Hiring strategies of Google, Facebook, and other tech giants.

1. Hiring Strategies of Tech Giants
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2. You might have heard of Google’s incredible focus
on hiring talented intelligent people, or if you
watched the Facebook movie you would have seen
the coding competitions where elite coders would
compete against each other while chugging alcohol.
I wanted to see what we can really learn from these
tech giants.

3. The top tech companies are systematic
when testing candidates, and their
evaluation process includes not just
verbal interviews but also skill-based
tests.

4. The answer really is “Long” and very thorough. Candidates need to
endure multiple interviews and tests.

5. IBM tends to focus on hiring graduates and then internal development, so their average
salary level is lower. Google and Facebook are renowned for searching for superstar
coders.

6. Great pay and benefits so amazing you never want to leave the office. The
benefits you can get at Google are amazing and include:
• Free haircuts
• Gourmet food
• On-site doctors
• A Gym
• Massage
• Generous maternity benefits
• A free shuttle bus to work
• Death benefits for their spouse
• Health insurance

7. Contests and other unique approaches to hiring
Google has the “Google Code Jam” which attracts over 7,500 people each year and
the 25 finalists compete for $50k in prizes and the chance to work at Google. In
fact most of these tech giants have contests as a way of attracting talent including
Intel, Amazon and Facebook.
Google is well know for asking brain teasers in Interviews with questions such as
“How many golf balls fit inside a school bus?”
Acqui-hires
Google and Facebook have both purchased a number of companies purely
for their talent. Google and Facebook competed to purchase Milk (Google
won), which was pretty much a pure talent acquisition and netted the
founders $15 million. In March 2013 Yahoo purchased the company Summly
for $30 million from 17 year old Nick D’Aloisio in March 2013 and then
promptly shut it down. IBM has a different approach with their philosophy of
hiring young people, usually right out of college and then promoting them
after a rigorous internal development process.

8. What are the lessons to learn?
Should you replicate the way Google & Facebook do things? Probably not. They are
multi-billion dollar companies with billions in funding, billions in revenue and it’s
difficult for a small or medium size company to emulate their strategies. Google can
afford expensive engineers and benefits because they’re at the top of their industry
and their core franchise is so strong. Most companies need to be a whole lot more
frugal.
However I think there are some lessons that every company can draw from these
giants:
• Evaluate candidates based on tests that directly correlate to the
work they are doing on the job.
• Create an inspiring vision that attracts candidates to your
company.
• Treat your employees well.
• Be very selective and put a lot of time and attention into your
recruitment process.

9. This article originally appeared on the Staff.com blog