[Marinir] [auri] OOT: How Google Searches -- For Talent

[Yap Hong Gie]

I am proud to be Indonesian, and prouder after reading the article below.

Have a great weekend.

Cheers,
Henry


From: r poltak nainggolan [mailto:poltak at tekalumni.co.id]
Subject: [auri] OOT: How Google Searches -- For Talent

Dear all,
Berita ini tidak ada hubungan dengan aviasi, namun perlu untuk diketahui
karena cukup membanggakan prestasi anak-anak muda Indonesia. Apalagi mereka
menang di Bangalore - Silicone Valley nya India.

Have a nice weekend
Poltak
---

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_15/b3928076.htm?campaign_id=
rss_magzn

At the India Code Jam, only the hottest software writers need apply

Mar. 26 heralds the opening of the spring season in India, a day celebrated
with riotous color and revelry. But in one corner of Bangalore, India's info
tech hub, the sunny Saturday is heavy with tension. At an Internet cafe, a
group of engineers and math majors, all in their 20s, hunch over terminals,
ready to write some killer code -- and, with luck, launch careers with one
of the world's premier tech companies, Google Inc. (GOOG )

It's the Google India Code Jam, a contest to find the most brilliant coder
in South and Southeast Asia. The fastest will win $6,900 -- and more
important, the offer of a coveted job at one of Google's research and
development centers. At the stroke of 10:30 a.m., the contestants begin,
emerging exhausted three hours later. "It's been incredibly difficult and
awesome," says Nitin Gupta, a computer science undergrad at the Indian
Institute of Technology at Bombay.

Google has staged Code Jams in the U.S., but this is its first such bakeoff
in Asia, and the response is huge. Some 14,000 aspirants registered from all
over South and Southeast Asia for the first round in February. The top 50
were selected for the finals in Bangalore: 39 from India, 8 from Singapore,
and 3 from Indonesia. "It's a dog-eat-dog world," says Robert Hughes,
president of TopCoder Inc., the Glastonbury (Conn.) testing company that
runs the Code Jams. "Wherever the best talent is, Google wants them."

And the winner is...one of these clever IIT grads from India, right?
Surprisingly, no. Ardian Poernomo, a third-year undergrad computer
engineering student at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, lands
in first place. The No. 2 finisher, Pascal Alfadian, a second-year student
at the Universitas Katolik Parahyangan in West Java, is Indonesian, too.
Poernomo didn't commit to taking a job with Google, however: He may go for a
PhD in computer science in the U.S.

Still, Google now has a new pool of Asian talent to choose from. According
to Krishna Bharat, head of Google's India R&D center, all the finalists will
be offered jobs. And Google needs them. The search company has been
frustrated by its inability to find top-notch engineers for its year-old
Indian center, according to industry insiders. Its Bangalore staff now
totals 25, but it was hoping to have signed up at least 100 engineers by
last December. Bharat refuses to discuss the company's difficulty in filling
its ranks, except to say: "It has been a challenging year."

WAR GAMES
Google's frustrations in India stem from two factors. One is the red-hot job
market in Indian tech. Engineering students are assured a job a year before
they graduate. But Google makes things hard for itself by having some of the
most exacting hiring standards going. The contest is an example.
Participants are tested on aptitude in problem solving, on designing and
writing code, and on testing peer-written work. Finalists are asked to
create and test software for unique Web searches and to get from point A to
B in a city with a minimum number of turns. The final challenge is
programming a war-based board game, a task so complex that only winner
Poernomo completes it.

For Google, the Code Jam will serve as a short cut through its hiring
regime. Candidates normally go through a seven-stage process that can last
months -- and, at the end of it, they're more likely to be rejected than
hired. Much of that screening can be set aside for Code Jam winners.

For Wunderkinder like Poernomo, Google can be patient. Stanford grad Jon
McAlister was the 2001 winner of TopCoder's U.S. Collegiate Code Jam, but
didn't sign up with Google until 2004. He eventually rejected competing
offers from Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) "Google
is the genuine engineering company," says McAlister. Google hopes its India
finalists think so, too.

By Josey Puliyenthuruthel in Bangalore