Indeed. Hiring programmers is about hiring people who bring business value to your organization, not about bringing in people who can solve Pascal's triangle faster than the other 90% of candidates. The entire first thread on this page is a shining example of what is broken with Google's hiring process.
37signals hires for business value because, as a small company, it has to. Google is a huge company and doesn't have the same incentives. Google's size can blind it to the fact that its hiring practices optimize for mathematical knowledge and intuition over business value. And, as a business, Google is wrong and 37signals is right.
37signals hires for business value because, as a small company, it has to. Google is a huge company and doesn't have the same incentives. Google's size can blind it to the fact that its hiring practices optimize for mathematical knowledge and intuition over business value. And, as a business, Google is wrong and 37signals is right.