A Google recruiter reveals the 4 criteria the tech giant uses to select candidates and what a successful résumé should look like

• Google is continuing to hire despite mass layoffs in the tech industry.
• Jess Penkhues is a recruiter at Google for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.
• She told Insider the four key criteria the company uses to select candidates.

This is an edited, translated version of an article that originally appeared on November 15, 2022.

Despite mass layoffs in the tech industry, Google is currently hiring for 2,334 jobs worldwide, according to its website.

Jess Penkhues is a recruiter at Google, covering Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. She told Insider the four key criteria the company uses to select candidates and what it looks for in a résumé.

Penkhues said that the wide variety of Google products means "we are open to people with a wide variety of professional experiences."

"That includes software engineering, UX design and product development, project management, systems consulting, HR, and sales," she said.

Google accepts applications via its careers page or through referrals from employees.

The tech giant uses a "skills-first" hiring approach. "We are primarily looking for skills, not specific qualifications or previous experience," she added.

Résumé tips

Applicants don't need to submit a cover letter, Penkhues said. "What counts is the résumé."

Your résumé should be clear, concise, and ideally no longer than 1 ½ to two pages.

"I advise potential applicants to look closely at job postings and tailor their résumés accordingly," she added.

For example, those applying to software development roles should prominently display which programming languages they are proficient in, Penkhues said.

Candidates should use the X-Y-Z formula for a successful résumé, Emily Salkey, a program manager at Google, previously told Insider.

The formula, which was devised by Google's former senior vice president of people operations, Laszlo Bock, suggests applicants present their accomplishments in the following format: accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z.

"In other words, start with an active verb, numerically measure what you accomplished, provide a baseline for comparison, and detail what you did to achieve your goal," Bock wrote in a LinkedIn post about his formula.

He also provided an example from a sample résumé: "Studied financial performance of companies and made investment recommendations."

Bock then reworked this to read: "Improved portfolio performance by 12% ($1.2M) over one year by refining cost of capital calculations for information-poor markets and re-weighting portfolio based on resulting valuations."

The 4 criteria Google uses to select candidates

"We don't do an assessment center," Penkhues said, adding that candidates usually face three to five interviews.

"For us, we've found that there are four criteria that are highly predictive of a successful career at Google," she added.

The four criteria are:

Fit for the job: Do you have the appropriate experience and skills for the advertised position?

Cognitive skills: How do you make decisions? What data sources do you consider? How do you weigh things up?

Leadership skills: Do you have the ability to take responsibility and drive innovation?

Googliness: How will you make Google better? How do you work in a team? How do you deal with feedback?

Those who excel in these four criteria are not only well-qualified for a job at Google but for a successful long-term career within the corporation, Penkhues said, adding that managers are expected to develop their teams keeping these criteria in mind.

"They make sure everyone has appropriate 'stretch' opportunities to be promoted internally," she said.

Every employee has a personal-development plan that managers work on with their teams to help them grow, and there are also learning and development programs to help deepen expertise and expand skills, Penkhues said.

"Googlers often move into many different roles over the course of their time with us," she added.