My experience was that Google's hiring process isn't insane at all -- if you're going to hire someone for a technical job, it's crazy to not have phone interview(s) followed up by a day of on-site interviews, both full of technical questions.
My experience was broken in other ways -- my recruiter changed her mind about which job I was applying for three times without consulting me -- but (being assured by Googlers that the problems I encountered were rather unusual) I can't find any fault in the process.
Perhaps insane as in "insanely selective." 1500+ SAT Score and a 4.0 high school and college GPA are very important. Then, I think there are 7 or 8 levels of veto you need to get through. At the end, everyone they hire is truly, certifiably smart any way you measure it.
1500+ SAT Score and a 4.0 high school and college GPA are very important
I was offered a job; but I've never written the SAT and I didn't tell Google my GPA. Admittedly, the doctorate from Oxford University probably helped, but clearly they don't have any hard rules concerning SATs or GPAs.
Keep in mind that now that with 16,000 people, even if Googlers have the 16,000 highest IQs in the world, they're still only hiring at an IQ cut-off of 168. It's easier to only hire smart people when you're still a small company.
>>1500+ SAT Score and a 4.0 high school and college GPA are very important
>I was offered a job; but I've never written the SAT and I didn't tell Google my GPA. Admittedly, the doctorate from Oxford University probably helped, but clearly they don't have any hard rules concerning SATs or GPAs.
The SAT/GPA scores are part of Google's psychometric for intelligence. In your outlying case, I am sure that was easily proven via other means.
Give me a break!