[jvanderbot]

I practically wrote my own rejection letter for Canonical. Their interview process required doing multiple long form writing responses, including telling them why I was an amazing High School student. I wasn't, and I'm quite proud of how much I've changed since then. As if the jerk from 1996 had any bearing on anything of relevance. Laughable.

I don't want to be surrounded by people who can still brag about high school.

[dodos]

I had a very similar experience with Canonical when I was looking for my first job. The entire tone of the transaction was very negative and passive aggressive. It made me nervous about their work culture so I decided not to continue the application process. I'm still a bit bummed about it since I would have loved to work in that space.

[sokoloff]

I had to submit my SAT scores for a job at D. E. Shaw & Co.

I paused and had to check with the recruiter to make sure I'd heard her correctly. (I had.)

[DaveExeter]

What's wrong with that? SAT scores measure IQ, and can't be gamed like grades.

[StreetChief]

Have you ever seen this chart? SAT score correlates almost exactly with income.

https://www.futurescienceleaders.com/yvr1b/wp-content/upload...

[sokoloff]

What is the relationship across those income ranges between income and parental IQ?

https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/08/least-surprising-cor...

Saying that SAT scores correlate closely with income in response to someone claiming that SAT scores measure IQ could be a statement of agreement or disagreement, depending on the relationships among the various measures.

[StreetChief]

I am disagreeing - why would more money make you inherently smarter? His premise that smart parents make more more is unquestionably false when 99% (or something) of wealth is transferred via inheritance - people don't generally get rich anymore[1].

Also, if you want to measure IQ, why not use an IQ test and not some arbitrary proxy?

[1] http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/papers/abs_mobility_p...

[jvanderbot]

SAT is a decent measure of IQ when corrected for the number of times you've taken the SAT. Rich folks can take it a lot, including prep courses.

[StreetChief]

Are you just out of college?! That is insane to me.

[sokoloff]

I was in my late 20s at the time and had graduated from a well-known engineering school. They ask everyone, even tenured professors...

It was also the single highest-density pool of talent that I've ever worked with, then or since. Our office manager had a PhD from Colgate.

[kunley]

At one job, Canonical was our vendor and I need to admit, they tended to be arrogant also towards the paying customer.

[smsm42]

I've talked to some Canonical interviewers and they all were perfectly nice. No "high school brag" vibe at all. I suspect people who wrote those long form questions and people who actually do the interviews are completely different departments and the latter have no much influence on the former.