A job at Google is something many technologists dream of. It’s a steep climb, though; there’s a ton of competition, and Google can have its pick of the talent pool. But there are key details in its jobs data that might just help you land your dream job at on of its campuses worldwide.
We dug through data from Burning Glass’ NOVA jobs database, isolating Google from every other company on the planet (really; Burning Glass is extensive, and tracks everything), and limiting our scope to 2019 to-date. This data provides us with insight on all jobs at Google (and there are plenty), but we’ll focus on tech roles and the associated skill-sets this time.
We’ll first note there are three unique categories directly relevant to tech jobs at Google: “Information Technology,” “Engineering,” and “Science and Research.” In 2019, the company posted 879 IT jobs, an additional 241 for engineering roles, and 30 specific to science and research.
Some of the skills Google looks for are pretty vanilla. Within the 879 IT jobs, 250 job postings were looking for people skilled in “software engineering.” Another 104 wanted someone with “software development” skills. Though not all technologists are developers or engineers, these still seem like fairly generic skills for Google to search for... an indicator it’s either rounding out its general engineering and developer teams, or obfuscating what it’s really hiring for.
As you see above, Python and Java are the top two tech skills at Google. If we ignore some of the more generic skill-sets such as “project management,” C++, JavaScript, and Linux are also in high demand. (We’ll remind you this is specifically for the Information Technology designation.)
Python also pops up under “Engineering,” though only 17 of the 241 job postings call for it specifically. This category is ripe with more generic skills such as “software engineering” and “product management.” This designation seems to be more for managerial positions than developer roles.
Science and research also has many generic skills under its umbrella. This time, we get a bit more insight on what Google is looking for; “psychology” is called for five times, as is “data mining.” “Experiments” is the most in-demand skill here (10 positions), and “machine learning” is asked for in eight specific jobs. Psychology, experiments, data mining, and machine learning... it all sounds so Google, doesn’t it?
One skill we’re surprised not to see is Kotlin. As Google loudly and diligently plods forward with its plan to move beyond Java with Kotlin, it just isn’t showing up in the company’s jobs data. We also don’t see Google-born skills such as Go or Dart, though other data sources indicate the two languages are widely used.
If you want a tech job at Google, Python is the best skill to know. It pops up throughout the data, and is a huge driver for tech jobs at the company.
