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Some of that secondary stock offering cash the company raised will go toward paying a workforce of nearly 5,000 people now.

They're still hiring too, Cnet reported. Even after adding 800 Googlers to the bottom line, the search engine company still has around 1,100 positions open worldwide.

To fill those positions, Google hasn't had to go out and recruit potential hires. Even their very high-profile hiring and subsequent battle over ex-Microsoft exec Kai-Fu Lee started when he contacted Google about a position with them.

The report cited Stephen Arnold, fresh off releasing a new collection of Google's patents on compact disc, attesting to Google's drawing power. He recently spoke in France and noted how the speaker from Google who followed him was immediately approached by three Google wanna-bes.

At the end of 2003, 1,628 people worked for Google. That number has steadily increased to 4,989 now. Filling those positions means the company hires "learners" instead of "experts," one Google staffer said in the report.

That doesn't meant Google won't hire an expert, of course. Vint Cerf joined the company over the summer, and the father of the Internet isn't likely to be mistaken for a new graduate.

"We always try to hire a person that is too good for the current job and is about right for the job that is the next step," Douglas Merrill, senior director of Information Services Technology at Google said at the VortexSF 2005 show. "We always overhire."

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.