Pros

Google has consistently smart people in literally all areas. This includes the receptionists, the food service folks and the help desk staff.

Google is also still a fairly democratic and open workplace in terms of culture and idea solicitation.

Cons

Google has extremely uneven career development support and bottom level management. Though there are classes and other tools for development, it can be difficult to good guidance on where to focus your efforts. In the last 6-12 months there has been improvement on bottom level management issues, but it has been gradual overall.

Also, Google does a generally poor job of recognizing technically unglamorous though needed contributions.

Advice to Senior Management

The company should invest more energy in guiding the development its employees. I know there are managers who want to do better at this and would jump at training specifically to address this.