If a person accepts the challenge by clicking “I want to play,” they’ll be given Foo.bar sign-in information and allowed to take a multi-stage coding test. Reportedly, candidates have 48 hours to complete those stages, which get harder as they go on.
Pass all the stages? A prompt will ask the candidate for your contact information and a Google recruiter will reportedly contact them within a few days to set up an interview for a computer engineering position at the company.
Two media outlets asked Google to confirm the existence of Foo.bar in 2014: the International Business Times and Business Insider. Both times, a Google spokesperson sent back different answers written in – what else – computer code.
In Google’s response to Business Insider, the code translated to GLHF, which is an Internet acronym for “Good luck, have fun.” For Google’s response to the International Business Times, the code translated to “Puzzles are fun. Search on.” There’s also been conjecture that Foo.bar is no longer around, although the website still exists.
By the way, there are reportedly other ways to get login information to take the Foo.bar challenge, aside from just search history. If someone clears the first two levels of it, they are given a token that they can give to a friend to take the challenge as well. Additionally, Google has occasionally hidden clues or URLs at live events that lead to a person getting a token to the Foo.bar challenge.
What this all means to recruiters
Obviously, this isn’t a technique companies can replicate, because a big part of it is dependent on being the world’s most used search engine. It also isn’t a sustainable strategy for consistently recruiting software developers.
But you know what it is? It’s cool and creative, and adds a bit of mystique to Google. It also takes some burden off of recruiters, delivering them high-quality candidates without their talent acquisition team doing a thing.
It is also targeting people who might otherwise not apply to Google and even builds a bit of a talent ecosystem, as people who do well at the Foo.bar challenge can refer a friend as well. All in all, it’s a win for the company on a variety of fronts, as it both strengthens Google’s employer brand and brings strong talent to their doorstep.
So while Foo.bar isn’t replicable for most companies, the concept of it is. At its heart, it is a challenge designed to find people with a rare talent, while creating no additional work for your recruiters. Surely, you could set up a challenge of your own for people who use your product, and see the great talent you could potentially get out of it.
*Image from Mission: Impossible
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Topics: Industry humor and fun
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