Google is constantly in the news. This time for a different reason. Brilliant recruitment strategies by Google. First Google Jam and now this -
Sept. 14, 2004 -- Mysterious banners at a Cambridge, Mass., subway stop have commuters scratching their heads. The signs, challenging passers-by to solve a complicated math problem, are actually a cryptic pitch by Google, which is looking to hire more brainy engineers. Andrea Shea reports.
The message at Harvard Square also appears on a billboard in California's Silicon Valley, but Google's name is nowhere to be found on the ads. It simply states:
{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com
In case you're wondering -- or forgot -- e is the base of the natural system of logarithms, having a numerical value of about 2.71828 (though the number goes on forever).
The correct answer to the banner problem leads to a Web site that poses yet another puzzle. Eventually, the determined problem-solver lands at a Google Web page that asks the smart, or lucky, few for a resume.
--via Google Entices Job-Searchers with Math Puzzle on NPR