One Google Hiring Policy Startups Should Avoid

May 11th, 2007 Sean Murphy

I am on the Cisco Alumni Yahoo Group (link requires registration) which had this message from a recruiter forwarded to it today.

I am looking for a Sales Manager for the Central USA for Google

Compensation – $150K / $300K, with options

Locations – Dallas, Houston, or Atlanta

Requirements – These are the ONLY 3 musts…

1. MUST have a high GPA of 3.4 or above from college.
2. MUST be with or have come from a TOP Tier software company: (Oracle, Siebel, SAS, PeopleSoft, Microsoft, or our search competitor Autonomy)
3. Managed teams for the last 7 years.

There are many criteria you might consider for hiring a sales person, but their college GPA has to be one of the least useful indicators of future success. I think there is a temptation to mimic the policies of successful companies, but not every policy actually contributes to success.

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