Do you have what it takes to join Google?
Sure, you have ideas for improving search, but can you express them as a haiku? Latest hiring scheme asks for that and more. Google unveils desktop search
Google, well-known for its search technology, is now applying its creativity to its search for new employees. The company has created mysterious billboards and two-page ads featuring word problems and now is moving into SAT territory with the Google Labs' Aptitude Test, which appeared recently in several technical magazines.
"We are always interested in opportunities where we can find creative people, so we are always trying new ways to find them," said Eileen Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Google.
The search company has gained allure from its successful--if rocky--initial public offering and its bullish stock price, which has climbed to about $145 a share on Friday from its debut at $85 in August. While the tests are a good way to winnow the influx of applicants for positions at Google, completing one does not necessarily give interviewees any extra credit, Rodriguez said.
"It just helps us attract a different class of people," she said. "There are some people that complete the test that don't even want a job at Google."
• Write a haiku describing possible methods for predicting search traffic seasonality.
• How many different ways can you color an icosahedron with one of three colors on each face? What colors would you choose?
• This space left intentionally blank. Please fill it with something that improves upon emptiness.
The test is not the first of Google's recruiting methods to go creative in the search for stand-out engineers. Last summer, the company posted a billboard in Silicon Valley with a mysterious mathematical question and no sign of who had funded the advertisement. When answered, the question led to a site on the Web, which posed a harder problem and eventually led to a page on Google's site itself.
Another recruiting ad hosted in a well-known Linux publication featured a picture of a vending machine and asked potential employees to find the pattern between 4- and 5-digit labels on each item and the 1- and 2-digit numbers on the machine's keypad.
The company also hosts an annual Code Jam, in which participants attempt to create elegant solutions to a series of software problems. The finals for Code Jam 2004 were held on Friday.
Such tactics are not unknown in the world of companies looking for coders. Game maker Electronic Arts took aim at a rival's employees by posting a billboard with the words "Now Hiring" written in ASCII code.