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

Ironically at Google the worlds 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. Irnicamente en Google el lder
mundial de buscadores el talento ms alto viene a ellos, un fenmeno con su propio conjunto de retos
y oportunidades, como Ian Clover descubri.
The fundamental building block of Google's culture is that we hire like-minded people.-Liane
Hornsey El bloque de construccin fundamental de la cultura de Google es que contratamos personas
con una mentalidad afn 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 montn 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 hroes a cero y las relaciones puede florecer, florecen? y mueren. Tu solicitud de trabajo a
Google puede llegar a una conclusin parecida en este periodo tambin. Para una compaa que se
enorgullece de no ser burocrtica, un largo proceso de solicitud (=un largo proceso de seleccin?) no
solo parece innecesariamente lento y trabajoso, sino en desacuerdo con la reputacin 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 aqu en Google y queremos
protegerla; queremos asegurarnos de que no se diluir, dice Liane Hornset, vicepresidente? Global de
people operations. Ponemos una gran cantidad de esfuerzo en asegurarnos de que todas las personas
que contratamos tendrn 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 ms 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 aos, tuve 14 entrevistas alrededor de 2 continentes, y fue
realmente un proceso agotador* que tom varios meses. Desde entonces, hemos intentado limitar
nuestro nmero de entrevistas entre 4 y 6, posiblemente 8 como mximo. Pero la razn 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, sera
incapaz de tomar una decisin sobre contratacin por s misma; el proceso implicara* reuniones con
personal de departamentos importantes, potenciales gerentes de nivel medio e, incluso, aquellos que
estaran trabajando directamente bajo el solicitante. Si las historias son crebles, entonces, incluso el
propio Larry Page (co-fundador de Google) asegura que firma cada currculum antes de que el solicitante
pase de ser un soador 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.