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JustLikeThat
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JustLikeThat

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WhatsApp co-founder was once rejected by both Facebook and Twitter

quote:
After leaving Yahoo, Brian Acton, a WhatsApp co-founder, applied for jobs at both Twitter and Facebook. He was rejected both times.
See more at: http://goo.gl/r6rdmg
I guess that the HR departments of Twitter and Facebook will have some explaining to do. The guy is now worth $3.2 billion.

DigitalXeron
There is a lack of sanity
join:2003-12-17
Hamilton, ON

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DigitalXeron

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said by JustLikeThat:

I guess that the HR departments of Twitter and Facebook will have some explaining to do. The guy is now worth $3.2 billion.

At the risk of being off-topic:

Ever since "Personnel" departments turned into "HR", there has been a complete disconnect between them and the industry/workforce. This here is a prime example of why HR as an industry has completely failed and has become a burden, rather than an asset to organizations.

I feel HR as an industry needs reining in by other industries (especially technical industries which HR has near completely no understanding of) to wake up to the realities that everything isn't paper, nor keyword matching, statistics of what personality types work in which roles, nor statistics of who matches the corporate image, etc..

HR these days have acquired so much power over organizations that hiring managers (who may just have practical skills in what they manage) can't really hire directly anymore even if the applicant is a perfect match, they need to "go through the process" which often times can filter these perfect matches out for someone who looks good based off of quantifiable feel-good elements that'd look good on a report.

Consider "HR" initials: Human Resources, which implies that people are being treated as resources which given the dynamics of what defines a person is impossible to do accurately within even 60% given there can be elements like intuition that can't be put on paper.

I think this is good on that guy for showing that even those who "aren't a match" can be successful with great standing. I just hope this sort of thing gets back to the HR industry and demonstrates to them that they're overlooking billions of dollars of potential everyday because of statistics, procedures and word matching.

DannyZ
Gentoo Fanboy
Premium Member
join:2003-01-29
united state

DannyZ

Premium Member

"Human Resources" doesn't just imply it, it really is truth in advertising. To the capitalist, humans are just another resource to be exploited.

I think to bring about the realization you hope to see just isn't possible in the current culture. The only thing that seems to matter is next quarter's profits
dave
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join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

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If Brian Acton had actually been hired by Twitter or Facebook, chances are he'd have been worth less to them (in intellectual property terms) than he now is.

Perhaps he'd have been sucked into an existing team working on maintaining existing software, and not been in the right place at the right time to come up with a good idea.

That is, it's not yet obvious that Facebook would have got the same value for less money by hiring him.

While we're dissing HR (I term I, too, loathe), is it actually known that he was rejected by the HR department rather than, say, a bunch of engineers?

Domane
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join:2013-04-18

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In the United States Personnel/HR has dramatically changed its function the past 20-30 years. It used to be HR job was to screen to search and find the best candidates for the positions that were open. They may have hired directly themselves as opposed to the department with the position or they may have sought out the best people to be then interviewed or screened by the hiring department.

Not now. Now HR does one thing mainly. They diligently and actively work to reject or screen out 98 percent of all applicant. Worse the tools or criteria they use to reject people are ticky tack pencil pushing nit picking irrelevant dot the i's and cross the t's so the people left are a manageable group of people to seriously consider for interviewing. The result is they may or usually get a good person for interviewing but they have rejected many outstanding people in lots of cases people better qualified all around for the job than many of the interviewees.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
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join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd

Premium Member

said by Domane:

In the United States Personnel/HR has dramatically changed its function the past 20-30 years. It used to be HR job was to screen to search and find the best candidates for the positions that were open. They may have hired directly themselves as opposed to the department with the position or they may have sought out the best people to be then interviewed or screened by the hiring department.

Not now. Now HR does one thing mainly. They diligently and actively work to reject or screen out 98 percent of all applicant. Worse the tools or criteria they use to reject people are ticky tack pencil pushing nit picking irrelevant dot the i's and cross the t's so the people left are a manageable group of people to seriously consider for interviewing. The result is they may or usually get a good person for interviewing but they have rejected many outstanding people in lots of cases people better qualified all around for the job than many of the interviewees.

This is why today a degree from college in anything gets jobs, HR just sees the degree but their keyword system likely does not look much beyond that. So you could have someone with 10 years of experience in computer programming/software engineering and get bypassed by someone with two years and a masters in music. HR would go "But he has a Masters Degree!"

DannyZ
Gentoo Fanboy
Premium Member
join:2003-01-29
united state

DannyZ

Premium Member

I have lots of friends with Masters who would dispute that.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

dave to Kearnstd

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to Kearnstd
I must have been quite fortunate in my career, since I've never (as far as I know) worked for a company where HR seems to be as blinkered as is suggested in this thread.

Maybe the "10 years experience" guy was discarded because the hiring manager wrote "must have degree" on his personnel request?

Mind you, the best candidates seem to come through friend-of-a-friend referrals.

aurgathor
join:2002-12-01
Lynnwood, WA

aurgathor to JustLikeThat

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said by JustLikeThat:

quote:
After leaving Yahoo, Brian Acton, a WhatsApp co-founder, applied for jobs at both Twitter and Facebook. He was rejected both times.
See more at: http://goo.gl/r6rdmg
I guess that the HR departments of Twitter and Facebook will have some explaining to do. The guy is now worth $3.2 billion.

Those tweets don't say how he get denied, although "HQ" and the lack of additional details *may imply* that he didn't even get a phone interview, but there is not enough details in those tweets to lay the blame squarely on HR.