WSJ.com - Google's Growth Helps Ignite Silicon Valley Hiring Frenzy

WSJ.com - Google's Growth Helps Ignite Silicon Valley Hiring Frenzy "To accomplish its current pace of hiring about 10 new employees a day, Google has assembled a formidable hiring machine. Its recruitment department includes as many as 300 free-lance recruiters who are helping it to identify who's who in software engineering, according to three people involved in the effort.
To locate new talent, Google has held software-code-writing contests. It has plastered billboards with math problems, such as one on U.S. 101 in Silicon Valley that asked drivers to identify "the first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e." It has paid to insert an "aptitude test" into tech magazines, encouraging engineers to submit their answers to 21 questions, along with their r?sum?s. And it has upped the stakes in competing with other companies to draw attention from engineering students, handing out free pizza and raffling off gadgets to boost university recruitment."

On its way to 5,000 employees by year-end...