Comment by tptacek

I can't give you anything more than anecdotal responses to this, but Google is (a) missing (ie, failing to hire) specific excellent people in the industry, (b) cultivating a reputation that prevents people from considering them. There are bright spots, but my perception is that they work by circumventing/overriding the standard Google "backrub tickets for calibrated interviewer favors" process.

But yeah, I may not have been clear enough before: I do believe that what Google is doing is working for Google.

About the worst thing you can say for Google's recruiting as a business process is that it's somewhat inhumane, and pollutes the industry with faulty evidence (there appears to be a small cottage industry of consulting "porting" Google's recruiting process to other companies). But I mean, look at the rest of Startuplandia and Google's sins pale in comparison.