Pros

It is much easier to work at Google as a contractor. The interview process was compressed to one phone screen and a 3 one-hour interviews on-site. The team I worked with was very supportive, and gave us a lot of flexibility and discretion in how we completed the tasks.

Cons

Again, being a vendor instead of a Googler, is not quite as bad as being a 2nd class citizen, but it was close. I also found the group I was in to be close to complacent and risk averse.

Advice to Senior Management

The distinction between Googlers and Vendors should be decreased. It could be handled more like the Intern programs in terms of bringing people on board. One could start by chaning the color of the vendor badges from red to blue or green.

Pros

Highly recommend it! Entrusted with a lot of responsibility.

Cons

Not much to say here :)

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing a great job.

Pros

The swag, food, and pride of working for a profitable company are definitely worth the problems that the company faces.

Cons

Everyone's had the kool-aide! They are having growing pains, too. It is a terrible place to start a career, many would say.

Advice to Senior Management

I would say grow up.

Pros

There are few places where your work can have the same impact it will have at Google. Your products touch millions of people, and millions or billions in revenue.

Cons

The company is getting really big. Products and infrastructures are huge now. Launching new products is getting really hard. Persuading people to go for a new idea can be an endless round of futile meetings. Getting promoted is harder now as the company is top heavy.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on enabling innovation to happen, and planning career paths for your employees.

Pros

Google has a bunch of smart people. Also, there is a strong culture from old-timers to question the status quo and make this drastically better. It's also great pedigree for a resume. Pay is pretty good compared to other companies, the perks too. The shuttle service is great if you live in SF.

Cons

very arrogant culture. Old-timers may have a sense of entitlement. Not much growth potential anymore unless you are politically connected with stars. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Too bottoms up, makes cross-team work potentially frustrating. Many remote offices are weak. If you work with a remote team, get ready for a bunch of "C" players with poor cultural fit.

Advice to Senior Management

Thin the ranks of management. Have stronger goals across teams (try reading lencioni's silos, politics and turf wars.) Be careful to reward those who work on thankless jobs and not just the Latitudes and other sexy launches. Reward quality over launching crap (several eng dirs are terrible about this.)

Pros

- Good food
- Good perk
- Smart people
- Fun culture
- Good reputation. Great to have on a resume

Cons

- Very hard to move up in the org
- Too many cooks in the kitchen
- Too many teams doing parallel work

Advice to Senior Management

- Growth is slowing. Need to buy smaller companies that can accelerate growth again.
- Change incentive structure. Hard to motivate people when there is little chance of over achievement.

Pros

Google is a great place to start your career. They're one of the few companies that was willing to train new college grads and let them join a fun, youthful team of smart people. Plus, the food and benefits can't be beat.

Cons

It really depends on what department you're in. Often times, you can feel like just a number, even though Google really prides themselves on having a start up culture. Google is a large corporation, and that is starting to show more and more due to the economy.

Advice to Senior Management

Be careful not to cut too many corners - the quality of work will decrease, and Google will lose it's credibility.

Pros

Great transparency within the company where you can learn a lot.
Abundance of great, intelligent people in the company.
Lots of exciting opportunities within Google.
Great benefits and perks.
Employees are well respected by company.

Cons

Too Mountain View centric. Most key persons are in HQ and most important decisions are made there.
It's a pain for offices to collaborate across timezones. For example, it's impossible for JAPAC, EMEA, and the US to meet together.

Advice to Senior Management

Think of ways to make "remote" offices work better.

Pros

Good perks. There's a lot of smart people that work here. If you're a geek like me, then you've found your home.

Cons

Although promotions are said to be fair, it is all how you game the system and play the game. Don't expect to be put on amazing projects, those are for the super elite. There is a 3-4 year exit strategy here, and lately it seems its shortened to 1 to 2 years. New employees come in and realize this place isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Advice to Senior Management

Just because someone is highly technical, doesn't mean they can make a good manager. Those managers are destined to fail.

Pros

The work and projects are very challenging; Google's products have wide visibility; great food and perks, and working for Google is great for your resume.

Google rewards their top performers well. Base salary tends to run at around the 50th percentile in the industry, but annual bonuses the last few years have been ~25% of salary (it's not uncommon for above average performers to receive bonuses of 25-35% of salary).

Google also matches 401K contributions up to $8,250 for U.S. workers. BTW, 401K matching is something I really wished Glassdoor keeps data on. When comparing overall compensation of two or more companies, you have to account for 401K matching.

Cons

The company has grown substantially during the 4+ years I've been here. Management does a good job in trying to limit bureaucracy, but there's definitely more bureaucracy than there was 4 years ago.

Also, base salaries tend to be much lower than competitors. For a company that prides itself on hiring the best, they certainly don't pay the best when it comes to base salary.

Advice to Senior Management

The company made an excellent hire with the (relatively) new CFO. Lot's of waste has been eliminated. Let's keep plugging away at inefficiencies, focus the bulk of our staff and resources on products and projects that matter, and stay humble.