The economic downturn hasn't spared anyone but some companies have been hit harder than others. Google has managed to get through pretty much unscathed but some aspects of its business have been affected. It has enjoyed big growth throughout the years and has been acquiring small firms or hiring talented engineers at a high rate but this slowed down during the past year. Google is now ready to start hiring again and it's showing off its best side to get budding engineers interested.

“Recently, we announced that we're starting to ramp up hiring for positions across the company, continuing our investment in the future as we imagine it. That future is shaped by small teams of creative people who want to make a difference. We're on the hunt for these kind of people - let us know if you think you're one of them,” Alan Eustace, Google senior vice president at engineering and research, wrote.

Google has been known for being generous with its employees and there's hardly a company its size that can match it on that. As an incentive, it is telling the story of Google Chrome which, despite being just one year old, has already proven quiet a success for the company. Now, the team behind the project is probably pretty satisfied with working for Google as the company has awarded them with the Founders Award coming straight from Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's cofounders.

Getting any sort of recognition from this high up in the company chain is nice enough but the award is more than just a pat on the back; it comes with a multi-million dollar stock shared by those involved in the development process. Google says that “this award is presented by our founders to celebrate the kind of large-scale, game-changing achievements that Google stands for.”

In the past, several teams were given the award including the likes of Gmail, AdSense for Content, Google Maps and others. With hiring ramping up and Google having some trouble recently holding on to some of its employees, it is going all out to attract new talent but it's hard to argue with bonuses like that.