they have social butterflies everywhere with just a few engineers who keep things afloat.
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Or just a way of getting stuff done for free.
Time investment (Score:4, Insightful)
I set to work and solved the first problem in a couple hours. Each time I submitted a solution, foo.bar tested my code against five hidden test cases." After solving another five problems the page gave Rossett the option to submit his contact information
Curious: what prompted Max Rossett to spend hours solving programming puzzles before being even given the opportunity to submit contact information for a job consideration?
Re:Time investment (Score:5, Interesting)
Curious: what prompted Max Rossett to spend hours solving programming puzzles before being even given the opportunity to submit contact information for a job consideration?
Maybe he thinks solving programming puzzles is fun. Some people actually enjoy exercising their brains.
Re:Time investment (Score:5, Funny)
And the rest of us post on Slashdot!
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What's it like hiding behind online fake names for 20 yrs. as a loser in life? That's symptomatic of losers, you know.
So what is not even logging in when you insult people symptomatic of? Do they have a name for your condition?
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Re:Time investment (Score:5, Insightful)
Curious: what prompted Max Rossett to spend hours solving programming puzzles before being even given the opportunity to submit contact information for a job consideration?
This may be news to you, but many people will take on a challenge just because it's a challenge like climbing a mountain only to climb back down. Particularly if you think it would impress someone you'd like to impress. And unless you think Google has an odd way of providing entertainment, it should be pretty obvious they want to find someone who can solve those puzzles. If a company is looking for your competence, well then add 2+2 (no, that won't qualify you for a position at Google) about what might come next. And if not a job offer, then probably some kind of PR stunt price. Whatever it is, would it be rational to think at the end of it all they're going to say "Hope you enjoyed the challenge, have a nice day!" and nothing more?
Re:Time investment (Score:5, Funny)
Ray, when Google asks you if you're up for a challenge, you say YES!
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That's dangerous. You may accidentally end up with a job at Google.
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Re:Time investment (Score:5, Funny)
Dude got nerd sniped. [xkcd.com] I wouldn't be able to resist. An interesting puzzle mysteriously shows up? Yes please. Basically how I got into programming and math in general.
Of course all they're going to get are people who aren't savvy enough to use ad/tracking blockers and duckduckgo...
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Dude got nerd sniped. [xkcd.com] I wouldn't be able to resist. An interesting puzzle mysteriously shows up? Yes please. Basically how I got into programming and math in general.
Of course all they're going to get are people who aren't savvy enough to use ad/tracking blockers and duckduckgo...
Heh. Google Foobar popped up for me last week. I blew two hours solving problems before I pulled myself away and got back to work.
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Dude got nerd sniped. [xkcd.com] I wouldn't be able to resist. An interesting puzzle mysteriously shows up? Yes please. Basically how I got into programming and math in general.
Of course all they're going to get are people who aren't savvy enough to use ad/tracking blockers and duckduckgo...
Speak for yourseelf. Somebody is monitoring your searches and evaluating you remotely like some lab rat in a glass cage. To me that is ceepy just like all other surveillance, nothing else, just creepy.
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Just fyi: everyone is watching and evaluating you all the time. Your neighbors notice you stumbling in at 2 am and wonder how your date went. Your mailman sees your copy of IEEE Spectrum and daydreams of asking you to chat with his nerdy nephew. Your garbage man hears the clink of bottles in your trash and guesses you're an alcoholic.
Like it or not, you *are* a rat in a glass cage. It's utterly impossible to live in modern society without leaking bits of your identity to the people around you. The ques
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I set to work and solved the first problem in a couple hours. Each time I submitted a solution, foo.bar tested my code against five hidden test cases." After solving another five problems the page gave Rossett the option to submit his contact information
Curious: what prompted Max Rossett to spend hours solving programming puzzles before being even given the opportunity to submit contact information for a job consideration?
The same thing that prompts people to spend hours solving Project Euler or Top Coder or similar puzzles, with absolutely no expectation of return beyond the joy and satisfaction they derive from solving the problems.
Whether or not the sort of person who does is what Google needs is an open question, but it's definitely the sort of person Google hires. The interview process is composed of a series of programming puzzles, and one of the things interviewers look for is people who not only handle that sort of
webp? (Score:2)
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webp is not a supported image file format for the Web.
