[notburnt]

Good point. It's not.

The point is to make OP feel better in the ensuing rants against technical interviews.

My advice to OP would be to understand that tech interviews, like all standardized testing, are something to be gamed (practice makes perfect).

You can rant all you want, but you will have little power to change it as a random applicant.

Just game it, and move on.

[zerr]

One should be careful to not go public about this intent (to game it). Someone had dedicated blog about his studies, preparations for BigG interview, he was reject right away without even a phone call... This story was on HN.

[notburnt]

Yeah, I remember that.

When I say game, I mean: practice questions you can expect to get (a little googling will help).

To think anyone would get through those interviews without prepping is ridiculous. Google specifically actually tells you to prep and what things to practice.

And also, since so many people do prep, the bar for acceptable performance is much higher than it would otherwise.

At this point, I'm not sure what these interviews are supposed to be measuring.

[zerr]

> I'm not sure what these interviews are supposed to be measuring.

I guess the level of dedication/passion of how much one wants to get a job there... That's seems the only "reasonable" explanation so far :)

[foo101]

Can someone shared the URL to the said HN story where someone was rejected right away even with a phone call for blogging about studies and preparations for BigG interview?

[davelnewton]

They might be getting confused with the person who blogged about their interview prep and ended up not getting an offer. I find it almost impossible to believe that Google would reject someone because they spent time and energy preparing for their interview process--they provide pretty detailed information about how to prepare and it's common knowledge.

Actually making it through an interview and getting an offer is much less common, for (what I'd consider) obvious reasons.

I interviewed at Google without any preparation and was not given an offer. I would have liked to have the time to prep, but I didn't, and I assumed I would not get an offer. I didn't do horribly, and I was encouraged to prep and return. I believe I'm good enough that if I prepped I'd get an offer--I simply don't have the time to jump through those particular hoops at this time, for better or worse.

[zerr]

No, that person didn't even get a phone call... Just a generic rejection without any interviews.