Google Reviews in Mountain View, CA

Pros

Good benefits, good infrastructure, generally reasonable coworkers.

Cons

Promotion by committee means it's harder to get recognized for an obscure project or brunt work maintaining important stuff than for working on 'sexy' projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Do something to unbreak the promotion system.

Pros

Save $ on food and transportation

Cons

Google values GPA over past work experience on new employees

Pros

Had a blast in Google with all the freebies, excellent people to work with. Competitive atmosphere. people are great. opportunities for development

Cons

Not much downside. space is a problem with large growth. sometimes group compete with each other. managers are usually cool

Pros

- Exciting work
- Can see impact of your work fairly quickly
- Accomplished colleagues
- Great brand recognition

Cons

- Increasing numbers of middle managers who add no value
- Focus on "shiny" vs. substantive work - you're more rewarded for style than substance, splashy work gets praise

Advice to Senior Management

Don't hire middle managers who add no value. Unfortunately I see us hiring and rewarding people who spend more time on Powerpoint presentations than actually doing work. Growing pains of a large company or something we can avoid?

Pros

Great place to work... Great perks and people. Very team oriented. People are smart (see con :-) and friendly. Not political as far as I can tell. Engineering focused which makes it feel like a meritocracy. Again the perks are really amazing... feel like the company really values me.

Cons

Hard to stand out as a star when everyone is so smart and pedigreed. Also company is very big. Believe it take long time to really build reputation to be able to move ahead... but in the meantime its a lot of fun.

Advice to Senior Management

Wonderful that you are so accessible. Keep doing what you are doing!

Pros

Quality of work is good. You can choose what you want to work.

Cons

Challenging envirnorment. Lot of work to be done.

Pros

Flex hours, great food, easy

Cons

not challenging enough. Should have offered a longer contract

Advice to Senior Management

nothing

Pros

Google is a great place to work at. Good people, awesome pay and fun culture.

Cons

None that I can think of

Pros

Dynamic, innovative, creative and simplicity

Cons

Competitive, demanding, and long hours

Pros

The teamwork is wonderful and supportive, though competitive as all get out. Recruiting for the best of the best is an interesting and vital experience at Google. The ATS is wonderful, compared to others out there. The culture is vital, dynamic and engaging.

Cons

The up and down sides are there is a lot of change. Google does not get stale, that is for sure. But the processes change a lot which makes it a little less sticky than it "should" be, IMHO. There is a lot of social competitiveness that is very intense, but that does drive excellence, even if you do feel like your job could end any minute.

Advice to Senior Management

I think the leaders need to lead more and accept the performers that are not excellent but highly functional. That way you can keep people for the long haul.