When I clicked on it, Firefox offered up Chrome as the application to display it. Of course it did.
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I just upgraded the Picasa program on a customer's office computers. They use it to keep track of their patients (dentist office). After starting the install, the program mentions it can install the Picasa Image Viewer program, and associate common image files extensions to it. Of course jpg, gif, png, bmp were all listed, as well as webp, which I haven't heard of. On the computers with Chrome installed, that check box was blank,and next to it is listed (Chrome) as the program currently displaying it. So I
Re:webp? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes webp is a google creation. It's basically a single still frame from the vp8 video codec (as used by webm). Being based on modern techniques it gives a better quality for a given size (or smaller size for a given quality) than JPEG and if you have support for webm then implementing webp as well requires very little extra code.
However it has failed to catch on more widely. Afaict chrome is the only major browser that supports it. There is a bug requesting supporting in firefox but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. IE and safari seem even less likely to adopt it.
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Note that while it may sound ridiculously wasteful, it is an option to have unsupported browsers decode it with client-side javascript. There even are audio javascript decoders (or video decoders for that matter but hopefully those are toys for browser devs to play with)
Free lunches (Score:1)
The stole this from God (Score:2)
Same thing happened to me! (Score:5, Funny)
I searched for "How can I do evil after claiming that I will do no evil", and the search result was a job offer letter from Google.
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Great experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I got invited into Google Foobar last winter, pretty much an identical experience to what's written in the article. I love my job as a college physics professor, so I didn't go for the "recruitme" command when it appeared, but it was a really fun brain-stretcher. I got through eight of 'em before work caught up with me and I ran out of free time to work on a really hard one.
I won't spoil the puzzles, but they require working skills in discrete math, logic, data structures, algorithms, and cryptography, and the easiest ones are about at the limit of what I'd be comfortable asking an undergraduate to solve. They're all a lot of fun, in a nerd sniping kind of way. And I really liked that none of them relied on arcane knowledge of fiddly trivia, all it takes is high school math/CS and tons of brainpower.
Rumor has it the selection process happens through your Google search history over a long period of time, so you're not going to be able to just spam Python jargon at the search engine and get in tomorrow. But if you do get an invite, drop what you're doing and accept it!
I was really disappointed that when the semester ended and I had time to go back to Google Foobar, I was locked out. Sure, I failed a puzzle, so the rules say it's game over, but I'd really love to take a crack at more of them just for fun. Maybe someday I'll get another invite.
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Rumor has it the selection process happens through your Google search history over a long period of time, so you're not going to be able to just spam Python jargon at the search engine and get in tomorrow.
Do you keep yourself logged in with a google account when you search? I specifically try to avoid Google tracking my searches to the extent that I can control. This whole thing is kind of creepy to me, and I never ever log into a google account unless I'm in a VM, though I am sure there are still ways to track me.
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Yes, for everyday use. I've decided that protecting your privacy while working with a search engine is like maintaining anonymity with your pharmacist. The system makes it practically impossible, and there are some real advantages to the personalized help you can get by granting it your trust. Which isn't to say your trust should be blind: you should pick your pharmacist and your search engine carefully, and keep an eye out for weird
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Rumor has it the selection process happens through your Google search history over a long period of time, so you're not going to be able to just spam Python jargon at the search engine and get in tomorrow.
Do you keep yourself logged in with a google account when you search? I specifically try to avoid Google tracking my searches to the extent that I can control. This whole thing is kind of creepy to me, and I never ever log into a google account unless I'm in a VM, though I am sure there are still ways to track me.
Out of curiosity, what are you concerned that Google is going to do with your search history?
FWIW, my approach is that I stay logged in all the time, with web history enabled (so Chrome sends a log of every page I visit to Google for storage, not just my searches) and open an incognito window when I'm doing something I don't want recorded. I try not to do that much, though, because I get a lot of value from being able to search my own web history (web history allows you to search in all the stuff you've l
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Rumor has it the selection process happens through your Google search history over a long period of time, so you're not going to be able to just spam Python jargon at the search engine and get in tomorrow.
