The book “Good to Great” profiles several companies that consistently earned several times what the market for their type of product was over a period of at least something like 14 years.
One of the practices they found was that companies would hire for the people, rather than for the job. For example, rather than WFU hiring a system administrator, we would hire a good analytical person. That person can then transition jobs easily.
Furthermore, they found many companies that just hired whenever found someone good, regardless of whether they needed someone. Some “great” companies hired a ton of people during recessions, although they weren’t necessarily making a lot of money, because they wanted to get all the good people who had been laid off elsewhere.
I’m wondering if this is what Google does. They always seem to have system administrator positions open. Maybe they’re just always willing to interview people in case they are great all-around candidates.
This would also explain why Google puts everyone through such a vigorous interview process. Maybe they just want everyone to be able to move positions over time: maybe they just want good people rather than people good at job X.