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When you think of Google, you think: Smart company. Smart people. Recruiters speak of the "Google factor"; companies that fear Google not just because the company could move into their markets -- from newspapers to book publishers, mapmakers and retailers -- but because Google may snag the "genius" talent needed to invigorate today's businesses and think up tomorrow's innovations.
So companies are not just thinking about Google, but thinking and recruiting like Google. Attracting smart, creative professionals with the brains needed to build a company's future can mean a pitched battle to recruit top-shelf technical professionals.
Get Creative to Avoid Compromise
"There are lots of growing businesses these days, and we are all competing for the best talent," says Jana Eggers, general manager of Quickbase and Innovation Lab at Intuit.
Google gets the most press on the hiring front, Eggers acknowledges, but other companies have learned from the dotcom hiring frenzy: You need to focus on experience and talent rather than just finding "people to fill the chairs."
"I don't think we feel frenetic, so we aren't compromising," she says. "It is getting us to be more creative. It isn't just about posting and networking. It is about getting your message out."
Renewed focus on star techies is leading to aggressive recruiting by the likes of eBay, Google, Microsoft and scores of other companies. Bidding wars -- and lawsuits -- sometimes result. Articles attesting to Google's power appear regularly: The Los Angeles Times recently published "Industry Feeling Presence of the 800-Pound Google," while LinuxInsider trumpeted "'Google Factor' to Drive Tech Exec Hiring in '06."
If all this doesn't convince you of the prevalence of the Google factor, consider this: One employer, after agreeing to an interview, decided against it, saying, "Google is too important a client to comment on any story in which they appear."
Attract the Upper Echelon
Some view Google as helping the techie job market by ramping up the level of excitement about the industry. Too many techies are "hunkered down" and not thinking about new opportunities, Eggers says. Google is "helping generate more interest in considering new positions."
Meanwhile, "companies are fighting each other left and right" to secure high tech stars, says George Tsipolitis, vice president of TopCoder, which runs the Google Code Jam, Google's annual coding competition. Yet he sees "a very small pool of companies" that really understand how to attract "the upper echelon."
Even if C-level executives acknowledge the need to secure creative stars, recruiters don't always take the necessary steps to find that talent, Tsipolitis says. Instead, they continue to rely on standard job profiles based on years of experience, acronym-filled lists of qualifications and the like. "When it translates down to the recruiters, they're set in working in a certain way."
Smaller Firms: Seek Affordable Talent
Of course, other companies far from the Silicon Valley frenzy view the hiring situation differently. Joshua Feinberg, cofounder of Computer Consulting 101, says systems integrators and small computer consulting businesses face a "very different staffing reality" than the likes of Google and Silicon Valley startups.
"While high tech startups seeking to innovate have to find the 'best and brightest,' IT consulting businesses and systems integrators have to find tech talent that they can afford," Feinberg says. They are restricted by such factors as rates paid by clients, so "hiring stars and prima donnas is typically not a good idea. It's usually much more important to find IT talent that is personable, well-organized, able to work well under pressure, resourceful and enjoys hand-holding when it comes to end-user support."
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