If Google sees that you're searching for specific programming terms, they may ask you to apply for a job as Max Rossett writes that three months ago while working on a project, he Googled “python lambda function list comprehension.” The familiar blue links appeared on the search page, and he started to look for the most relevant one. But then something unusual happened. The search results split and folded back to reveal a box that said “You’re speaking our language. Up for a challenge?” Clicking on the link took Rossett to a page called "foo.bar" that outlined a programming challenge and gave instructions on how to submit his solution. "I had 48 hours to solve it, and the timer was ticking," writes Rossett. "I had the option to code in Python or Java. I set to work and solved the first problem in a couple hours. Each time I submitted a solution, foo.bar tested my code against five hidden test cases."
After solving another five problems the page gave Rossett the option to submit his contact information and much to his surprise, a recruiter emailed him a couple days later asking for a copy of his resume. Three months after the mysterious invitation appeared, Rossett started at Google. Apparently Google has been using this recruiting tactic for some time. "Foo.bar is a brilliant recruiting tactic," concludes Rossett. "Overall, I enjoyed the puzzles that they gave me to solve, and I’m excited for my first day as a Googler."
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @07:47PM
Real Programmers don't use interpreted brogramming languages. It's such a shame that Google is filled to the brim with caffeinated rockstar coderz instead of Real Programmers. The only recruits they'll find by mining search queries are mindless idiots who "code" by copy-and-paste. Google sounds like a shit place to work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:03PM
Real Programmers don't use interpreted brogramming languages.
OH NO I am no longer a real programmer! The horror THE HORROR! /sarc
I personally love the new way of programming. Instead of having 10ft of books laying around I occasionally use. I now google for it and have the full doc in front of me and usually about 15 different examples of how to use it. Then if it does something weird there is usually about 20 examples of what I did wrong and how to fix it.
What chaps my ass is the number of SDKs you have to work with and understand now. Because of the 'brogrammer' you are going to be dealing with will suddenly decide he wants to work somewhere else and wants to 'pump up the resume' and dumps some sort of shit in there.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:30PM
The way of code is thus:
1. Google it.
2. Ignore links to documentation.
3. Click on first StackOverflow link.
4. Copy paste first answer.
5. Run code.
6. Copy error message.
7. Paste error message into StackOverflow.
8. Whine until someone fixes it for you.
9. Congratulations, you are now a coder.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:11PM
10. Profit!
(Score: 2, Informative) by riT-k0MA on Sunday August 30 2015, @08:34AM
I must be oldshcool. I actually try to understand the StackOverflow answer before attempting to implement it. Then again, the code in the answer is usually only part of the solution to my problem...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 29 2015, @09:30PM
LOL @ "brogramming".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:06PM
You're forgetting that management at any tech company in the West knows that, if it got rid of you and your salary, it could hire six "experienced engineers" working in India to write code the same way you do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:21AM
That only works for one or two cycles until they find out how shitty outsourcing returns are in terms of productivity and results.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @11:53PM
But you are just managing them wrong. Here are 2 other people to help you manage them. Make sure you do more code reviews.
Wait.... the number of people you assigned to manage it I could DO this project....
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:47PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:54PM
Every time I see a comment posted by Tork, I think, hey look it's a professional napkin dispenser.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Tork on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:56PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @07:57PM
I search teh codez! You send me teh jobz!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:02PM
Google should just change their logo to the eye of Sauron and be done with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:08PM
Time to turn N Shoreline Blvd into a smoking radioactive crater.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:13PM
I am happy to know then that they won't be bothering me anymore because I stopped using google for quite some time. The once-a-while drones that called were, well, a waste of time. No, I do not want to move; no, you shouldn't let inexperienced interviewers ask questions; no, you can't evaluate a skill based on trick-questions... sigh.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:42PM
Good for you. Tell me about how you don't own a TV anymore.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JeffM2501 on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:30PM
Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @03:14AM
Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the
YouAreTehWinner.js:1824:ReferenceError: unpackNextPart is not defined
(Score: 3, Disagree) by ticho on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:36PM
So, let me get this straight - I'm working on a problem, and you have the audacity to disturb me with your petty tests? Phew, I'm glad I do not use google search anymore, and even if I did, I would do so with javascript disabled anyway, so the search results couldn't "split and folded back to reveal a box that said “You’re speaking our language. Up for a challenge?”"
