If you get jobs sent to you online, you may have seen them every once in a while: jobs available at Google.com. "That sounds like fun," you say to yourself, although if you're like me that's probably based on some very superficial ideas of an outdated '90's dot-com workplace. Still, they do hire and they take their hiring seriously, just like everyone else. Molly Simms talks with Human Resources and Staffing Manager for Advertising Sales Charlie Gray about what it takes to get on the Google team:

How does a candidate search at Google work? The bulk of candidates come to the company, either through job postings or employee referrals. In fact, if you're interested in becoming a full-time Googler, you'd do well to buddy up with a current employee. Gray explains that a "huge amount" of the entity's hires, about 50 percent, are through employee referrals. Given that the site's the gateway to the Internet for millions of Americans (as well as a verb), Google never suffers from a lack of applicants: "I mean, a lot of people want to work at Google," Gray affirms. For upper-level management roles and other senior positions, Google will sometimes buy research or do outreach to find candidates. Those tasks, Gray says, are some of the "bigger challenges" for the company's recruiters.

Entry level jobs at Google are typically in the "inside sales" department. "We have an inside sales team that can hire and train junior people into the media business," Gray explains. For the company's national "outside sales" team, entry-level candidates can join as account coordinators. These individuals do "all-around work" for a sales team. One in-demand position at Google is that of account strategist. Individuals with this title are responsible for constructing the advertisements that appear with Google's search results, and tracking the performance of these ads. When seeking out account strategists, Gray says the company looks for candidates with "a combination of writing and editing abilities as well as technical skills, because the product has become so complex." According to Gray, the ideal person for the job should be able to "maintain campaigns in many different ways-both in terms of copy for the ad and in terms of campaign measurement." Next, an account strategist must measure their campaign results and return on investment. Gray says this role is "kind of technical and literate at the same time." As expected, Google also has thriving marketing and IT departments.

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