You're Hired! ... According to Google's Algorithm

It probably won't be your 4.0 GPA that lands you a job at Google. But it might be the fact that you have pets. Or the fact that you started a club.

In typical Google fashion, the company has created a new method for sifting through the 100,000+ job applicants itching to work at Google each month. The company has ditched the typical hiring methods in their quest to hire more well-rounded candidates. (Source: nytimes.com)

Job applicants will now be asked to fill out a survey which assesses intelligence and personality. The algorithm will then rate each candidate on a scale from 0 to 100. (Source: nytimes.com)

The resulting algorithm is the brainchild of Google's Vice President for People Operations, Laszlo Bock. Bock saw that academic performance and interviews are often poor performance predictors. Unfortunately, these were the aspects that Google relied on most. (Source: nytimes.com)

The new method highlights Google's concentration on organizational culture. Finding the best candidate often means finding a person who not only possesses intelligence but also fits in with the organization. Consequently, the survey was created by initially surveying existing Google employees. (Source: theregister.co.uk)

Google has created different surveys for various areas including engineering, sales, and human resources. It now uses the surveys for about 15 percent of job candidates, but the company plans to put the new method in full force this month. (Source: nytimes.com)

Although Google is confident that its innovative hiring method will breed successful employees, the system has been met with criticism. Some suggest that algorithm-minded companies are likely to overlook problems that cannot be solved with algorithms. Others also suggest that biases are often unknowingly built into algorithms by its creators. (Source: theregister.co.uk)

It is too soon to know whether or not Google's algorithm will be successful. If it does prove to be a hit, Google may set a new yet another standard.