Google Reviews

Pros

Working with smart people daily, amazing gourmet free food, fantastic career growth opportunities within Google. If you don't like the project you're working on, you can transfer to a different project, even to be a different "type" of engineer (e.g. frontend/backend/storage). I work with people who've worked on several projects at Google.

Working on projects that you genuinely believe help make the world a better place, helping users connect with each other or give them greater access to information.

I like the direction Larry has taken the company, feels more focused now than before.

Very pro-women, pro-LGBT, pro-minority environment. I'm a female software engineer and have not seen a shred of the sexism or attitude towards women that I've experienced at other workplaces.

Cons

While not totally necessary, being on a higher profile project helps with recognition and career advancement. I work on one such project and have since I've been at Google, so I can't really say what it's like if you work on other projects.

Having a good manager (as I do) is definitely important to being promoted and getting put on projects where you can earn recognition. Not all managers are as awesome as mine and their reports suffer for it in terms of career growth and interesting tasks to work on.

Advice to Senior Management

Better training for engineering managers. A good manager is crucial to career growth at Google, and not all engineers make good managers.

Pros

Good infrastructure. Good opportunity to work on interesting problems. Good place to learn how to be a professional software engineer for beginning engineers.

Cons

Lack of innovation. The heyday of Google seems to be passed. Things are good but probably not as perfect as you might imagine it because the hey day has passed.

Pros

Free food and great working environment

Cons

The management und processes sometimes seem to be a unstructured.
The promotion process is usually very formal and inflexible.

Advice to Senior Management

don´t be too political when making HR decisions

Pros

Excellent benefits
Fun place
Extremely Intelligent co-workers

Cons

Slowly becoming a corporation like Microsoft.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the old Google culture which is slowly rotting.

Pros

The fact that Google is such a strong company name definitely helps build your resume. The experience gained in the staffing organization is still very valuable.

Cons

The staffing organization does not feel like it's part of the rest of the campus. The company is too large to really feel like your contributions are noticed. Processes are already set in place so there isn't really much room for any creative approach to recruiting.

Advice to Senior Management

Please try to incorporate Google staffing into the rest of the company. At many times, it felt like it was run as an entirely different organization.

Pros

Started and worked on amazing products, which turned out to be highly successful.

Cons

It became way too political, specially with upper management completely lost its way and lacking a vision.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to people who are good at their jobs and delivering results rather than random 'group' managers and directors.

Pros

Amazing people to work with and constant learning and information sharing
Good perks
Great brand to work for
Looks great in your CV
Possibility to work on projects on top of your core job (if management allows)
Fun!
Learning the meaning of "think big"

Cons

I have seen really bad examples of middle management… great contrast with the potential in younger people
Politics are more important than work… you would not expect it in this company (only me?)
Innovation? depending on what you do…
Your progress depends on favoritism, that reflects in your ratings, that make it possible for you to progress… you can have great ratings if your manager likes you, even if your performance is not that good
If you are not in the right project, you get no visibility
Growing size leads to difficulty in taking quick decisions
Performance ratings are not always fair. For example, if you get a promotion you definitely can't get a good rating next quarter
There is not an impartial HR representative in case you have problems with your manager
Very often over qualified people for basic positions, and lack of possibilities to change - make sure you know what you will do before joining!
Work/life balance depending on your manager - was not able to play fussball in months (yes, I am motivated, but don't want to work on weekends to get a promotion)
Managers find metrics that make no sense and measure the team on a curve they themselves could never meet.
New learning for me: not only pro-motion but de-motion as well exists
Referral system not clear: referred bright people that could not get hired

Advice to Senior Management

To Middle Management: Constant change is not a strategy + Favoritism is not a good filter, make work interesting and challenging for your employees
To Senior Management: take care of what is being done at lower levels, keep the open and fair culture

Pros

Amazing people to work with. Some of the smartest people I have met in my 20+ years in the software industry.

Cons

Bias towards quick and dirty solutions. Lack of understanding that the target user is not a software engineer at google.

Advice to Senior Management

Revise strategy for innovation. Need to reward long-term projects and revise the bias towards constant starting of new projects. Improve transparency.

Pros

Free food, intelligent colleagues, Compensation is fairly good.

Cons

Work is myopic for the talent level they demand, very political environment. Not the company it was n 2005

Pros

Perks are second to none. Google provides every employee with free food freshly prepared on site each day by professional chefs. Google also provides free transportation to / from work from many areas where employees live. Google also has health care facilities on-site so that employees don't have to spend time driving to the doctor. Google employees can also pay to have their hair cut, get their oil changed, get their dry cleaning done, even get their bicycle repaired all on-site.

Cons

To thrive at Google as a software engineer, at least a Masters degree in computer science or equivalent course of study is needed. A Google employee without a masters degree or Phd will not see the same opportunities for advancement or career development. Some of the technologies used at Google are proprietary, so skills developed in those technologies are not relevant at other tech companies.