> 'A published paper in a top conference only happens through political connections in undergrad'
Which fact in and of itself ought to show just how rigged the whole system is--when people can get papers published in prestigious journals merely on the strength of "whom they know."
When interviewing for places like Google and Amazon, your political connections and things like publications/degrees still matter a lot. Good performance on the interviews can be impactful but it's not the only factor. The incredibly biased committees review a lot more than that at google.
Maybe a better way to put it is, the whiteboard problem itself is a pass or fail question and therefore that aspect of the interview by itself is unbiased.
At google some candidates who failed all their interviews were hired because they had connections to upper management.
Here at Amazon, if the candidate knows the hiring manager and interviewers they can be fed all the answers. Not being able to code fizzbuzz doesn't block people from getting 350K+ offers. It's insane. Amazon tried to fix this problem with "bar raisers" but it doesn't work since humans naturally follow the crowd, even if the crowd is corrupt.
Which fact in and of itself ought to show just how rigged the whole system is--when people can get papers published in prestigious journals merely on the strength of "whom they know."