Do you keep yourself logged in with a google account when you search? I specifically try to avoid Google tracking my searches to the extent that I can control. This whole thing is kind of creepy to me, and I never ever log into a google account unless I'm in a VM, though I am sure there are still ways to track me.
Out of curiosity, what are you concerned that Google is going to do with your search history?
FWIW, my approach is that I stay logged in all the time, with web history enabled (so Chrome sends a log of every page I visit to Google for storage, not just my searches) and open an incognito window when I'm doing something I don't want recorded. I try not to do that much, though, because I get a lot of value from being able to search my own web history (web history allows you to search in all the stuff you've looked at, so when you find yourself thinking, "I know I read that on some site..." you can typically find it pretty easily).
While there probably is stuff that I'd rather not share with the world, I really have no concern about sharing it with Google, because no one is ever going to see it. Unless there's a warrant or a subpoena for my information, but that seems pretty unlikely, and even more unlikely that any warrant or subpoena wouldn't get more from my e-mail, bank records, etc.
In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I'm a Google employee, but this post really isn't about trying to convince you that you're wrong. I'm just curious.
It's not so much that I don't trust Google. It's just that I want control over what I trust to Google. That is a very difficult thing to manage. I trust Google no more or no less than any other standard corporation or government entity. The less they know about me, the better. And obviously Google is already using information it knows about users to make recruiting decisions so clearly they are using the data for more than just advertising.
Suppose that I use an Android phone and I have all my web brow
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I buy the "potential" issue. I have enough confidence in the leadership and the culture that I don't worry about it being abused in the near term, but eventually that could change. I actually do have a greater degree of trust in Google than I do other corporations or government agencies, though. I expect that's mostly because of the visibility I have as an employee.
The less they know about me, the better.
In the abstract I see that. But Google Now is useful... and I expect it to become vastly more useful. It's going to be interesting to see how th
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The NSA analysts at least in theory need permission to trawl through your data and there is theoretical oversight. After all, its' the government's data, not a private companies.
Also, if you accept Google's default hooks, Google knows far more about you than the NSA.
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The NSA analysts at least in theory need permission to trawl through your data and there is theoretical oversight. After all, its' the government's data, not a private companies.
Also, if you accept Google's default hooks, Google knows far more about you than the NSA.
See I run my own caldav and carddav servers to avoid sending that info to Google. Google knows my location due to my use of Google Maps, but the NSA already knows that too from their meta data collection. I also don't actually use my android phone anymore. The fact of the matter is, though, that someone has access to whatever data I don't have 100% control over myself. Whether that is my cell phone provider, the NSA, Apple, Google, Microsoft, or whoever, I can't keep that info from being available while
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Google knows my location due to my use of Google Maps
Google receives the map tile requests, etc., but if location history is turned off nothing about it is stored. I have no idea what your cell provider may store, though.
Again, I actually like the location history. I find it convenient to be able to look back and see where I was at a particular date and time. But it's under your control.
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Well, an individual person doesn't need to see it. If they're willing to use searches to send people job offers and ads, what else can they automate?
And what happens when Google has a breech or a bad setting. Remember when Google signed people up for G+,. and a lot of private data got exposed. Then a person will see it, because many eyes all looking at their friend's data.
I suppose if Google is beneficent, never
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Well, an individual person doesn't need to see it. If they're willing to use searches to send people job offers and ads, what else can they automate?
They can also remind you when it's time to leave for an appointment, and that you have a coupon you can use at the store you just entered, and that your wife's birthday is coming up, and much, much more... but only with your permission. If you don't want it, turn it off and delete the data. Google provides the tools.
And what happens when Google has a breech or a bad setting. Remember when Google signed people up for G+,. and a lot of private data got exposed.
I think you're thinking about Buzz, not Google+. That was bad; Buzz auto-friended contacts, exposing relationships. The fact that that's the worst thing that's happened, and that happened before
Wuh oh (Score:2)
But I only have limited experience as a lesbian bondage school girl uniform milf best deals memory SD card entity framework linq execute not in select no duplicates top ten nick cage movies minecraft obs settings
I guess I'll... (Score:4, Funny)
I guess I'll just have to write a bot generating random technical search queries then...
