Bloggers – always desperate for links and traffic – have capitalized on this, with scary articles about their “nightmare interview” and “crazy questions“.  Let’s just stop this right now, shall we?

Google’s interview process is really no different from its competitors. An engineer does a phone interview or two, where they’re asked standard coding and algorithms questions.  Sometimes they’re asked to code via Google Docs, because evaluating phone coding isn’t easy.  Then, if all goes well (it usually doesn’t – that’s just how it is at any company), the candidate is brought in for a full day of interviews.  Candidates are asked a mix of standard coding and algorithms, and are asked to code on the whiteboard.  Coding on the spot might seem surprising to those outside of the software industry, but it’s standard practice.  After the interview, Google’s process is a bit different from Microsoft and Amazon’s: a candidate’s feedback is submitted to a hiring committee of engineers who makes a hire / no hire recommendation.

(FYI: I served on Google’s hiring committee for 3 years, and interviewed 120+ candidates.)

IQ Tests? I’ve never seen these. Ever.

Brain teasers? Banned.  (Of course, everyone has a different definition of a brain teasers.)  If an interviewer were to ask a candidate a brain teaser, despite the policy, the hiring committee would likely disregard this interviewer’s feedback and send a note back telling the interviewer not to ask such silly questions.

That whole “Google cares about GPA even for people years out of college” thing?  I supposed I can’t speak for every hiring committee, but I never remember my hiring committee discussing the GPA of a professional candidate.  For that matter, we were never even given a candidate’s GPA unless he/she elected to put it on their resume.

Now, let’s look at the very widely circulated “15 Google Interview Questions that will make you feel stupid” list.  You want to believe these are real questions, given that Business Insider feels like such a reputable source.  Except that they didn’t get this list from a direct source.  They borrowed their questions from some blogger (I won’t link back here) who was posting fake questions.  Now, I don’t know that said blogger was intentionally lying – he probably borrowed them from someone else.  Whatever the original source is, these questions are fake. Fake fake fake.

How can you tell that they’re fake?  Because one of them is “Why are manhole covers round?”  This is an infamous Microsoft interview question that has since been so very, very banned at both companies .  I find it very hard to believe that a Google interviewer asked such a question.

As for some of the others – “Explain the significance of ‘dead beef’”, “A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?”, etc – I’m also highly skeptical.  If one’s a lie, why on earth would we believe the rest?  Especially if they are clearly in the banned category.

So while I know that “oh my god – Google asks candidates to reverse a linked list?” doesn’t make for quite as good SEO-link baiting material, let’s stop scaring the candidates with silly stories. And that includes you too, Business Insider. Any Google interviewer could tell you that at least some, if not all, of these questions are fake.

Want to see real Google interview questions, Microsoft interview questions, and more?  Check CareerCup.

Having just finished up my first year in Wharton’s MBA program, I often hear the question, “is an MBA worth it?” It’s a tough choice: $100k or so in tuition and other expenses, plus the lost salary, plus the loss in possible promotions.

With TechCrunch having just posted an article on this matter, I thought I’d add my take on it.

An MBA offers a variety of benefits, and many people, in discussing this question, just focus on the education. The problem with that is that formal education is an incredible inefficient way to learn. Think back to the 40 or so classes you took as an undergrad. How many of those really made a difference in your life? Couldn’t you have learned just the most valuable stuff in a much shorter amount of time? Of course! Yet people would rarely conclude that undergraduate degrees are a waste of time. Note: this applies also to computer science degrees. You don’t need a full degree to make you a great programmer. Why then do so many people argue that entrepreneurs should have CS degrees over MBAs?

Like undergraduate degrees, MBAs offer a lot of value beyond the learning. You meet people who mentor you, and you mentor them. You gain lifelong credibility. You gain a lifelong alumni network, offering many many thousands of people who will answer your phone call just because you went to the same school. You can’t get these things from a textbook or from reading some “MBA 101 blog.”

Is an MBA right for you? I have no idea. There are no credible studies on this, since you can’t exactly do a controlled scientific experiment. And the vast majority of people will just tell you to follow in their footsteps.

