Global internet search engine Google Inc. has set up shop in Australia with big plans to stem the country’s brain-drain problem.
Google has set its eyes on the nation’s top IT talent as the company looks to rapidly expand numbers in its Australian operation.
The Google Australia head of engineering, Lars Rasmussen, said there was a huge pool of talented software engineers and computer scientists to tap into in Australia, many of whom lacked exciting work opportunities.
Mr. Rasmussen said the Aussie operation was not "just" about localizing Google’s myriad services. "The lion’s share of engineering is to conduct original R&D."
He said the Sydney office, which was officially opened recently by the IT Minister Helen Coonan, will be a "fully fledged" engineering centre.
Google Australia staff will soon hit university campuses across the country in an attempt to snap up the best IT graduates for its new Sydney engineering centre.
The company will also launch an internship program so university students can work on a number of projects at the new Sydney "Googleplex" during their summer holidays. The program will offer internships to top university students, allowing them to work on projects which match their skills with the potential for full-time employment at the end of their degrees.
Google hoped it could help stop the drift of talented Australians overseas, he said.
However, to encourage new talent, Google will be heading straight to Australia’s leading universities. The aim is to develop and nurture any new ideas which come into the R&D centre, the company said. Eventually the intern program will be run on a year-round basis.
In fact, part of our recruitment program here is actually to look for Australians in the US, for example, who would have preferred working here had they known there was an exciting opportunity here.
We have, of course, Australians working for Google in California and we know that at least some of them would have probably worked for Google here had we had an office when they joined Google.
Google plans to launch its university internship programs initially with universities in Sydney and Melbourne this summer.
The company has always had close links with universities around the world, given its American founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met while completing doctorates in computer sciences at Stanford University in the mid-1990s.
In coming weeks, Google will start its campus recruitment program, seeking to grab "extremely smart" students with all types of computing skills, company officials said. Top of Google’s employee wanted list are people with experience in computer engineering, sales and business development.
"We are not just here to localize Google’s many services," Mr. Rasmussen said.
Additionally, to encourage women in IT, Google will offer a travel grant for leading female IT developers to visit the ‘Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing’ conference in San Diego later this year.
Communications Minister Helen Coonan officially opened Google’s new Sydney office, which comes complete with the company’s famously funky decor, pool tables, laid back staff dressed in T-shirts and stunning water views.
While small compared to the company’s massive headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, Google Australia expects to grow quickly.
Senator Coonan, who recently visited Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, said it was a compliment that an innovative company such as Google had opened an office in Australia.
In her opening comments, Coonan said it is a compliment to the Australian ICT environment when international companies want to open an office here. "The Australian workforce is diverse and highly skilled. Attracting companies like Google will attract good software engineers. Google has a diverse workforce that can appeal to Generation Y and women."
Google has operated in Australia for the past four years. Its first office in Sydney housed four people, with Kate Vale, the national sales manager, first to be employed. It moved to its new offices in Sydney’s Darling Park a month ago. It has also set up base in Melbourne and is currently hiring staff for its New Zealand operations.
The search company currently employs about 30 people in its Australian operations.