frankly speaking

Deconstructing Marissa

I think Google’s great. They’ve revolutionized a lot of things, from search to online advertising. They’ve made things a lot easier for everyone. Yesterday, the New York Times interviewed Marissa Mayer who is the VP of Marketing at Google.

Overall, I thought the interview was fine, even if it was on the fluffy side. One thing that bothered me was this:

“One candidate got a C in macroeconomics. “That’s troubling to me,” Ms. Mayer says. “Good students are good at all things.”

Another candidate looked promising with a quarterly rating from a supervisor of 3.5, out of 4, which meant she had exceeded her manager’s expectations. Ms. Mayer is suspicious, however, because her rating hasn’t changed in several quarters.

“She is looking for a way out,” Ms. Mayer says.”

That more or less shocked me. I get that Marissa (who has a background in Engineering and was one of the first female engineers at Google) is a numbers driven person and that makes sense, especially when it comes to marketing. But when someone is applying for a job or a promotion, I don’t think hard numbers tell the whole story. Sure it’s great to be able to see how much a person increased sales, reduced costs, etc, but there’s a little bit of practcal intelligence that goes into hiring or promoting someone.

Mayer goes onto contradict her logic in the article by saying she wants to be known when she says:

“It hasn’t shown up anywhere that I am really physically active,” she says. “I ran the San Francisco half marathon this year. I did the Portland marathon. I went skiing just yesterday. I’m going to do the Birkebeiner, which is North America’s longest cross-country ski race. That just shows you how much there are gaps.”

But Valleywag is quick to identify the loophole in this “Ah yes, the Portland Marathon, in which Mayer placed 7,074th out of 7,862 contestants. Or the Birkebeiner ski race, in which she placed dead last in the women’s competition.”

Really, Marissa? Using your logic, I guess you aren’t a good at running or skiing. Why should we pay attention to the fact that you think you’re an athlete, when the results you’ve shown clearly show you are not one? Why should the general public hold you to a different standard than you hold to job candidates? If we cut you a break on this (that you are phsically active and good at it), shouldn’t you cut employees and prospective employees a break when they apply for jobs or promotions?