Want a job at Google? You might want to brush up on your Microsoft Office skills.
That's because a whole bunch of jobs at Google require expertise with Office software, particularly Excel, according to Google's job listings.
We took a look at the job postings after Todd Bishop at Geekwire first spotted the trend, and found that 134 mention the word "Excel."
Listings we spotchecked mentioned the need for proficiency with Microsoft's spreadsheet software and didn't use the word "excel" in other ways.
Just to be sure, we also checked "PowerPoint" and found 59 listings that mentioned Microsoft's presentation software.
For instance ...
- A job for an Executive Compensation Analyst listed "Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel (e.g., experience with array formulas and indirect functions)" and " proficient with Microsoft Excel" in its preferred qualifications.
- One job analyzing user behavior for Gmail and Calendar—two key apps in the enterprise suite—required PowerPoint proficiency.
- A search for Microsoft Word among Google jobs brought up seven postings including People Technology and Operations Specialist. That job asks applicants to have "intermediate to advanced Microsoft Excel and Word skills."
- A sales systems administrator job sounds like it might have come from an all-Microsoft shop, requiring skill not only in Excel and PowerPoint but also Microsoft Access, a database software package.
A search of Microsoft's job site turned up 53 jobs that include the word "Google" in them. But they tended to talk about Google in less flattering terms, like this posting for a SharePoint Software Development Engineer in Test II. The ad literally starts off like this:
Quote: “Office 365, frankly, is to Google Apps, as XBOX 360 is to Pong”.
These jobs postings are interesting because Google's top enterprise exec, Amit Singh, recently said he plans to have Google Apps lure 90 percent of Microsoft's Office customers away—because many workers don't need to use the most advanced features of Microsoft Office.
But apparently, even within Google there are jobs that value those advanced features.
Even Singh admits that there are "gaps between our features and theirs," and says that Google is working to improve them.
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