“You’re in a car with a helium balloon on a string that is tied to the floor. The windows are closed. When you step on the gas pedal, what happens to the balloon—does it move forward, move backward, or stay put?”
That’s one of the legendary Google interview questions that have been circulating across the internet over the past few years. Google is always looking for the smartest thinkers and people that fit into their “Googley” culture.
Internship, the comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson took a lighthearted look at the Google culture of being “Googley”. Although the movie wasn’t a blockbuster hit, a lot of people got a look into what goes on at their Mountain View campus. So what is this Googley and how can Google find more people that have it.
Well Geekwire reports that last month Google submitted a patent application called “Identifying Prospective Employee Candidates via Employee Connections”.
The abstract from the US Patent and Trademark Office says:
Various implementations for identifying prospective employee candidates via employee connections are disclosed. In some implementations, a system includes an employee identification module, a candidate identification module, and an interface module. The employee identification module identifies at least one first user as an employee of an employer based at least in part on employer information. The candidate identification module identifies at least one second user as a prospective employee candidate based at least in part on social graph connection information including at least a social graph connection between the first user and the second user. The interface module generates a summary of the second user as the prospective employee candidate and provides the summary for display to a third user. The interface module is coupled to a communication unit to provide the summary for display to the third user.
All of that, along with the entire application describes the way Google is going to mine a prospective candidate’s open social graph to find out if the candidate is a good fit with Google.
“This would be a logical approach for Google, which places a premium on its employees being “Googley,” by conforming to the values the company holds dear. It should stand to reason that if you know a certain population is the right fit for your corporate culture, someone who’s well-connected to those people may be better able to fit in.” GeekWire’s Blair Hanley Frank said.
Google will also be evaluating candidate’s social graphs to evaluate an employees performance at a company, under the assumption that friends of top performers are most likely top performers as well.
Check out more at Geekwire and here at the USPTO filing.
