Wednesday, February 26, 2014

What do Employers Want? You'd be Surprised

Can there be anything cooler than working at Google?  Probably not--especially if your dream job is to help shape our digital future.

So how can you get a job at Google?  What does the company look for in prospective employees?  According to a recent New York Times' interview with Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of Google's people operations (that's actually his job title), the answer might surprise you.

While good college grades, according to Bock, are always a plus, they're not the only thing Google looks for when hiring employees.  Bock says that one of the most important skills workers can bring to a Google job is the ability to think clearly and critically and "to pull together disparate pieces of information."

Other key skills: leadership, ownership, commitment, and intellectual humility.  "It's feeling the sense of responsibility, the sense of ownership, to step in" to try to solve problems, Bock explains. 

At the same time, employees must also be able to realize that others' ideas may sometimes be better.  

"Without humility, you are unable to learn,"  Bock says.

What can you take away from Google's hiring criteria?  First, being a good thinker and problem solver matters.  But also very important are curiosity, leadership, collaboration, and an openness to learning from others.  

All are skills you can learn (or improve) in and out of the classroom at NCC.  Even if your career plans don't include Google or anything else digital, there's some useful advice here worth filing away.  

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