Public Policy Blog
Updates on technology policy issues
Help wanted: Google hiring in 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Posted by Alan Eustace, SVP Engineering and Research
(Cross-posted from the
Official Google Blog
.)
2010 was a huge year for Google. Many of our big bets—on mobile, display advertising, the cloud and more—really started to pay off. Amazingly, Android now runs on over 100 devices with more than 300,000 activations each day. Chrome has at least 120 million active users and
it’s growing quickly
. Last year more than 1 million businesses switched to Google Apps and embraced its
100% web approach
. And we’ve made search
faster than ever
, even when
you’re on the go
.
But it wasn’t just a growth year for our products—the company grew as well. In 2010 we added more than 4,500 Googlers, primarily in engineering and sales: second only to 2007 when we added over 6,000 people to Google.
I love Google because of our people. It's inspiring to be part of the team. And that's why I am excited about 2011—because it will be our biggest hiring year in company history. We’re looking for top talent—
across the board and around the globe
—and we’ll hire as many smart, creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science: like building a
web-based operating system
from scratch,
instantly searching
an index of more than 100 million gigabytes and even developing
cars that drive themselves
. There’s something at Google for everyone—from geo, to enterprise, to video—with most of the work done in small teams, effectively working as start-ups. (The average number of software engineers on a project at Google is 3.5.) That’s why the vast majority of our people stay with us, building their careers and taking on new challenges within the company.
I joined Google more than eight years ago—when we had barely 500 employees and still used Outlook for email and AIM for chat—and while there have been many changes, Google is still the same entrepreneurial company it was when I started, encouraging Googlers to take on big ideas and high-risk, high-reward opportunities.
If you think you want to join the team, check out
google.com/jobs
.
Tens of thousands of highly skilled workers turned away
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Posted by Keith Wolfe, Global Mobility Manager and Pablo Chavez, Senior Policy Counsel
As was the case
last year
, tens of thousands of highly skilled individuals hoping to work in the United States recently learned that they'll be unable to do so. About 163,000
H-1B
applications were filed this year, significantly more than the 65,000 cap. Those lucky enough to win the H-1B lottery will be allowed to work in the U.S., but the rest will be turned away.
As for Google, this year we submitted 300 H-1B applications, and we're sorry to report that 90 hopefuls were denied. The yearly H-1B lottery continues to affect our employees and our business, which is why we continue to urge the U.S. government to increase the artificially low cap on these visas.
We realize that many people have strong views on the topic of immigration. Some
commenters
to our
recent post on H-1Bs
criticized Google for not hiring more Americans. Although we're committed to hiring outstanding American candidates, Google hires employees based on skills and qualifications, not on nationality. Many times our strongest candidates are Americans; in fact, about nine out of ten of our U.S.-based employees are citizens or permanent residents. But if we're to remain an innovative company -- one that is creating jobs in the U.S. every day -- we also need to hire exceptional candidates who happen to have been born elsewhere. After all, if we were to hire only U.S.-born talent, we would effectively close ourselves off from most of the world's population, and tools like
Google News
and
orkut
(both of which were invented by former H-1B visa holders) may have never been developed.
Other
commenters
suggested that Google should fund education for underprivileged American students, to better prepare American students to fill technical jobs. We agree, and that's why for many years we've supported hundreds of students through our
scholarship
programs, and we've sought to encourage K-12 students nationwide to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering, and math through partnerships with organizations like
Citizen Schools
, the
National Center for Women & Information Technology
, and others. We've also worked to build a
diverse
workforce, recruiting historically-underrepresented computer scientists and engineers and partnering with external organizations committed to diversifying the fields in which we work.
Google receives more than one million resumes each year, and we don't cut corners on talent. Our employees are our greatest competitive advantage and the single most important ingredient to ensuring our future growth and success. Simply put, restricting Google and other tech companies from employing the best and brightest minds is restrictive to our ability to grow and innovate.
We continue to urge the U.S. government to raise the H-1B cap, to ensure that we and other American companies are able to attract, hire, and retain the world's top talent.
Raise the cap on H-1B visas
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Posted by Pablo Chavez, Senior Policy Counsel, and Keith Wolfe, Global Mobility Manager
Today marks the annual deadline for employers to submit their H-1B visa applications for 2009. Last year, more than 150,000 applications were submitted in just two days, more than twice the annual limit of 65,000, and many are predicting a similar deluge this year. Unfortunately, due to the artificially low cap on these visas, tens of thousands of highly skilled workers hoping to contribute to the American economy are once again likely to be sent home to work outside of the U.S.
As a technology company, Google's success depends on its ability to attract, hire, and retain the best and brightest wherever they come from. But because of limits on H-1Bs, we are regularly unable to pursue highly qualified foreign-born candidates. Last year, 248 of our visa applications were accepted, but 70 were rejected -- more than 1 in 5 of our total. That's 70 potential U.S. employees who would be creating innovative new Google products, paying taxes, contributing to the U.S. economy, and spurring the creation of additional support jobs at Google.