(Score: 4, Funny) by TrumpetPower! on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:37PM
"Hi. You don't know me, but I've been watching everything you do at your job and I want to hire you for some special work. Shall we play a game? And I promise to not tell your boss about all the time you spend looking at pretty midget ponies with oversized roosters."
Stop the Internet, I want to get off....
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:15PM
LINK TO MIDGET PONIES PLS
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday August 29 2015, @11:13PM
How. About. A. Nice. Game. of. Chess?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Informative) by Hyperturtle on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:37PM
They called me more than once; I believe they received my details from a resume I had sent to a friend who used a gmail account as a personal account. I never sent a document to gmail again, and even admonished friends that used gmail.
I do not have a google account/don't use android phones. (I have a few tablets; they've never connected to the internet though, at least not after purchasing them... who knew I couldn't use the calendar feature offline without first logging into google?) I had never applied with them previously. Regardless, I must have triggered something, and they actually called my cell phone -- which is not posted online or something silly like that, nor posted on linked in or something. It was in my resume only, and particularly only in resumes that I give out when I intend to actually pursue a lead. They either harvested my data from someone I trusted, or it was that account. Of course... I have no real idea. They do admit to this behavior, though, so I have no reason to think that they received it some other way. I don't know anyone that works at Google.
Resume or not, they knew quite specifically what I was good at and courted me for a long time--several years.
It sounds like it could be a nice place, but I am making more where I am at geographically [they wanted me to move], with a lower cost of living. I also am leery of working for a place that makes money off personalized tracking and places so much effort in having little reason to leave the office complex. I like what I do; I like a lot of the people I meet on the job; I also like to have a distinction between personal life and work life.
Anyway--my sense of morality cautioned me numerous times. I block advertising and tracking--or anything that feels like it it imposing--whenever I can; I don't think I could quiet the chorus of voices that will undoubtedly erupt in my head if I accepted money to encourage the practice I go out of my way to reduce, avoid, and encourage others to be careful about... I will allow a few sites to show ads because I understand I'm paying for access to the internet, and if I am not paying for a site--someone is. So that is OK with me... but what is possible with the tracking nowadays is quite something else to help support.
Perhaps a different subsidiary of them would work better for me, but I'm not a fan of the business model, despite many of the cool things they have done.
The fact it's all funded by personalized ads and user tracking... it just doesn't agree with me, and I am not sure I really want to think about what it would cost to put those ideals aside, as I'd like to think my ideals are not so easily compromised.
Maybe that is why they give away so many services for free? People who may not pay to be violated might accept the violation if it's for free; people that pay often demand greater service or a higher quality of service, and might accept some sort of violation (see AT&T's gigapower pricing for differences in what it costs to violate the customer or not).
People that need to be paid to accept being violated, well, that's an old profession. (to quote Jerry Seinfeld: "Not that there is anything wrong with that.")
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 29 2015, @09:37PM
"I don't think I could quiet the chorus of voices that will undoubtedly erupt in my head"
How refreshing. Someone who actually has something resembling a code of ethics. In this day and age, ethics are almost extinct.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:46AM
Having a code of ethics makes you poor.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 30 2015, @03:09AM
The lack of ethics makes you a poor excuse for a human being.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Sunday August 30 2015, @11:17AM
I think you misunderstand me. I am not arguing for unethical behavior. I'll try again:
In a world run by sociopaths, only sociopaths prosper; the ethical are poor and suffer.
