Ask HN: Why do Google and FB interview when they already have data on you?

3 pointssimon_0006662 comments

Given the amount of data both these platforms have on each and every individual in the western world - why do they even bother doing interviews? Surely being able to take all the data points they already have and crunch the numbers they can calculate how much value you will likely deliver as an employee to their company?

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Unlikely. How good someone is at doing their job is unlikely to correlate with their social-media consumption/output or their purchasing habits; those three would be the bulk of the data. You might be able to find that someone is a particular kind of hobbyist, but not whether they're any good at it. Actual work is likely not public.

Hm. I live in a rural community, with my mail delivered from a federal post office in the next county. Years ago when applying for a city library card which has borrowing privileges for country residents, the librarian insisted I prove I lived in the county, since my mailing address listed a town in the next county. This, the person with all human information at their disposal, asking me to show from my road address which county I lived in.

I credit it to simple laziness.

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