Why I can’t work at Google

This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I didn't know anybody who worked at Google before I joined, and a good chunk of my co-workers didn't either.<p>The author may be reading into the question "do you know anyone here?" too much. It could easily be that the recruiters are just trying to figure out if they can ask anyone inside for an internal reference. If not, no big deal. It would just be another signal to use.

The author works for a company marketing a "a scientifically driven way to quantify the match between a job candidate and an open position" and is making claims derogating another mechanism for matching candidates and position. He's not exactly an unbiased observer.<p>For the record, I've been involved in hiring here, and I've never asked candidate who he knows at Google, I've never heard of a candidate being asked such a question, I've never seen anything related to such questions on interview feedback, and so on. If Hardtke's account is true (and that's extremely doubtful), his experience bears no relation whatsoever to mine on the either side of the interview table.

Of the dozen or so interviews I went through to get to Google, I was never asked the question, "Who do you know here?"<p>Of the hundred or so interviews I've given since I've been at Google, I've never asked the question, "Who do you know here?"

If the author wants to work at Google <i>and</i> believes that knowing someone at Google is a prerequisite to get hired (doubtful) then he should try to connect with Google employees. It's not that hard, there are tens of thousands of them. Many of them participate in well known open source projects, and are active on mailing lists, social networks, etc.<p>In other words, the author created a limitation in his mind and didn't bother trying to overcome it. I'd call this anti-resourcefulness.

No offense, but why doesn't this guy just GET to know someone at Google? It's not that difficult to do!

I've interviewed at Google NY, and though I do seem to recall being asked if I knew anyone that worked there, I never got the impression that my answer influenced the outcome of the interview process. It was just a friendly, casual question asked as a way to break the ice.

Per other commenters, this is basically a hit piece on Google by claiming that Google does something that it doesn't do to promote the author's own company which seeks to improve hiring.

After interviewing at Google, I've ever been asked whom I already know there.