This year, Google will submit H-1B applications for about 300 potential employees, mostly recent college or graduate school graduates. We know that those employees could have a major impact on Google's future ability to innovate on behalf of our users. From developing products like
Google News
,
Google Maps
, and
orkut
, to managing our business and global marketing operations, highly skilled foreign workers have played -- and continue to play -- a vital role at Google. That's why Laszlo Bock, our Vice President for People Operations,
testified
on this issue before Congress last spring, and why, as a member of
Compete America
, we've
urged
Congress to increase the annual cap.
Several Members of Congress understand that the H-1B cap must be raised if the United States hopes to maintain its status as the world's high-tech leader. Recently
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
(D-AZ) introduced
legislation
that would effectively double the cap in the near-term, and in early March
Rep. Lamar Smith
(R-TX)
proposed
tripling it. And we know that other members of Congress are highly supportive of addressing the H-1B problem as well.
We welcome Congress' work on this issue, and we continue to urge Congress to raise the cap to reflect the growth rate of our technology-driven economy. If Google and other American companies are unable to hire and employ in the U.S. the world's top scientists, mathematicians, and engineers -- many of whom are already here studying at an American university -- foreign competitors will and we will lose opportunities to create more jobs and innovate here at home. As the
San Jose Mercury News
put it, "we shouldn't close the doors to the Andy Groves and [Sergey] Brins of the future."
Google's "People Operations" Guy Talks Immigration Policy
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel
Today, there are literally hundreds of examples of immigrants and non-immigrant foreign workers playing a vital role at Google. Googlers holding H-1B visas -- which allow foreign-born workers with specialized skills to work in the U.S. on a temporary basis -- have helped lead the development of Google News and orkut. Immigrants from countries like Canada, Iran, and Switzerland now lead our business operations, global marketing, global business development, and data infrastructure operations.
As Congress grapples with various immigration reform proposals,
Laszlo Bock
, our Vice President of People Operations, testified today before the
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration
about the practical impact that the U.S. immigration system has on Google.
In his
testimony
, Laszlo said that, due to limits on the number of H-1B visas, Google is regularly unable to pursue highly qualified candidates. Over the last year alone, the artificially low cap has prevented more than 70 Google candidates from receiving H-1B visas. Laszlo encouraged Congress to significantly increase the annual cap of 65,000 H-1B visas, and urged them to address the backlog of employment-based green cards for highly-skilled workers.
Check out the video of Laszlo's opening statement:
Keeping Google and America Competitive
Monday, May 14, 2007
Posted by Pablo Chavez, Policy Counsel, and Keith Wolfe, Global Mobility Manager
Google's continued success depends on our ability to recruit and retain the best and brightest. One of the tools we've used to do that is the U.S.
H-1B visa program
, which allows foreign-born workers with specialized skills to work in the U.S. on a temporary basis.
Unfortunately, the current program just isn't keeping pace with the number of high-skilled immigrants who want to work at companies like Google. Last month, the U.S. government started accepting applications for H-1B visas for the period starting this fall, and was quickly swamped with more than 123,000 petitions in just the first two days. Because Congress has only allowed 65,000 visas each year, they are being awarded by a
lottery system
.
Why does this matter? In disciplines like math, science and engineering, half or more of the post-graduate degrees at U.S. universities are awarded to foreign nationals, and keeping those workers in the U.S. is key to our future economic growth. In fact, immigrants have played a critical role in the explosion of the U.S. Internet economy. According to the
National Venture Capital Association
, over the past 15 years one out of every four public companies backed by venture capital was started by an immigrant -- including Google and eBay. Here at Google, about seven to ten percent of our U.S.-based employees are in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. Without these employees, we might not be able to develop future life-changing products like the next Gmail or Google Earth.
When there aren't enough H-1B visas, some of our most talented employees have to leave the U.S. When that happens we do our best to relocate those Googlers to one of our other offices around the world, although we'd much prefer to have them stay working here in the U.S. (their expertise may be best suited to projects we're working on in the U.S., plus we don't have offices everywhere). When we can't relocate them, we may lose them entirely.
So we need to reform the H-1B program -- especially by expanding the number of visas awarded each year. This is an essential step toward keeping the U.S. high-tech industry competitive with the rest of the world.
To press this issue, Google recently joined a coalition called
Compete America
, a group of companies, educators, research groups and trade associations that is working hard on these issues in Washington. Increasing the annual cap on H-1Bs is the group's top priority, and we'll be working with Congress to enact reforms to the program. Our goal is to accomplish immigration reform for high-skilled workers before the 2008 presidential elections and hopefully sooner.
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