Google exec claims non-hiring a deliberate policy

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Too have too much talent would be bad for the industry, exec says

By Stephen Lawson | San Francisco | Monday, 7 December, 2009

Google holds back from hiring some people it believes are doing good work, because it's better for the internet industry not to concentrate too much talent in one place, a Google executive claimed last week.

At the recent Supernova conference in San Francisco, Bradley Horowitz, a vice president of product management at Google, said causes such as transparency, openness and open standards are so critical that it's important there be wise, "clueful" people throughout the industry working for those issues.

"Recently I was having a discussion with an engineer at Google, and I pointed out a handful of people that I thought were clueful in the industry, and I proposed perhaps we should hire these people," Horowitz said.

"He said that these people were actually important to have outside of Google. It's better for the ecosystem to have an honest industry as opposed to aggregating all this talent at Google."

The need for pressure for the right causes goes both ways, too. "I think it's important that people keep Google on our toes and that people question us," Horowitz said.

The people Google didn't hire were never actually targeted by the company or approached with job offers, Horowitz said in a brief interview after his presentation. They were people who were helping to open up other companies and support goals that Google supports, he said.