It started out two years ago with a viral email that was sent around China showing pictures of the Google offices in Beijing.

They looked pretty much like this first set below. No one is sure who sent the original email but it did a better job of building a Recruitment Brand than all the initiatives that internal HR is likely to have taken in Google China over the past few years.

A conspiracy theory approach would suggest that maybe HR was behind the viral email but there’s no proof ...

The pictures presented Google as an Employer of Choice, and they raised the bar for every other company in China. Suddenly hiring got a little bit more difficult. The pictures became the new definition of ‘where I deserve to work’ for many professsionals in China.

But now I see there is a new viral email going around, of the Google offices in Zurich, Switzerland. The bar just moved higher.

Much higher.