Here’s the advice I will give to prospective MBA students:

• Name Matters: The amount of credibility and the quality / reach of the alumni network varies with the name / rank of the school. There are a lot of people for whom a Tier 2 MBA program will add substantially to their life, but there are also a lot of people for whom it won’t. In short: don’t just go to “any” MBA program. Go to one that is a “step up” from where you are now.
• Know What You Want: MBA programs are only two years, and you give up a lot in the short term – personally and professionally – to attend. If you enter knowing what you want, you’ll be able to seek out the right people and opportunities much more quickly.
• Field Expertise Matters Too: An MBA will probably help you run a better business, but so will many things. Considering padding your MBA with a bit of field expertise, whether that’s a tech skills, retail experience, medical background or whatever. The ultimate for a tech start-up is a business skills + tech background + industry / market experience.

And, of course, remember: if you’re considering an MBA, you’ll probably be just fine whatever you do. Don’t stress it too much.

Cheapest phone plan ever, right?  This is what the plan really looks like:

• She pre-pays an amount, and the money expires after a length of time.  The length of time depends on how much you pre-pay.
• On the days she uses her cell phone, she’s charged $0.99.
• If she calls another Verizon user (how does she know?), it’s free.  It’s also free on nights and weekends.
• Other US calls cost $0.05 / minute.
• International calling costs $1.49 / minute.

Confused?  Here’s a convenient map (yeah, you’re going to need to zoom in):

Note how there are multiple plans, and she probably didn’t select the one that’s best for her (Basic).  I’m not sure where she went wrong.  Maybe she couldn’t properly evaluate her average talk time, the timing and the density of her calls to evaluate whether the “per day” is offset by the cheaper minute plan and free night time calls?  Crazy!

I declined to get into the complexities of pre-pay expiration, as I’m not sure I understand it myself.  What happens if I buy $20 (which expires after 30 days) and then a week later I buy $50 (which expires in 90 days)?  What expires when?

Lest she might actually wrap her head too soon around all that, her cell phone offers a new source of confusion.  Navigation requires a careful mapping (on very small buttons, despite having purchased the largest phone they had) of on-screen buttons to keypad buttons, while trying to avoid the calendar (who uses calendar on a basic flip phone?), voice daily (oh no the phone is talking to me!), picture messaging, web browser, camera and text messaging (conveniently called “Messages” so as not to be confused with, say, voice messages.)  You try explaining to her that she merely has to map the location of the on-screen buttons to the funny looking dashes and the weird circular button on the phone.

You know what she needs?  A phone.  Preferably one with a dial tone, so that she knows it’s on.  Can someone make a flip phone with a dial tone please?  Or maybe a phone with a nice wizard interface?

Email is actually easier for her – at least I can write down instructions for her.

——

I started CareerCup to solve one part of software engineering interviews: preparation. Candidates who are interviewing with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or other companies are historically under-prepared and consequently struggle to get hired. This hurts not only the candidates, but companies as well who can’t distinguish between bad candidates and poorly prepared candidates.

After launching CareerCup’s first (revenue generating) product in 2008, I spent the past year improving its products and services. In doing so, I’ve learned the following insights:

1. Be careful about your time is spent.
We all want to believe that we’re the best at anything, but sometimes we’re not. And, even if we are, not all jobs are worth our time. I recognize more and more that the old saying “if you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself” just isn’t true.

I now have some fantastic people working for me in the Philippines, India and in the US to write, manage customer support, and do development. With their help, I’ve managed to finish a technical interviewing book, software engineering interview video, and a technical recruiting service. I couldn’t do it without them!

2. Experiment often, carefully, and singly.

While I fully encourage people to research ideas thoroughly, research is only going to sell you so much. Sometimes, you just have to make the leap and experiment with an idea. Experiment often.

That said, look closely at how you’re judging the results of an experiment. Are you looking at revenue, or conversions? Depending on your approach to sales, this could be a big difference. Experiment carefully.

When experimenting, only run one experiment at a time. Yes, yes, I know you have a million ideas and you want to dive into all at once, but patience here will pay off. If you run three experiments at once, how will you ever know which one made the difference, and how much? Experiment singly.

And, if you want to be super advanced, look into standard error. A little bit of a statistics can help you understand what’s random and what’s real.

3. Be organized.

I feel like entrepreneurs are inherently disorganized – we’re always in such a rush to jump into things that we can get overwhelmed.

A bit of organization can reduce your stress by clearly outlining what you have to do. It gets rid of the nagging “Oh my god I have so much to do” feeling and lets you react properly. Maybe you’ll realize that you don’t have quite as much work as you thought, or maybe you’ll realize that you simply have to reassign some of the work.

