Chief of local office gives a few hints about company's local plans
October 13, 2006
The head of Google's Ann Arbor office gave a peek at the company's future Thursday night and updated the community on its local hiring plans.
In his first speech in Ann Arbor, Grady Burnett, head of online sales and operations for Google's Ann Arbor office, said the company has hired 20 people and still expects to hire 1,000 people over the next five years.
He also gave news about some future Google products at an Ann Arbor Ad Club event, held at the Michigan Information Technology Center.
About 140 people came to hear Burnett, who gave a brief history of the eight-year-old Internet search giant, talked about the company's product development philosophy and highlighted upcoming new products, such as Google radio ads. Earlier this year it spent $102 million in cash to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, a radio advertising company.
He also thanked the community for what he described as "an amazingly warm welcome.'' He said people have regularly dropped by the Google office since it opened Sept. 18, bringing gifts of flowers, pizza and cookies.
"That validated a lot of the reason we came here,'' Burnett said. "We believe deeply that it's a great business decision for us to expand our business in Ann Arbor and it's fantastic when the community actually supports that and really believes that. ... Overwhelmingly, we've gotten a great response.''
John Kelley, Google's manager of online sales and operations and its first hire in Ann Arbor, said part of the warm welcome may be because so many people use Google.
"They almost feel like it's their company,'' Kelley said. "That familiarity with Google products makes a difference and makes people interested. It's part of their everyday lives.''
Google's location at 112 S. Main St. - the company's 16th U.S. office and its 25th globally - is its home only until it finds a permanent space in the area. Burnett said it's unclear exactly when that will happen.
In the meantime, hiring remains a priority.
"We're doing an incredible amount of interviewing at this point,'' Burnett said. "If we can find qualified candidates, we're going to hire them and grow as fast as we can.''
He said there is no specific goal on how many people to hire each year.
You don't have to be an engineer or computer scientist to work at the company, he said. "We're looking for a diverse range of people with a wide range of backgrounds,'' he said, whether it be in human resources, facilities or customer service.
"There's going to be a continual growth path and really an ability to build a career,'' he said. People interested in applying should go to www.google.com/jobs, which is the company's preferred method of receiving resumes.
Burnett said so far, the Ann Arbor team is being trained in AdWords, the short advertisements that appear next to Google search results.
The employees will answer questions for AdWords customers across the country via phone and e-mail. The office won't be a 24/7 operation.
Other Google offices that support AdWords include Dublin, Ireland; Hyderabad, India; and the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
Burnett had an knowledgeable audience in the Ann Arbor Ad Club, which appreciates the value of targeted advertising and measurable results. He offered several case studies proving Google advertising effectiveness, such as the Internet-based marketing of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth'' and a Minneapolis cab driver who drummed up business using AdWords.
Those kind of results appeal to Catherine Juon, cofounder of Pure Visibility, an Ann Arbor online marketing firm.
"That's what excited us about online - you can understand that the advertising works,'' Juon said. "We can tell you which half is working - that's every marketer's dream. We're really happy to have another ambassador of search media in town so we're not the only people explaining how it works.''
Dan Schmitzer, an Ann Arbor print production specialist who attended the event, said Google locating in Ann Arbor is tremendous for the economy and hopefully will reinforce the willingness of other companies to invest in this market.
"My only hope is that being such a technical company - I'm somewhat of a dinosaur myself when it comes to point and click - is I still have a great feel for the traditional way of communicating in print, and I feel there will always be a need for that. I hope Google will feel it's important to retain that relationship with the graphic arts community and the printers.''
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