[shawnee_]

they’re an algorithm company, not a product company. As a result, their core, algorithm based, functionality is successful, but they fail at new product design over and over, creating and retiring flawed products ad infinitum.

Interesting that this refusal to adapt still persists. After reading this article, I dug up my old (2006) rejection email from Google; and just as I remembered, it wasn't quite so nice. This is basically what it said:

"After careful review of your qualifications, we've determined that you have nothing. None of your skills are a match for anything at Google, and we don't foresee that changing any time in the near future. Good luck in your endeavors."

I'd applied as a technical writer.

Today I'm writing documentation at Intel for data scientists, engineers, and machine learning experts. Because guess what? Algorithms will get you only so far. Sometimes you don't need to add more engineers to solve a difficult problem, you just need better documentation.

[nawitus]

Is that a direct quote?

[icebraining]

That "basically" means it's not an actual quote.

[shawnee_]

Paraphrasing, but it doesn't matter. I'd applied because I admired it as a company that could help you find answers for pretty much anything. I wanted to be a part of that.

Yet clearly was it the intent of the email to inform me in a very specific way that they had scrutinized and deemed my skill set useless for "all" jobs at Google. They went out of their way to tell me that no jobs at Google would be a fit for my "experience and qualifications".

This was 2006 and it had IPO'd not long before. I'd been out of grad school for about two years at that point, and I knew that "growing" companies are supposed to need all kinds of people. It was baffling.

Long story short: this (and other) rejections rendered my self esteem pretty wrecked. This one though I look back to as the cruelest one and what more or less launched me into a pretty severe downward spiral that lasted about four years.

That Google is still (condescendingly) rejecting creative and intelligent people like Mr Howell for not fitting into their mold ... that is still baffling.

[scandox]

Yeah I am also keen to know if "You have nothing" is a direct quote. That would be remarkable.

[sudhirj]

Think the author is paraphrasing. Saying that as written would get the interviewer and HR fired.