Welcome in the 21st century...
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It cannot be too fake, or they will spot it. And if you write realistically behaving bot AI pretending to be programmer working on real problems... They might want to hire you just for that ;)
Wait for the lawsuit (Score:4, Insightful)
Recruitment companies are going to sue Google for using it's search monopoly to rob them of their commissions.
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Exactly. Using one's dominance in one market to gain advantage in another = antitrust. If they just bid on adwords like everyone else gets to then they'd be fine, but doing something special not available to anyone else is a problem (at least here in Europe - where I suspect they're not doing this).
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Um, this isn't an antitrust issue, unless Google decides to get into the recruiting industry (meaning they look for candidates and then sell their services as a recruiter to *other* companies, to help find them employees).
If Google got in trouble for recruiting employees on their own instead of hiring a recruiter, that's be a really bad precedent. By the same logic, taxi companies could sue you for driving yourself to work instead of taking a cab or hiring a chauffeur. Restaurants could sue you (and groce
Privacy (Score:5, Interesting)
If Microsoft was to do the same thing in Bing - or God forbids in Windows 10 directly, it would be a scandal and there would be endless blog posts and tv interviews about it. And of course people on Slashdot would get their panties in a bunch.
But with Google it's kewl.
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It's creepy either way. The want people to help make it creepier. The best way to find those is to see how they respond to a creepy opener.
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It's also creepy when Googlers with mod points get on Slashdot and mod down comments that they really should think seriously about instead.
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I'll admit I was kind of creeped out when I got invited to Foobar, but what sold me was the fun, spirited, and intellectually challenging puzzles it offered. That may be a compromise of my ethical principles, but I don't care.
If you knock on my door at 10 p.m., I'm going to be annoyed. But if you knock on my door at 10 p.m. to hand me the keys to a new Ferrari, I'll probably forgive the intrusion.
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That's not quite right. A lot of people do give a shit about Bing, and use it, because it's hands-down the best search engine for porn.
But for anything else, yeah, it sucks.
So if I'm CEO at a tech company, block google? (Score:3)
Is it now rational for a CEO at a tech company to insist that google searches be blocked? I mean, your programmers are searching for solutions to stuff a lot, and you wouldn't want google to take the fact that they are searching for solutions and....
1)- Directly recruit your top men.
2)- Figure out what you are working on.
3)- Hey, google knows a lot about the people who are logged into it. They can probably flag by race and sex pretty easily...
If you're in charge of programmers at any level, do you now have to weight the possibility that the tools you supply them will be used to recruit them away from you? Do you have to weight the advantages of letting your programmers have access to a superior search versus the cons of that superior search poaching your peeps?
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Google already knows who you work for. Google already knows what you're working on. Heck, if you have an Android with default settings, they have all your whiteboard pictures. This likely isn't a "candidate identification" tool, but rather a way to get people more interested in saying "yes" to the recruiter - oh, those were fun puzzles, maybe I do want to work for Google.
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Sign them all in under a fake user account and you are set :)
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I wouldn't worry too much about it. There are a tons of top-flight programmers who have zero interest in working for Google.
Strange (Score:2)
Don't know why, but I only get offers to become a porn evaluator.
Don't google, just know (Score:2)
Or use the language's built-in help features, or its dedicated documentation, on or offline. If you need to google everything, you're probably not the best for the job.
I'm tired of these targeted job adverts anyway. If I'm really looking for a job, then I'll probably figure out where to look myself. If they really want me, they should either contact me directly, if not, stay the fuck out of my life.
Not if you're searching for Maaaaaaatlock... ;-) (Score:5, Interesting)
Even too much knowledge of 1980s pop culture will put you on thin ice: "Median age at Google is 29, says age discrimination lawsuit" http://www.computerworld.com/a... [computerworld.com]
Teletubbies is still fine. FOR NOW!
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FWIW, I'm a Google engineer. I'm 46. Many members of my previous team were in their 50s and 60s, and the median age there was probably around my age. That team was working on complex internal enterprise systems, where decades of experience with complex business logic was at a premium. My current team is younger... but I'm not the oldest.
