No more brain-teasers for Google job applicants?

[chris webster]

Here's an interesting perspective on hiring practices at Google, from a New York Times interview with Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google.

Some quotes:

"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."

"...G.P.A.'s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless — no correlation at all except for brand-new college grads, where there's a slight correlation..."

"...After two or three years, your ability to perform at Google is completely unrelated to how you performed when you were in school, because the skills you required in college are very different."

Welcome back to the real world, Google!

[Maneesh Godbole]

I shudder to think how many people's careers were affected, when they were rejected, because "that's how Google interviews their candidates, so will we"

[Bear Bibeault]

Heh, I know it may come across as arrogant, but in all my interviews I've refused to answer brain teasers -- yes, including my interviews with Google. I've always felt that there's got to be something more interesting to talk about than how the pirate gets the gold rope, or how to find the heavy marble.

It's never seemed to have hurt my chances though -- I always explained why in a professional manner, and then we just went on with the interview.