Job Interviews at Google to Become Less Harsh

Google has decided to change the way they hire people, reports Wall Street Journal.

From...

"In Google's early years, Mr. Brin or co-founder Larry Page interviewed nearly all job candidates before they were officially hired. A former Google executive recounts how, on occasion, Mr. Brin would show up for candidates' job interviews in unconventional dress, from roller blades to a cow costume complete with rubber udders around Halloween. (...) People close to the company say it has traditionally focused a lot on candidates' academic performance and favored those who went to elite schools."

... to:

"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."

By reducing the number of interviews and their complexity, Google hopes to hire more people. Google has 9,378 employees and hires 16 people a day, a big number if you consider that at the end of 2003 Google had only 1,628 employees.

{ Thanks, Kent Dodds. }

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