Hiring Tips From Google
By Anna Johnson on December 15th, 2008Speaking at the recent Le Web Internet conference in Paris on December 9-10, 2008, Google’s Marissa Mayer offered a simple, yet powerful, tip for hiring staff.
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reports that Marissa Mayer said she likes to hire people with two key traits: they’re smart, and they get things done.
For his part, Michael Arrington says such people are rare, but are worth spending the time to find. But don’t expect interviews and reference checks to sort out these people from the rest. TechCrunch tries most people it hires for a month before hiring them permanently and also uses internships as a hiring ground.
I used to think that as long as you provided good training and comprehensive operational systems, the best staff to hire were those who could follow instructions. While that may be true for some kinds of jobs, it certainly isn’t appropriate for jobs requiring people to make important decisions in challenging and ever-changing environments. Operational systems are still ideal for taking the thinking out of routine tasks and processes, but they can never replace thinking.
Moreover, you can’t expect people to make the right decisions if they expect manuals to give them the answers. You need people who are naturally inclined to find answers to complex questions, and who then take action on those answers.
Which, of course, can be summarized as… people who are smart and get things done!
