Google does a study
with numbers
meaning data and stats
which proves interviews and interviewers are worthless
meaning IT'S A FACT
and then the HR witches come out screaming bloody murder in the comments.
It's priceless.
Sorry HR people, your skills are best used benefits and compensation and employment law. NOT determining who should be hired or not. Yes, yes, I know, you went into HR because you didn't like accounting or finance because of all that icky math, and why, you're a good "people person." You can tell when somebody's lying because you've watch a lot of reality TV. And you went into HR to have power and control over people's lives and would get a power trip out of it.
Um dearies, how bouts you just go file this W-9 with the Feds and leave the hiring to the big boys who have questions about DSCR ratio calculations and the logic of ACL statements, the math of which would hurt your poor wittle bwains. OK. Thatta girl. Oh, fetch me some coffee while you're at it.
Normally I just leave my comment at the standard "Why do we need science to tell us things that common-sense tells us inherently", but I have a story that pertains to this article:
ReplyDeleteWhen my first manager quit, he told he that he had to fight the HR ditzes to get me hired. It got me to thinking that out of the little group that hired about the same time as me (note: this was the first real STEM job for most of us), I was the only one who 1) had a master's degree, and 2) who was not a member of a 'special' group. One person was female, one was a ex-member of the military, one was the son of somebody who worked there, and one was a local. I was the most educated member of the group (and I had some other practical experience that related directly to my position), yet otherwise I was a plain ordinary white guy.
I sometimes think I'm too paranoid at times, but other times I wonder....
The job interview in today's world very closely resembles the sexual marketplace of 1900s Buenos Aires, i.e. poor immigrants had to learn how to tango if they wanted to get laid by the local ladies of the evening. It didn't matter how much or little you made or how good you were at your job, you just had to know the moves.
ReplyDeleteGoogle HR never did technical interviews themselves, they were always done by Google technical people (by technical I mean programming interviews, I applied to Google myself for engineering internships). HR only handles the paperwork.
ReplyDeleteWhat the original Google guy was saying was that brain teasers and puzzles (even algorithmic puzzles they give programmers) aren't a good interviewing technique.
Isn't HR just for meeting diversity goals and so corporations can hire ditzy attractive girls when they don't have/need enough attractive secretaries?
ReplyDelete"Put'cher high heels on, and go get me some coffee."
ReplyDeleteThere. Fixed.
.
"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."
ReplyDelete------------------------------------
OK, sure they "feel" smart, but when asking that bullsh*t, they look like @$$holes.
One of my favorite stories about the Ft. McMurray oil sands was about an HR guy sent up there when the boom really started to take hold. He talked about how the tradesmen he interviewed asked all the wrong questions, almost all of them about the benefits and wages and almost nothing about the work and they looked annoyed by his rote questions.
ReplyDeleteIt took him a while but he finally figured out he wasn't the one doing the interview, the tradesmen were the ones interviewing the company.
At one of the mines I worked at the HR department decided to extend the probation of a steam engineer when it was almost impossible to hire steamers.
He happily agreed with all their concerns and thanked them for their input.
When we asked him how his meeting went he replied that XYZ Resources had just failed their probation, and walked out.
I imagine there were a few HR folks with the old 'cow looking at a train' look on their faces after that one....
It's mostly control freak useless female psychology majors. Basically the HR department, as intelligent and highly educated as they think they are, ironically hire the most slick and polished guys and gals, which translates to hiring sleazy liars and psychopaths who lie through their teeth in order to present a very specific conformist, non-confrontational, people pleasing, ass kissing, brown nosing attitude. Ie the people who kiss their ass and tell them what they wanna hear. Exactly like in the current dating market.
ReplyDelete