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Why Software Companies Often Reject Awesome Programmers
There’s a mismatch
Brian Acton, the founder of WhatsApp, was looking for a job in 2009. Despite his gleaming experience at Yahoo and Apple, no one wanted to hire him. Don’t forget: this was the time after the 2008 financial crash.
In the list of companies that turned him down, Twitter came first. Then, there was Facebook.
The rest is history. Teaming up with Jan Kuom, Acton went on to create the next generation messenger app that ended up being acquired by Facebook for a whopping $19 Billion.
Why the Mismatch?
Everyone isn’t Brian when it comes to programming interviews, or creating the next awesome software.
Every company isn’t like Facebook or Twitter when it comes to hiring.
But more important than that, Brian the candidate isn’t the same as Brian the founder. And Facebook the interviewer isn’t the same as Facebook the acquirer of WhatsApp.
When Brian interviewed at Facebook, he was occupied with low-level details on how to create software. When selling WhatsApp, he and his partner needed to emphasize how WhatsApp will manage high user volume.
Though Brian’s programming prowess is part of how WhatsApp pulled it off, Facebook wasn’t interested in the process at the time of acquisition. Rather, its acquisition team (much higher up than the interviewer minions) would be salivating at the enormous user base WhatsApp would bring in.
In a race to attain the best for oneself, candidates and recruiters have forgotten two fundamental truths:
- Best != Most (aka highest salary doesn’t mean good company to work for)
- Today’s best != Forever best (the good candidate isn’t always a good hire)
Unfortunately, programmers who design the future of the world can see this glaring dichotomy called the broken hiring process — but they have done close to nothing to fix it.
In the next sections, we will see how this mismatch plays out during our broken interviews.
