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Another Google Recruiting Technique
An anonymous reader writes "The new edition of Linux Journal has a special insert: The GLAT (Google Labs Aptitude Test) is a Google recruiting quiz presented as a spoof of standardised aptitude tests. It is filled with math and Google-related trivia."
My wife's in Mensa, and one of the best things about that are the Google ads that generally take up the inside front page or two. It's a nice brain tease, and while I'm pretty sure I had a few of them figured out, I never sent them in because I like how Google hires PhDs, and I'd worry about being in over my head. I was disappointed when I didn't see any ad in the first page of this past month's Mensa mag, but overjoyed when I found the GLAT. Then I was a little intimidated. Still, I might sit and work it out one of these days, when I come up with the time for it. (As opposed to, say, killing time posting on Slashdot.)
I am Leviathant and I approve this message.
You may not be right for Google, but you sound right for the business world.
You'd be surprised home many of the recently hired at my office are of the Ph.D variety. You'd also be surprised that the vast majority of the projects they are in charge of are failing miserably because they can't simply get things done. Oh, they can draw some kick-ass UML diagrams, and they can use all the latest buzzwords with the utmost proficiency...
Then there are a couple of us that have been around for 10 years or more with the company. We are the ones that frankly get it done in crunch time. We are the ones that have never been part of a failed project because we busted our asses when it came to it (but just generally worked smart throughout the process so it rarely came to that anyway).
Sure, I'm bragging a bit here, but it happens to be true. Theory has to meet experience and proven ability, it can't exist in a vacumn. It's nice to hire MENSA members who can rotate geometric shapes in five dimensions in their head and choose the correct figure, but give me the guy who can read through online docs efficiently and can pound out the code when it counts and I don't care if he has a Ph.D or flunked out of high school.
If a pion (n-) collides with a proton in the woods & noone is there to hear it, does lamdba decay into the source pa
I'm a bit skeptical. Well, maybe they only took the first X amount of these things in, because it won't take long for all the answer to get posted. Seems more like marketing to me. Kind of "we have the smartest people, aren't we cool."
Of course, there is lots of kinds of intelligences. I read the Emotional Intellgence book, and it was a bit of an eye-opener. Yep, there's all kinds of smart.
I hate to admit it, but there may be a reason that some of those blasted sales and marketing guys and gals make serious money. We like to think that it's lucky, or BS, or kissing ass (and it could be), but sometimes, it's because "people smarts" can get you far.
Sure, this makes sense for a research lab starting up, but here's something to ponder. MS, IBM and HP all have labs too. And how effective they are is how well they can transfer ideas into development. HP had lots of idea, but consistently could not execute on them. IBM and MS do much better.
You can have too many cooks, after all. For every thinker, there is a doer that is just as valuable, if not more so.
Oh, and Google, now that you are public and MS wants a piece of your action, here's a hint. Arrogance and "we're better than..." can hurt you really, really bad. Just ask Netscape, err, AOL, err, well, you know. Don't get too cocky.
I think of Richard Fenymann at times like this. Nobel Prize winner, who admired an illiterate MC in a local bar for his social skills and how he worked. True smarts is always being ready to learn, regardless of how or what is taught.
Yea, maybe I'm jealous because I can't do those types of puzzles very well. But I still have enough brains to know that there is room for all types, and diversity wins over sheer brain power in the long haul.
Of course, I'm not that brainy. Hell, I'm still posting here, for the love of... 8-)