From ASEE Digest

Google Official: Start Early To Build Good Tech Workforce.

Bruce Johnson, the Atlanta site and engineering director for Google, writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (12/23) about how to "maximize the number of qualified applicants" a company like Google can find. "There is no single set of discrete skills one can learn that will last an entire career in high-tech," Johnson writes. Instead, "ideal recruits are creative, adaptable and autonomous, and they have achieved a deep understanding of core subjects such as math, physics and computer science that make it possible to have a razor-sharp intuition and an ability to assimilate new subjects and technologies quickly, without even the expectation of being trained; they train themselves on the skills du jour as the need arises and with minimum help or structure." In order to boost this type of applicant, Johnson writes, students must be familiarized and comfortable with STEM subjects at a younger age.