Hiring: Google’s Real Hiring Secret

“At a time when many people are asking, “How’s my kid gonna get a job?” I thought it would be useful to visit Google and hear how [Laszlo]Bock [Google’s VP of People Operations] would answer.”

That’s why Tom Friedman says he wrote “How to Get a Job at Google.” That could be the most misleading headline of the year so far, because the article is about Google’s hiring process, not “getting a job.”

If you want a job at Google, this article won’t help you much. If you’re interested in the criteria that one of the world’s most successful companies uses in hiring, there’s plenty here for you.

There are some choice tidbits, like the fact that: “the ‘proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time.'” There’s a review of what Google thinks it’s most important to look for. But there’s a bigger insight lurking behind the article.

The criteria and the process that Google uses today are not the same as a year ago. They’re certainly not the same as 2006. That’s one part of Google’s secret sauce.

For Google, excellence in hiring is a moving target. True to their culture, they use analytics to figure out how to make their process better and better and better. Copy the hiring process or criteria if you choose. They may help you today. But if you want to keep getting better, copy Google’s “moving target” approach.

Wally Bock

Wally Bock is a coach, a writer and President of Three Star Leadership.