Google Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – I like the technology, culture and perks in Google. I like the fact that Google has many offices all over the world.

Cons – It grows to 30,000 employees by the end of 2011. and It starts to show similar problems as the previous big companies.

Advice to Senior Management – They should focus on our main business such as search, ads, mobile and make progress faster. Don't create more intermediate layers in hierarchy.

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – free food, gym, perks. big name for recognition.

Cons – Company big on branding human resources w/ employees at the top of the hierarchy, and then contractors , and finally temp workers. Badges identify status with the company. Contractors and temps restricted to only work-site building/zone.

Advice to Senior Management – value people because every contributes to the empire

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Great infrastructure, great technology, great food (bad for keeping fit though).

Cons – Slow process from idea to launch, too many hoops to run through.
Infrastructure not easily transferable outside of Google.

Advice to Senior Management – More efficient ways to go from ideas to launch.

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Brilliant coworkers.
Culture promotes continuous learning. There's a famous author, artist or industry leader giving a talk or performance at the company every week.
Amazing perks. 50% match in 401k.

Cons – Inexperienced middle managers who are where they are because they were strong individual contributors, and not necessarily strong people managers.
Becoming more and more political.
Lack of autonomy in your job. Decisions, even the most inconsequential, seem to be made by a few people in each department.
Few career advancement opportunities.
No work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management – Empower your employees and managers to make more decisions on their own. Allow for more risk taking and autonomy.
Hire, promote and value leaders who excel at developing and managing people. Make managing employees a full time job, not something to be done only during review time. Managers who remain hands on end up competing with their own direct reports.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – The free food is good.

Cons – The working hours are long. The pay is not worth all the time spent at work. Management is not great.

Advice to Senior Management – Less micromanagement and a better review process would be great. Also, consider hiring more people. There's enough money to go around...

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Free food, great benefits, young colleagues.

Cons – Demanding projects, forced to work nights just to meet deadlines, threatened to be fired.

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Like Disneyland, great food, fun environment, fantastic resources and a shuttle! Overall really great environment to be in.

Cons – Can't get anything done, so much red tape. As a Recruiter you are really just a paper shuffler and Hiring managers rule the roost so if they are incompetent then your hands are tied and there is no way to be successful. Huge company politics are in play and it is difficult to figure out who to align yourself with. If a process isn't working there is no way to effect any real change.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire Recruiters who know what they are doing and let them manage the hiring managers. Split recruiting into three levels, paper pushers for junior roles, mid to senior level recruiters and executive recruiters. Recruiters who are working on mid to executive level positions should be of a high caliber and be viewed as consultants who's expertise is needed and respected. Set them up to be successful and provide an ats system that actually works and make it mandatory to keep data in the system and not on a bunch of spreadsheets.

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – The following is related to sales operations management.
You'll work with very smart people, and get a lot of support and feedback around doing your best work. Most senior managers have great knowledge, a lot of advice to offer, and value open, transparent communication.
You'll likely work the hardest you've ever worked at Google, but you'll also be greatly rewarded. Also, Google makes it very easy to work your hardest, and that's a huge bonus if you're interested in super-charging your career.
Example (day in the life): take free shuttle to work; use available corp vehicles to run daytime errands; grab a hand brewed coffee and gourmet breakfast before starting work; communicate with brightest in your industry during the day; visit a tech-talk and learn something new; workout in the gym w/ a trainer before lunch; have lunch with a colleague at 1 of >15 free themed cafes; grab an espresso shot from the micro-kitchen on way to your desk; collaborate on a new project with someone in a different working group; back to your own work; quick $5 chair massage to rejuvenate; swing by tech-stop on way to grab a new mouse, before your professional desk ergonomic consultation begins; more work; grab gourmet dinner starting at 6:30; woah, it's late - time to go home; grab late (8:30) shuttle home. (I guess i'll have to do my laundry for free at work tomorrow).

Cons – Google is changing, and it's experiencing some growing pains.
There are new projects and focus areas every week, and the grouping of functions and teams changes constantly. As a result, managers are responsible to new macro functional groups, and new projects or focus areas every month or so. This seems an unnecessary distraction, amounting to 25% superfluous work.
The change in org structure has made it hard to maintain the career path of your choice. Instead, you must choose from available Google-centric career paths. These are not always (or often) composed of conventional roles, since Google is both changing rapidly, and unconventional to begin with.
Most of the people hired at Google 5+ years ago, don't have the credentials to be hired there today. This complicates internal transfers, even though HR attempts to solve that issue.
Those joining Google from acquisitions are rarely hirable at Google in any other way, yet their experience and contributions once onboard are typically at par. This again complicates the internal transfer process.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more accommodating to veteran Googlers. The company is changing very fast, and they need active guidance to navigate successfully. Active - not reactive.
Be more direct when providing guidance and mentoring to all managers and direct reports. Google is getting a bit too "careful", and I've found that more managers these days are reluctant to tell it like it is, for fear of appearing undiplomatic. Diplomacy and tact should make a manager a better communicator, not a constrained one.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Smart and driven people, managers open and willing to speak with you.

Cons – Party culture, some people seem to be there for the perks.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – Respect engineers in decision making.
A lot of mobility in moving into projects
Information open to everyone and transparent process
World-class peers to work with

Cons – The work-life balance is hard to achieve

Advice to Senior Management – Keep the openness

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend