Seriously. Find out. Ask your next prospective hire if you can see what they Google…
Relax if you are the one who has something to hide on Google. Even with Google’s hiring product Google Hire, they will not release this information to an employer.
If you really want to dig deep into someone, ask a sales rep for his/her last 3 years of W-2s and a software engineer for their Google search history. These are not the esoteric questions you read about in Silicon Valley. They are questions that will get you good intel.
If you looked at mine right now, you would see random workout videos, Karate Kid highlights for my kids, tutorials on how to recruit on GitHub and coffee websites. Basically, you would see I’m trying to figure out life and add value to clients of STS Talent and Sumato Coffee. But I digress…
Hiring Manager said: Every candidate we interview I check the number of Google searches a candidate does and if it is a software engineer role, I check the Stack Overflow posts a candidate looked at. The more relevant their search history, the higher the chances are we hire them. Said no-one ever…
Think about it. We are slightly the product of what we research and become curious about. If a candidate’s search history is junk, good chance they are junk. If a candidate’s search history is full of curious ways to make themselves better, good chance they are curious and hungry to learn more in their trade.
You can tell what someone is into by their search history. It should tell you they are trying to get better at something in life. Maybe they are into guitar, and they have videos of guitar players, and so on. Now you know the person wants to get damn good at guitar. Don’t judge, just see what they are into.
What are you searching? If I went through your Google search history what would it say? If you are a software engineer and I went through your Stack Overflow posts…what problems are you solving?
Stay open-minded. Stay curious. Keep learning. Dig deep. Find people who would have a search history on Google worth talking about.
Ben Martinez – family guy, coffee critic, planker, and HR & Recruiting journeyman. He has successfully worked in HR leadership roles around the US and Mexico for Fortune 500 companies (Pepsi, Honeywell, and Energizer). Most recently he was the VP of People & Culture for HireVue, where he hired 400+ people in almost five years using video, social media, and created the employment brand, VueNation in partnership with HireVue.
Ben now runs his own consulting company, Ramp Talent, where they ramp recruiting and HR for startups. From recruiting ready-to-go talent to implementing ongoing best practices to preventing legal headaches, we build the first HR and recruiting systems for fast-growing startups.
PS – coffee is for closers – Ben founded an e-commerce subscription coffee company focused on re-imagining coffee in the workplace and home – Sumato Coffee Co. They only roast your beans within 48 hours of your order.
Ben lives in the SLC, Utah area.