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Comment by Kliment | Hacker News Reader

I got one of those emails too once. I still can't figure out why. I did post to LKML a couple times in the past, but I haven't done anything kernel in over a decade. And a random Google recruiter emails me to congratulate me on my experience and offer me an unspecified position as a SRE. Not only do I have zero experience or interest in sysadmin and large server type stuff, they don't even have any facilities within 400km of me. What the fuck, Google?

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In my experience (ex-Googler here), recruiters tend to be contractors who work off a script and get bonuses proportionate to how many people end up in the hiring pipeline. There are checks and balances to prevent outright spam, but the motivations are aligned in such a way that a pretty wide net is cast.

Also, until you have interviewed, all positions are "unspecified". Many positions need to be filled and they don't pick one for you until they know what you can do.

Geography is not really considered to be an issue. Once SRE finds someone they really want they will help with relocation.

Also an ex-Googler here, they cast the net far and wide trying to pick up SRE. When I was there they were offering significant bounties for submitting recommendations that only had to make it pass the resume screen. Want a brand new shiny PS3? Less than 10* that made it past the resume screen, and it was yours.

I has additionally heard rumors that recruiters were so silo'ed that they would actually just throw away a resume rather than route it. Reason being that they were in a competition with all recruiters, and worst performers (based strictly on a numbers game) didn't get their contracts renewed.

*May have been as low as less than 5, its been a few years, and I never really took to memorize what was posted on the wall while I was at the urinal.

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