Either way, you’ll feel better.

I maintain a to-do list with what I have to do (I use Remember The Milk, or whatever works for you). For paperwork, little details, filing expenses and such, I let the “forward” button handle that (that is, I forward things to my assistants to handle). And, I try to respond to emails instantly – you’ll have to do it eventually anyway, so the sooner you get it out of the way, the less time for which it’ll be hanging over your head.

The problem is that users are wise to this in recurring interactions. Once trust is established through a successful interaction, B will come back to A and cut a deal. Is the service taking a 10% cut when A pays B? Perfect. A will pay B 5% less, but will pay B directly. It’s a win-win for the users, and a big fat “lose” for the service.

Services must, therefore, offer an incentive to continue to use the service for repeated interactions. Consider the case of two very similar websites:

RentACoder

RentACoder, an outsourcing service, suffers from this problem and has been unsuccessful thus far at tackling it. For the first job between a provider and me, the provider has a strong incentive to work through RentACoder. The person doesn’t know me, and has no idea if I’ll pay them; RentACoder offers protection from that. However, once mutual trust has been established, they will, almost without fail, ask me to pay them directly.

Ironically, RentACoder’s attempts at attacking this problem probably worsen it. The service offers conflict resolution / protection — but only if you’ve been using their service for all communications. Their hope is, I believe, that you’ll be less likely to leave the service if you communicate via RentACoder.

However, conflict resolution – eg, will-they-pay-me-or-won’t-they – is primarily a benefit in the early stages of a resolution, not in longer term transactions. Additionally, this feature is only offered if all communication is through their platform. Users much prefer to use their existing mail and messaging tools, especially since RentACoder’s interface looks like craigslist got in a fight with linux – and lost. So, even if a user wanted conflict resolution, it likely wouldn’t be available to them.

And so, RentACoder loses the exact transactions it wants to maintain: the long-term ones.

oDesk

Surprisingly, oDesk does not suffer from this circumventing issue. In the 20 or so oDesk providers I’ve worked with over the last year, not one has asked me to pay them directly. Why? Because oDesk offers an incentive to both me and the provider to continue using them.

Employers prefer to pay through oDesk because they can track the worker’s hours. Even if one trusts a worker, concerns still arise when a task takes unusually long. oDesk providers install software which takes a random screenshot every couple of minutes. If an employer is unsure why a task took so long, the screenshots can relieve their concerns.

Employees prefer to work with oDesk because employers see long and continuous work assignments as implicit reference. Sure, employers could look at the worker’s reviews, but “grade inflation” renders reviews almost useless. However, 100+ hours of work for the same employer says something very strong about the candidate. By continuing to work through oDesk, employees boost their resume and their attractiveness to employers.

Thus, both employers and employees continue to work through oDesk, and oDesk reaps the benefits.

What This Means for Your Company

If you’re offering a service where people have an incentive to “cut you out,” think long and hard about how you can add value in repeated interactions. What are their problems? What can you solve?

In the case of outsourcing websites, employees face the problem of finding new jobs, and employers worry that employees are exaggerating time limits. oDesk has solved these pain points, and so we continue to work with them. RentACoder, however, is cut out of the picture.

Which service do you want to be?

One of my favorite websites just got a little bit better: it just launched EmptySpaceAds! Move your mouse to the margins of the page and you’ll see the new ads come up.

EmptySpaceAds is the same start-up I was working for before I left to go back to school, so it’s really exciting for me to see this development.

Now, I know ads aren’t exactly exciting for most people – who likes ‘em? They replace regular content and get in your way as a result. That’s why EmptySpaceAds is so great – it’s in the margins, so it won’t replace any “real” content, and it doesn’t get in your way like many pop-up ads.

For publishers, it offers similar benefits. You can increase the number ads you show on a page (and therefore your revenue), or you can replace your ad units with EmptySpaceAds. Either way, you’ll see a boost in your revenue. And, best of all – you don’t have to sacrifice content that brings customers to your page.

Check them out at: PeopleOfWalmart.com and EmptySpaceAds.com.

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

52% of voters voted for Proposition 8; by NOM’s own admission, only 42% would have voted for it had it been clearly written.  It should have been a resounding failure, not a narrow success.