Yahoo: Does Marissa Mayer Have a Secret Weapon from Her Google Days?

  • As the new chief executive at Yahoo, one of Marissa Mayer’s top priorities is hiring promising managers and product people at a time when, “Yahoo’s talent pool has been reduced to puddles, as the best techies have gone elsewhere and promising newcomers have come down with colorblindness when it comes to purple,” suggests Wired.
  • While some remain skeptical that Mayer can attract new talent, Wired reveals her “secret weapon.” Since the early 2000s, Mayer worked to recruit the best of the best for Google’s Associate Product Manager program — and she still keeps in close touch with the 300 people that have passed through.
  • “Don’t be fooled by the modest title, prefixed by that timid word ‘associate.’ The most coveted entry post at Google is spelled APM,” notes the article. “This is an incubation system for tech rock stars.”
  • “The APM program is one of our core values — I’d like to think of one of them as the eventual CEO of the company,” Google’s executive chair Eric Schmidt once said.
  • Reportedly, the APMs continue to meet periodically with Mayer for check-ins and advice.
  • “The program has a been massive success, with APMs filling key roles in dozens of key Google products, ranging from apps to search to ads,” the article states, adding “it would be not be surprising if some of these baccalaureate APMs wind up at Yahoo. In addition, former APMs all have their own networks, and can tip off Mayer to promising hires.”
  • Following her move, Mayer sent out an email to the APM network as an update and a promise to keep in touch… and possibly as a welcome to the Yahoo family.

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