Companies spend their entire existence searching for the talent that can drive them forward.

Ironically at Google – the world’s leading searchers – the top talent comes to them, a phenomenon

with its own set of challenges and opportunities, as Ian Clover discovered. Las empresas pasan toda su

existencia buscando el talento que pueda conducirlas hacia delante. Irónicamente en Google – el líder

mundial de buscadores – el talento más alto viene a ellos, un fenómeno con su propio conjunto de retos

y oportunidades, como Ian Clover descubrió.

“The fundamental building block of Google's culture is that we hire like-minded people.”-Liane Hornsey “El bloque de construcción fundamental de la cultura de Google es que contratamos personas con una mentalidad afín” – Liane Hornsey

A lot can happen in five months. Winter can turn to summer, your weight can bounce around like a

pinball, sports and film stars can go from hero to zero and relationships can blossom, bloom and die.

Your job application to Google might also reach some semblance of conclusion during this period, too.

For a company that prides itself on being 'bureaucracy free', such a lengthy application process

appears not only unnecessarily slow and plodding, but at odds with Google's reputation for being

visionary, fleet of thought and fast-paced. Un montón de cosas pueden pasar en cinco meses. El paso

del invierno al verano, tu peso puede ¿rebotar? como un pinball, estrellas del deporte y del cine pueden

pasar de héroes a cero y las relaciones puede florecer, ¿florecen? y mueren. Tu solicitud de trabajo a

Google puede llegar a una conclusión parecida en este periodo también. Para una compañía que se

enorgullece de no ser burocrática, un largo proceso de solicitud (=un largo proceso de selección?) no

solo parece innecesariamente lento y trabajoso, sino en desacuerdo con la reputación de Google de ser

visionaria, ---------------------------------------------------.

"We are very proud of the culture we have here at Google and we want to protect it; we want to

make sure that we don't dilute it," says Liane Hornsey, Google's Global VP of People Operations. "We

put a good deal of effort into making sure that everybody we hire will be accretive to the culture of

Google." Such efforts have resulted in legendary tales of multiple interviews, stretched across many

months and locations, in order for an applicant to get their foot in the door at arguably the world's

most exciting company.“Estamos muy orgullosos de la cultura que tenemos aquí en Google y queremos

protegerla; queremos asegurarnos de que no se diluirá”, dice Liane Hornset, ¿vicepresidente? Global de

people operations. Ponemos una gran cantidad de esfuerzo en asegurarnos de que todas las personas

que contratamos tendrán un impacto positivo sobre la cultura de Google. Tales esfuerzos han dado

lugar a legendarios tipos de entrevistas que se extendieron en varios meses y lugares, con el fin de que

los solicitantes (candidatos) pusieron sus pies en la puerta de una de las empresas más emocionantes

del mundo.

"When I was hired some five years ago, I had 14 interviews across two continents, and it really was a

grueling* process that took several months. Since then, we have attempted to limit our number of

interviews to between four and six, possibly eight as a maximum. But the reason we have so many

interviews is that we believe very strongly that we should hire through consensus."

“Cuando estaba contratando hace cinco años, tuve 14 entrevistas alrededor de 2 continentes, y fue

realmente un proceso agotador* que tomó varios meses. Desde entonces, hemos intentado limitar

nuestro número de entrevistas entre 4 y 6, posiblemente 8 como máximo. Pero la razón de que

tengamos tantas entrevistas es porque creemos fuertemente en que debemos contratar mediante

consenso”

As an example, Hornsey explains how even she, as the HR head, would be unable to make a hiring

decision on her own; the process would still* entail meetings with staff members from relevant

departments, potential middle managers and even those who would be working directly underneath

an applicant. If the stories are to be believed, then even Larry Page himself (Google co-founder)

ensures he signs off every resume before an applicant goes from aspirant dreamer to fully-fledged*

Googler. Como ejemplo, Hornsey explica como, incluso ella como jefa de recursos humanos, sería

incapaz de tomar una decisión sobre contratación por sí misma; el proceso implicaría* reuniones con

personal de departamentos importantes, potenciales gerentes de nivel medio e, incluso, aquellos que

estarían trabajando directamente bajo el solicitante. Si las historias son creíbles, entonces, incluso el

propio Larry Page (co-fundador de Google) asegura que firma cada currículum antes de que el solicitante

pase de ser un soñador aspirante a un Googler en pleno derecho*.

Top talent

Google's Mountain View headquarters at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay represent something

of the promised land for the world's top tech heads, internet aficionados and innovative thinkers. Its

campus-like atmosphere is an exclusive hub of creativity, and it is little wonder that Google receives

more than 1000 job applications a day. Hence, sifting through these mass of people to identify the

talent that is going to be key in driving the company forward is an immensely time-consuming and

difficult process. It is also highly important.

"We only hire people who we consider to be incredible talent, and part of that talent revolves around

being an innovative thinker," says Hornsey. "But we don't only hire people who are innovative

thinkers, although many of the company's best ideas have come out of left field when people have

taken time out to think about different things.

"For example, our engineers have something that we call 20 percent time. For four days a week or

however they want, 80 percent of their time they work on a key product. For the other 20 percent of

their time, they are free to work on something related to that product, or something a bit different -

G-Mail and Orkut both came out of that time we allow for innovation."

For Google, staying still is not an option, so to be able to remain at the forefront of civilization - and

let there be no doubt about Google's role in furthering humanity throughout the globe - the

organization is acutely aware of its responsibility to deliver innovative products and services that

continue to push the boundaries. Taken in such a context, it is understandable that Google places so

much time and effort in recruiting the very best talent. And once on board, retaining that talent

becomes even more important.