The U.S. Justice Dept. has begun an antitrust investigation into some SV companies’ hiring practices (as reported by the NYT). The concern is that some companies have “agreements” not to hire away from each other.
Here is a quote from the article:
A December 2007 e-mail message written by a Google recruiter and obtained by The New York Times suggests that the company might have had an agreement with Apple on recruiting.
Laura Sheppard, a contract recruiter at Google, sent the e-mail message to a job candidate asking him to put her in touch with another potential candidate. “It is a bit touchy since he works for Apple,” Ms. Sheppard wrote, adding that Google had “a nonsolicit agreement with them.”
If you are passed over for a job, you may never find out the true reason. There can be some sticky political reasons for a decision sometimes. I know someone who was told by a dream employer “I’m sorry, you are very well qualified and we’d love to make an offer, but your boss is an old friend of mine, and he’d kill me if I hired you away.”
Will continue to follow this story.
The Hiring Room 