Google, Microsoft recruiting 6200 in talent war

Will search tools be needed to sift through applications for a record number of jobs this quarter?

Google and Microsoft, locked in a battle for customers, resellers and talent, are on hiring sprees, posting 86 Australian job vacancies in the past day for roles as diverse as channel managers, information security specialists and a corporate spokesman.

It was part of a wider talent refresh that will see the respective tech titans compete for the favours of IT workers, inducting them into more than 1600 and 4600 positions in coming months.

Google's uplift was in line with expectations to recruit 6200 globally this year when it was expected to hire more people than in any year in its history as revealed in a January blog post; last year Google hired 4500, second to 2007 when it hired 6000. 

A Google spokesman said the ad-search giant was hiring 500 staff in the Asia-Pacific and Japan this year; the recently advertised roles were a 16 percent lift in Australian headcount.

And while Google's Australian jobs were confined to the harbour city, Microsoft had offers out in the nation's capital and Melbourne as well.

Those with business, advertising, sales, communications, government and engineering skills were most in demand as Google ramped up at offices from Silicon Valley to New York, Zurich and London. Microsoft was keenly searching for mobile, cloud and video nous to support its Windows Phone 7 and Azure cloud pushes across the globe.

On par with Australia for new Googlers was India, where it looked to hire product managers, software engineers and mobile program managers. India, the world’s biggest English-speaking nation, was also the centre for Google’s book-scanning operation as it sought a manager to oversee an “ambiguous environment”. Microsoft was also looking to invest heavily in India, posting job notices for more than 200 staff in the past day.

Although some jobs exceeded $A190,000, at $80,000 a year the most lucrative Google job in Sydney was for a network engineer; most here were listed at $40,000 to $60,000 a year. But in the US, Google listed two jobs at more than $A190,000– a “senior leadership development director” (executive human resources consultant) and “executive briefing associate”, a fluffer to tend Google’s advertising VIPs.

Google jobs in Sydney

• Communications manager
• Channel business analyst
• Government industry head
• Government sales manager
• Youtube advertising partner manager
• Google Apps associate
• Network infrastructure software engineer

While Microsoft was willing to pay big packets to Azure cloud specialists, channel advisers and technical leads overseas, back in Australia it was recruiting for bread-and-butter skills such as Exchange, SQL, Dynamics CRM, Sharepoint and Active directory - mostly in field engineer roles. Microsoft was asked to comment.

Google was searching for Sydney YouTube, government and software engineers, sales managers and geospatial experts as well as a security engineer who can negotiate their own salary to lead its local penetration testing and risk mitigation - such experts command low to medium six-figure salaries. The job ad called for someone who "dreams about stack protection, suspicious activity in raw tcpdumps or like nothing better than to teach others about the intricacies of Windows [remote procedure calls]".

Google was embarrassed by security missteps in the past year and recently arch nemesis Microsoft has hammered it over its security claims for its Apps service for government clients.

"As a security engineer at Google you will help Googlers design, create and maintain secure and safe operating environments," the ad read.

"You will help protect network boundaries, keep computer systems and network devices hardened against attack, and investigate suspicious traffic on Google's networks"; that last point could have been a thinly veiled reference to Google's allegations that China hacked its network.

Google's PR messaging may be helped once it hired a quick-witted communications manager to "counter misinformation" about its products that "might interfere with [its] business and ability to serve users".

But the most fun may be had working in Microsoft's British consumer PR department where the successful candidate will earn 100,000 GBP ($A155,000) a year to play with toys. It was perfect for a “breakthrough thinker with a passion for cool consumer gadgets” who liked to “tinker with the latest devices”, the Seattle software giant wrote in its ad.

Where the top pay packets are ($A)

$190,000-plus

• Google senior leadership development director, Mountain View
• Google executive briefing associate, Mountain View
• Microsoft partner technology adviser job, Minnesota
• Microsoft partner technology adviser Azure, Seattle
• Microsoft partner technical lead, Seattle

$155,000 - $190,000

• Google head of EMEA mobile sales operations, London
• Google head of video sales development and strategy, London
• Microsoft engagement manager, Reading
• Microsoft consumer PR (inc Xbox), Reading
• Microsoft strategic planning director, Reading
• Microsoft OED channel manager
• Microsoft CRM developer, Reading
• Microsoft ERP technical architect, London
• Microsoft Azure partner technology adviser, Reading

$110,000 - 145,000? 

• Google information security expert and pen tester, Sydney

$80,000 - $100,000 

• Google network engineer, Sydney 

Sharpen those resumes and hit up the Work at Google official site or log in to LinkedIn for further details of jobs at Microsoft and the search company.