This is not the way things should be, and it is not the way that things can continue. It is intolerable that things should have come to this pass. The ethical must bring the unscrupulous to justice (in the absolute sense, not in the sense of "as defined by the legal code that the unscrupulous have gamed to enrich themselves").
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday August 30 2015, @05:12PM
There are no doubts about it -- if I made different decisions than what I thought was the right answer, I'd be far more wealthy.
One place I worked had a bonus structure that handsomely rewarded screwing up and breaking things and calling in multiple people for help.
Lots of beginners there... and career idiots. The "VP of Engineering" was proud that he didn't read books.
There comes a time when one doesn't want the hard earned reputation sullied nor associated with people (and businesses) like that...
What is the worst is when you confront management with such views and they ask you why you don't want to make money.
You can only quit so gracefully in such situations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @02:35AM
What is the worst is when I confront my wife with such views and she asks me why I don't want to make money.
FTFM
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:20PM
I do not have a google account/don't use android phones
But do you have 8.8.8.8 in your DNS setting? That's the same as allowing Google to monitor you without even the need of a license agreement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:58PM
Well, this is one way to keep privacy advocates out of Google. People who care about privacy either don't use google or take countermeasures to obfuscate google's ability to track them enough to show them an employment offer. I'm sure google recruits from other sources too, but this particular candidate pool is going to be heavily biased towards Google's "world view" which is going to have a self-reinforcing effect on Google's corporate direction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:12PM
No worries, the Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland [theregister.co.uk] is protecting [theregister.co.uk] us.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:08PM
Actually an add-on, but 'app' made a better subject line: http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/ [nyu.edu]
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:13PM
I'll quit using incognito mode when I search for "naked indian midgets charming python", Google here I come!
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Bot on Saturday August 29 2015, @10:17PM
I have been offered a sysadmin gig after typing "how to remove systemd from", they didn't even let me finish the query.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:56AM
FUCK SYSTEMD
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday August 29 2015, @11:23PM
Since 1997 I've been attracting new clients by posting technical tips [warplife.com] on my site.
I'll have to write up some manner of specious bullshit on python lambda function list comprehensions. Doubtlessly it will get me lots of search engine referrals.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:54AM
I can only assume either you have some sort of a secret directory structure that escapes the likes of mortal men, or your server is not configured properly.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday August 30 2015, @04:13AM
Ive been moving my site to a new server. There were lots of problems with my old site, some of which detracted from my SEO so Ive been fixing up my content before uploading it.
Here's one to keep you occupied until I get the rest uploaded:
On Refactoring C++ Code
http://www.warplife.com/tips/code/c++/refactoring/memory-management/raw-buffers.html [warplife.com]
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:00PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday August 30 2015, @03:45PM
Filter error: Language lawyer detected
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @12:56AM
Not unless they are really into some freaky-deaky porn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @01:48AM
Not unless they are really into some freaky-deaky porn.
I would be curious as to what sort of job they are offering for that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:53AM
THIS is Google's answer to Amazon's mechanical turk
how do you know what they do with the example code you write?
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:56AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @11:23AM
What has Google done that is profitable except for the monopoly on search and the associated advertising business their search patent has given them (which expires in 2017)?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:11PM
"The lack of ethics makes you a poor excuse for a human being."
Edit that to "The lack of ethics makes one a poor excuse for a human being."
Maybe the word "you" made it sound personal. I did understand your post, and no, I wasn't attacking you personally. Anyone who lacks ethics is a pretty shitty person. Of course, a person can have some ethics, and still be a turd, depending on what his ethics are.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 30 2015, @03:07PM
This is proof that they analyse your searches for more than giving you better search results and targeted advertising. What else do they use that data for? I guess not everything of it is to your advantage.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Touché) by meisterister on Sunday August 30 2015, @04:37PM
...most of my recent code-related searches have been related to C++, POSIX threads, and sockets, none of which are shiny or hipster-bullshit-ified enough to draw their attention.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @03:03AM
Systemd depreciates those.