We all want to occupy promising and prestigious positions, have a a solid salary and at least two vacations a year. You won’t find a CEO, who didn’t dream of working for Microsoft or Google. Still, most of us give up on our dreams because too much work has to be done before coming a bit closer to the cherished goal.
If you are not afraid of challenges, or if you are a recruiter, who wants to increase the quality of the workforce, check the hiring experience of giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.
Let’s start our little journey to the world of the reputable CEOs and HR managers.
Things that Do Matter
If taking Google as a basis, we get the following list of “must-haves” for “premium” job seekers. So, a reputable recruiter values:
- Reasonable leadership qualities. Leadership qualities of the ordinary employee are far from those that a manager, CEO, or the Vice President should have. A perfect Google employee knows when to take a lead and when to leave a place for someone more experienced.
- Tech skills. The overall idea about the basic software isn’t enough for Google team. If you can’t boast of technical skills, you should better upgrade your knowledge before applying. If you don’t know how to list those skills on your resume, turn to the methodology of resume professional writers and get the answer.
- The way of thinking. During the interview, Google representative asks the questions that help understand a lot about the candidate’s behavior. For instance, he may ask: “Tell me about the solution that you made under the extra-stressful conditions”.
- You as a person. You might think that only the professional qualities matter but your personal features are also very important. Every top HR manager will ask about your priorities, interests, and hobbies.
Fact: Apple executives pay more attention to the personality and enthusiasm rather than to the knowledge of the products. Amazon headhunters focus on the flexible employees that manage to grow and perform different duties over the long period.
Are Soft Skills that Important?
Top HR managers don’t want to lose the moon while counting the stars. So, they don’t focus on the job-related skills only. Creativity, flexibility, resourcefulness, ability to brainstorm extraordinary solutions fast, ability to work in a team are in a high demand.
It is necessary to remember about the soft skills you have and mention them in your resume along with the examples.
So, How Do the Leading Companies Hire Employees?
The hiring approaches of companies might be different but here are common steps that every reputable HR manager makes:
All major companies from different spheres place job boards or career pages, use an employee referral system and headhunting. Google also tends to provoke competition to get candidacies with the needed skills.
If you applied for a job via the career page or a job ad, you will receive an email with an invitation to the telephone interview. The interviewing process may be via Google Hangouts or Skype. Still, if your friend (an employee) recommended you, an HR coordinator (interviewer) will more likely to skip this step.
Google and Amazon prefer to invite other employees to the interview to reach a better “objectivity”. The companies even let the employees talk to the candidate and then ask about their impressions.
The last stage is a decision of the independent committee. Amazon calls such experts “bar raisers”. They can review up to ten people that apply for a job to different departments per week. They can’t review people that are going to work in their department. It’s such an interesting approach, isn’t it?
How about Unordinary Questions in Interviews?
If you decided to get a job in Google or Apple, there might be the unexpected questions during the interview. People, who have already come through the interviewing process on Amazon say that the questions are quite tricky:
- “If you know our CEO, how do you pronounce his name?”
- “How would you solve this issue if you were from the Mars?”
The questions from the Apple interviewer are more common but you still have to think good before answering:
- “Why Apple?” one of the most frequently asked questions.
- “How would you explain to a 7-year-old child what’s a Wi-Fi is?”
Google HR coordinators also prepared tricky questions for the future employees:
“What is your kryptonite?” How would you answer this question?
As you see, the leading companies reached these heights not only with the help of the qualified professionals. Creativity and extraordinary mind play a huge role. Therefore, if you dream of the working in Google, make sure that you know what’s your kryptonite.
