Want job at Google? Get ‘googliness’
dubai — Dressing casually, showing up to work whenever you please, napping in the middle of the day and indulging in free food — these are just some of the perks of working at Google.
The general managing director of Mena at Google gave students at the Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai insights into what it’s like to work at the firm that’s worth the second highest globally. He also shared tips on how one can get a job at Google.
Online salary calculator Glassdoor.com estimates the salary of a software engineer at Google to be $126,788 (Dh465,655) per year. For a senior software engineer, the figure is at $163,158 (Dh599,279) per year.
Lino Cattaruzzi said he simply applied for a job at the firm’s website 16 years ago and got a call back. Today, Google has 60,000 employees all around the world and is worth one of the topmost valuable brand globally, second after Apple.
“Ninety per cent of the employees at Google would say what they enjoy most about working there is the people. There’s a lot of inspiring people who work there. There are a lot of perks, but the main reason we do this is because we really want to maximise the profits of each individual. To do that, we give them flexibility. They can dress as they want. You should be yourself when you come into the office. This makes the employees happy and helps maximise profits,” he said.
“We are very careful when we choose Google employees. We look at four things. We look at how smart they are, because smart people make smart things — that’s a fair assumption. Second, how much they know about what they are going to do. Obviously, the more senior the person is, the more we expect them to know. Third is the leadership potential and fourth is ‘Googliness’ of people. In our culture, we work very openly and everyone can contribute ideas. We also believe in respecting diversity.”
You should be yourself when you come into the office. This makes the employees happy and helps maximise profits.”
Our main source of income is advertising and to make advertising relevant we need to understand what customers are looking for.” Lino Cattaruzzi, general managing director of Mena, Google
Cattaruzzi said Google gives its staff “freedom” in terms of showing up to work whenever they please, however, employees need to set the right framework to use that freedom effectively.
“We try to define what we need to achieve in a given period of time. So, if you come to the office for a while, that’s great, we clap. And if you come for a number of hours, that’s great too,” he said.
When asked if Google hires interns, Cattaruzzi said they hire 50 per cent of the world’s PhD holders and aims to find the “best talent”.