If your dream is to work at Google, the road to landing a gig at the famous web search engine giant just got a lot easier. With its complex hiring process Google hasn't been able to add people fast enough to sustain its phenomenal growth rate in recent years. The Wall Street Journal reports that with a new head of human resources on board, former General Electric Co. executive Laszlo Bock, hiring changes are underway:
One initiative Google has already undertaken is reducing the number of interviews. Mr. Bock says each candidate offered a job by Google went through 5.1 in-person interviews on average in June, down from 6.2 at the beginning of the year. (A veteran tech recruiter says five to eight interviews is probably about average for Silicon Valley.) Google is also considering requiring staff members who interview candidates to submit their assessments within a week of the interview; right now, there's no strict deadline.
Additionally, Google is streamlining to add flexibility to the process…
So far, Google is experimenting with changes, such as additional short questionnaires for applicants and different interview formats. The company is also considering trying out an abbreviated hiring process, which would allow it to make an offer to some candidates after just two interviews.
Google is also moving from a format in which interviewers provided candidate feedback using free-form text and could give only one overall score to a format in which they offer targeted feedback grouped around four attributes (Google declines to name them) and multiple scores rating a candidate's knowledge, skills and abilities.
Every growing company with a stringent hiring process will need to streamline eventually, otherwise risk losing talent.
