- Google is one of America’s most highly sought after companies to work for.
- But Google is also notoriously competitive and selective about employees.
- Google hires people with relevant job skills, intelligence, leadership abilities, and “Googleyness.”
For years, Google has cultivated a reputation for being one of the best US companies to work for.
With consistently high rankings in areas like compensation, office perks (the Googleplex famously boasts amenities like swimming pools, gardens, massage rooms, and more), innovative and meaningful work, and low stress, it’s no wonder tech industry workers have clamored for roles at Google.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had more than 182,500 employees as of 2023, and not all of them were tech jobs. Google also offers roles in sales, marketing, business strategy, finance, maintenance, legal, and more.
It’s not all roses, though. Like much of the tech industry, layoffs at Google have become more commonplace in recent years. Alphabet laid off 12,000 employees in 2023, and CEO Sundar Pichai warned of more layoffs in 2024.
Still, the Google Careers website lists hundreds of job openings worldwide, across all sorts of divisions — some roles are specific to Google’s search engine, others are for YouTube, and others are for projects within Google’s suite of productivity apps, like Google Classroom.
Here’s what you need to know to land one of Google’s open jobs.
How to get a job at Google
Getting hired at Google is notoriously competitive.
One former Google recruiter said the company primarily uses an internal database to find candidates, but the second-most popular way to scout potential employees is LinkedIn — build out your profile and use it to connect with people who already work there and can give you a referral.
The recruiter said one of the best ways to stand out among Google’s candidate pool is to network with a “giving approach.” For example, job candidates should email hiring managers directly to make a connection and then steer the conversation to express interest in a specific role.
The recruiter also encouraged job applicants to tailor their resumes to individual job descriptions and, during the interview process, describe details of how they solved a problem in a past role.
Is it difficult to get hired at Google?
Google is known throughout the tech industry for having a lengthy, difficult hiring process, and for being ultra-selective about its candidates. Of the 2 million job applications Google receives each year, it hires roughly 4,000.
Google bases its hiring decisions on four key metrics: job-related skills, general cognitive ability, leadership abilities (even for non-managerial roles!), and what the company calls “Googleyness” — meaning how well your personality will fit in at Google.
Former Google executives and recruiters have defined “Googleyness” as a mixture of proactiveness, positivity, humility, playfulness, conscientiousness, and openness to learning.
Google also has a multi-step hiring process. It encourages people to start by self-reflecting on what they truly want out of a career. Then, search and apply for a job on the company’s website.
Google suggests applicants build a job-specific resume that ties their skills and experience to the job requirements. Including data to illustrate your successes in managing projects will help your resume stand out.
One Google engineer who shared the resume that helped him land a $300,000 job at the company recommended de-emphasizing educational credentials, emphasizing items that are more relevant, and adding a section for interests or hobbies — you never know if it could spark conversation and help break the ice.
Google’s hiring process has been revamped in recent years to reduce delays, particularly for tech roles like software engineers and UX designers. Candidates used to labor through months of interviews, then fail at the stage where Google matches the candidate with a team.
Now, candidates are assigned teams much earlier, and some can skip over certain stages. It’s common for applicants to undergo at least three or four interview rounds before receiving an offer, however.
Can I work at Google from home?
Like most companies, Google allowed employees to work remotely throughout the pandemic. But Google cracked down on remote work in 2023, and implemented a new policy requiring workers to return to the office at least three days a week on a hybrid schedule.
Google now offers remote opportunities by exception only. The company has even said it would tie in-office attendance to an employee’s performance review.
Do you need experience to work at Google?
The experience Google requires for job candidates varies by role, as does education.
There’s no one particular college degree that will get you in the door at Google — and, in fact, company executives have said they’ll hire “exceptional” candidates who have no college degree at all. But don’t get too excited; experts say college degrees are still the most reliable pathways to high-paying tech jobs.
If your goal is to become a software engineer at Google, it makes sense that a computer science degree might be beneficial. But Google does not explicitly require one for most software engineering roles.
Google offers jobs with a range of experience requirements, from interns, to mid-career, to executive level. Here are some examples:
- A data center technician role requires two years of experience in “operating systems and networking protocols,” with maintenance and monitoring of server systems and troubleshooting servers and network hardware.
- A supply chain program manager requires five years of experience in program or project management and systems and hardware product design or manufacturing. A supply chain, manufacturing, or similar degree is also required.
- A staff software engineer requires a bachelor’s degree, eight years of software development experience, five years of testing and launching software products and machine learning algorithms and tools, and three years of software design.