Time Management (Score:5, Insightful)
Person is researching python lambda function list comprehension for a programming project. Gets sidetracked for a couple of hours by popup puzzles.
Yep. This is the employee we want.
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Person is researching python lambda function list comprehension for a programming project. Gets sidetracked for a couple of hours by popup puzzles.
Yep. This is the employee we want.
You mean the sort of person who is an avid problem solver but bored in their current job? Yes, that's exactly who you want to hire if you're going to put them in an environment rich in productive puzzles to solve. Yes, you do also need them to be able to maintain focus when it really matters, but it's far easier to teach brilliant problem solvers some time management skills than it is to teach plodding, methodical thinkers to be brilliant problem solvers.
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but bored in their current job?
I'd expect a self motivated worker to already be looking for a new one.
easier to teach brilliant problem solvers some time management skills
That's an optinion that not many employers share. Companys that take it upon themselves to teach basic skills tend to hire people without them. And then everyone suffers, because everyone is expected to help out the special snowflakes.
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but bored in their current job?
I'd expect a self motivated worker to already be looking for a new one.
Bah. There are different kinds of people. Some will search out a better job, but many of the more introverted sorts won't. It doesn't mean they're not motivated, just that they're not comfortable with interviewing. A lot of top-performing software engineers are very introverted.
easier to teach brilliant problem solvers some time management skills
That's an optinion that not many employers share. Companys that take it upon themselves to teach basic skills tend to hire people without them. And then everyone suffers, because everyone is expected to help out the special snowflakes.
There are no "special snowflakes" at Google. Google gives people time and resources to address their shortcomings, and it's expected that everyone be helpful, but if you can't pull your weight for whatever reason, it'll come out. You
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It is if you're Google.
Anyone remember when (Score:3)
abc.wtf (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The author of TFA forgot to mention that *she* also searched for "summer dresses" and "Swiss chocolates", along with "Python Spark list comprehension".
Turns out that helps...
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But google interviews people based upon a random selection of interviewers. That is, no matter how technical and detailed your knowledge is, you may end up being interviewed by someone in the marketing or accounting department; if you're a hardware guru someone may ask you about Arduino; if you're an embedded systems expert someone may ask you about JavaScript.
So at Google it's better to know how to fit in than know how to do the job. Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V is probably a good job skill for that.
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But Google values spaghetti code above all else, so you're good.
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Google admires Microsoft
Re:No Interest in me, either (Score:4, Insightful)
Since most of my queries regarding coding are Perl or Bash related. Sorry, Google, I'm old school. Perl and Bash are still my bread and butter, and Perl developers are still getting heaps of job offers. Some amazing stuff is being done with Perl (Fastmail and others), but it's no longer the flavour of the month for the kids, so it gets ignored. Perl, though, does not suffer the internal split that Python has with 2.x vs 3.x development. Python devs still overwhelmingly use 2.x. Perl just works.
Perl would suffer the same split problem if Perl6 were ever released. 15 years in the making and it might (finally) be released by the end of this year.
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I just would like to point out that your example of "amazing" is in one of the oldest, most boring genres of programs.
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Mom, get off the line! You're embarrassing me.
Apple did this to me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Apple did this to me (Score:4, Funny)
Told me to write Hello World. It's now called Google+. Don't blame me.
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Told me to write Hello World. It's now called Google+. Don't blame me.
FSCKING BEAUTIFUL! :-D
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Be fair, they read them almost 50% of the time. On a related note, almost 50% of requirements documents are worth reading.
It's left as an exercise for the reader to determine the degree of overlap.
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How many times can you read "I have this great idea for an online and it will make me a lot of money. Go write it for me." before you stop bothering.
is something random thing that has existed for years.
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I agree that what you're talking about is a problem, and it sounds like your friend's father got really screwed, but having done a bunch of the Google Foobar puzzles, I can assure you that they have nothing to do with actual problems Google needs to solve for its business.
I don't want to give them away -- though I'm sure you can find them on the Web if you hunted -- but by way of example, the first one I did involved finding the smallest numbers which were palindromes (read the same backwards and forwards)
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It's the same basic premise, but this is a *lot* more elaborate than what you ran into.