Google Jobs

An interesting article in the New York Times talks about Google's hiring practices. To assist in filtering out its 100,000 job applicants each month they have written an algorithm to pick out the best applicants.

It is starting to ask job applicants to fill out an elaborate online survey that explores their attitudes, behavior, personality and biographical details going back to high school.

The questions range from the age when applicants first got excited about computers to whether they have ever tutored or ever established a nonprofit organization.

The answers are fed into a series of formulas created by Google’s mathematicians that calculate a score — from zero to 100 — meant to predict how well a person will fit into its chaotic and competitive culture.

The first thing jumped into my mind is that this is a fantastic research possibility - I almost wish that I was an academic so that I could look at the process.

Numbers cannot discriminate so it will be very interesting to determine how women and minorities are capable of making the cut.

There are those that swear that everyone - man, woman, black, white, yellow and green - is equally capable, I have a strong suspicion that the algorithm will show something quite different.

Tags: Google, discrimination