Google's GPA Fixation

2007-01-03 03:27PM PST/Home

Philip Aaronson

The NY Times had an article on Google's algorithmic hiring practices:

"More and more in the time I've been here, we hire people based on experience as a proxy for what they can accomplish," he said. "Last week we hired six people who had below a 3.0 G.P.A."

Wow, six whole people! Out of two hundred a week?

I can't help but be reminded of a comment my father often made about who he hired back when he was a manager for DEC and I was just a kid looking to go to college. He tried to hire two kinds of people, the high GPA types of course, but also all those who flunked out because they spent all their time in the computer lab. See, back then they had computer labs. No one owned their own computer. Never mind. The point I'm trying to make, Google's missing out on some of the most capable coders: the folks who barely made it through school, or dropped out because they spent all their time, you know, coding. Seems crazy.

[Update] As an aside, here's an interesting article that deals harshly with our obsession on grades, not just Google's, but as a society: A Russian Teacher in America by Andrei Toom. It's long, but well worth a read.