What's it take to get hired at Google?

Take a look at this interesting New York Times interview with Google senior Vice President of people operations (re: human resources) Lazlo Bovk about qualities they consider top predictors of employment offers. In short, they value the kinds of soft skills I always see emerge when you set up a tech learning experience as a "tinker lab":

**processing and building creative solutions "on the fly" as one encounters barriers
**emergent leadership, where leaders step on as needed depending on the problem at hand, handing off the solution as needed to others within the team.
**humility and ownership, recognizing that no one person in a team can solve a multi-part question, being willing to realistically and enthusiastically offer what you can, then stepping back and finding others to help when needed.

From my own experience, I'd add another soft skill I try to cultivate when I teach and mentor is the ability to "take one for the team", meaning taking risks to think outside the box isn't always easy, can involve butting heads with management, and isn't always overtly rewarded. But, approaching these situations as learning exercises in the face of adversity and persisting with good "emotional intelligence" invariably leads to some sort of positive outcome that ultimately helps the team and gives you that much more confidence and credibility, inside and out.