In his book Work Rules!, Lazlo Bock identifies four attributes that Google uses to identify strong candidates. First is general cognitive ability, which works for them because their business involves solving specific difficult problems. The second is leadership, more specifically emergent leadership where a person leads when their skills are needed by the group. That is a quality Arete could use in interviewing future students, or math teachers. The third is "Googleyness," which is a combination of willingness to have fun, be humble and conscientious. This would translate well into Arete almost directly. The fourth attribute is Role-Related Knowledge where they check that the person can actually do the job they are applying for. They believe that anyone who is curious and open to learning will figure out the right answers most of the time. We have found that curiosity may be the most important attribute of successful Arete students, along with leadership, teamwork and work ethic, but that may be related to curiosity. Despite us looking for the same type of people, Bock does not mention most of the qualities we associate with successful students in our program. I wonder if those are implicit Googleyness, or if they feel they can develop those qualities.
