IT HASN’T been a bad fortnight for Google, the internet company formed just eight years ago by two PhD students from Stanford University in the United States.

First it announced that it was buying YouTube, the video-sharing website, for $1.65 billion (£882 million). And then last week Google declared its best financial results — global advertising sales of £1.4 billion and profit of nearly £400 million in the three months to September, almost doubling its income over the same period last year.

Both of these announcements are a reminder of just how quickly Google Inc continues to expand, both in the US and beyond. “Our UK operation has grown rapidly in the past year,” says Nick Creswell, campus programmes manager for Google in Europe. “We have a lot of really talented people here in the UK, but the growth certainly hasn’t stopped yet.”

Graduate recruitment is now a key part of this growth and after launching its first campus hiring drive in the UK last year, Google was named the highest climber of the year in the latest edition of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. Graduate recruitment is mainly for the sales team but it is also looking for talented computer science graduates for its London engineering centre.

For those applying for non-technical positions, such as marketing and sales, degree subject is largely irrelevant. “But whatever you’ve studied, you do need to be very, very creative, highly analytical and good with words,” Creswell says. “For instance, sponsored links on Google contain just 95 characters so our sales team works with businesses to help them to understand how to pitch themselves effectively within those 95 characters.”

One of Google’s attractions is its distinctive working culture. “It’s a highly focused organisation, but at the same time it’s very friendly and informal. Our offices have games rooms, bean bags to sit around in, a completely free staff canteen and even massage chairs for relaxation,” Creswell says.

The excitement for most new recruits, though, is the chance to be part of a young, expanding organisation. “The way we operate means that it really is possible for graduates to impact the business very, very quickly. People tend to work in small teams and we have structured the company so that it’s extremely flexible and non-hierarchical.”

As well as its full-time vacancies, Google also offers student internships lasting anything from ten weeks to 11 months. “We took on about 20 interns to work in London this year,” Creswell says. “But it is also possible to do internships at our headquarters in Silicon Valley in California, as well as at our other offices around Europe, particularly in Dublin, our European head office.”



Martin Birchall is editor of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers

No 53 GOOGLE

What is it?
Since its launch in 1998, Google has become one of the world’s best-known internet brands and now ranks in the top five most popular sites in the world. It is the leading internet search engine in 16 countries and employs about 9,300 staff worldwide, including 500 in the United Kingdom.







Which graduate jobs are on offer?
Google expects to hire several hundred new graduates for its European operations over the next 12 months. Most vacancies are likely to be in software engineering or advertising sales, but there may also be opportunities in finance, HR, business operations and marketing.







Where are the jobs?
Most UK vacancies will be in London but Google’s European headquarters is in Dublin and the company is also hiring for its offices in Paris, Zurich, Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, Stockholm, Trondheim and Amsterdam.







What’s the pay like?
Salaries vary according to the job function and role.







What’s the competition like?
Considerable, but because Google has only just started recruiting graduates, total application numbers for 2005-06 are not yet available.







How do you apply?
Vist www.google.com/jobs/student and upload your CV and transcripts via the online application system.







How has Google done in the Top 100?
2002: Not ranked
2003: Not ranked
2004: Not ranked
2005: 85
2006: 53

Find out more about the best places to work in The Times Top 100 interactive table — www.timesonline.co.uk/top100grad

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