What Do Employers Really Want When They Recruit Stanford CS Grads?

We'll hire you, but only so that Facebook can't have you.
We’ll hire you, but only so that Facebook can’t have you.

The Stanford Computer Forum hosts a semi-annual career fair. Dozens of companies set up a booth behind Gates (the CS building) and vie for the attention of Stanford CS students.

It’s not cheap to reserve a recruiting spot at the Computer Forum. A company will only do so if they think there’s a reasonable chance of landing a Stanford grad as an employee.

Half a decade ago, the career fair was littered with prospective employers from Wall Street. Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, the big players, as well as hedge funds that were really just a bunch of 20-somethings with a trust fund and some printer ink. They were there to recruit because high finance was where Stanford CS grads wanted to work.

Don’t worry about our revenue model, and we won’t either.
Don’t worry about our revenue model, and we won’t either.

This year, you can count the trading shop booths on one hand. Other notable absentees include McKinsey, Bain, and company. They have been replaced with Twitter, WhatsApp, and SnapChat.

Don’t worry, the investment banks will be back after the startup bubble bursts. Everyone wants to employ a Stanford CS grad. Stanford grads are reasonably bright and will attract more Stanford students in the future. More importantly, they’re the most risk-averse people in the world.

Goldman Sachs, Google, and Facebook all claim to recruit the “best and brightest”, but they really don’t. Anyone who accepts a job at a zero-revenue company run by a 23-year-old is certainly not the brightest.

What are they really trying to recruit?

Look at the perks these companies offer: Housing stipend for living within 5 miles of the office. Time spent commuting is time spent NOT WORKING. Catered lunch and dinner. You’ll be too fat to run away. Company trips to Tahoe and other destinations. And we make sure your coworkers accompany you on vacation so that you hate going on vacation. Bring your pets to work. We’d really like to just have you live in the office, but that violates zoning regulations.

Recruiters want risk-averse schlubs who will work long hours and tolerate extended abuse. Stanford CS grads are a self-selecting group. The students who weren’t averse to risk dropped out and started their own companies a long time ago.

Why Airlines Cancel Flights and Hotels Don’t Give Out Toothpaste

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I’m at the Hilton at Logan airport right now because United canceled flight UA1699.

The flight was originally scheduled to depart at 5:46pm, but then was delayed to 8:40pm. Then 9:45. Then 11:15, and at 11:15pm the flight was canceled.

Disregarding union regulations on working hours, an airline would rather cancel a delayed flight than let it run late.

Airline ratings agencies rank airlines based on on-time performance, not cancellations. If United cancels all of its delayed flights, then it always runs on time.

If you measure a limited set of data, you’ll optimize for limited dimensions. Choosing the wrong things to measure is worse than not measuring anything at all.

My hotel room bathroom offers a fine selection of Peter Thomas Roth hair- and skincare products, but no hotel in the US provides toothpaste in the bathroom because hotels receive stars for providing two kinds of soap, shampoo, an additional bottled item, a hair dryer, a sewing kit, and a shower cap. But not toothpaste.

Anyway, it’s been a rough night. I got the last room at the Hilton. The girl behind me was crying hysterically because she had been waiting at the airport for our flight since 4pm. I briefly considered offering to share my room with her, but then I’m not that nice.

It’s better this way, because I don’t feel like wearing pants right now.

I had some heavy bags to carry. Travel tip: smarte cartes cost $5, but wheelchairs are free, and I am going straight to hell.
I had some heavy bags to carry. Travel tip: smarte cartes cost $5, but wheelchairs are free.

When to Plant a Tree

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The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Warren and I keep a shared document of business ideas. We started this document a long time ago, when we were both unemployed and had no idea what we were going to do next.

We used to add to this document every day, but recent activity has fallen off. If we were to track this document in git, it would look something like this.

git

Peak activity indicates the times when we were ready to give up on a project, troughs correspond to periods when we’re working full force on an existing endeavor.

Sometimes the best time to plant a tree is not now, but maybe tomorrow, because I’m really busy right now.

Seth Godin says: Halfway up Everest, it makes no sense to have a discussion about climbing K2 instead.

And sometimes we can get other people to plant those trees, like the gardeners my parents found at Home Depot.

Twitter isn’t profitable. Neither are these other public tech companies.

According to the Hobby Loss Rule, a business that is not profitable for at least three years out of five is considered a personal hobby, not a for-profit business. Taxpayers cannot deduct losses incurred from pleasure activities.

Twitter isn’t a real business! It’s just Jack Dorsey’s pet project that he’s using as a tax shelter! SEE.

Are the world's biggest tech companies profitable?

See Also:
Twitter isn’t profitable. And neither are these other huge public companies –pando daily

The Superpower of Invisibility

René Magritte, The Pilgrim
René Magritte, The Pilgrim

I am learning to master the power of invisibility. It is a superpower that is bestowed upon us with age, but young people make every effort to avoid this endowment.

No one ever really wants to become invisible. We spend our youth fighting for as much attention as possible. That’s how we attract mates and whatnot.

An interesting question was posed on Quora: What do people in Silicon Valley plan to do once they hit 35 and are officially over the hill? Do the Sunset Squad Robots come and abduct them? Does their Lifeclock crystal turn flashing red as they are shuttled into the Carrousel for Renewal?

165px-Invisible_Man

Some of them go on to found companies like Zynga, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and Wikipedia. We don’t pay attention to these people, because old people aren’t sexy.

If no one hears a tree falling in the woods, it makes no sound. If nobody looks at 35-year olds, they’ve unlocked the magic power of invisibility.

Forbes publishes an annual list of 30 under 30, the entrepreneurs who are out to change the world. Fortune has 40 under 40. There is no 50 over 50, because nobody cares.

When no one is looking at you, there’s no one to impress. Priorities become intrinsically motivated. Invisibility is liberating.

We all become invisible someday. The ability to appreciate invisibility is the real superpower.

invisible-monsters