Pros

You will interact with one of the most brilliant computer science workers
Free food, free beer, shuttles, opportunity to shake hands with Obama and all the glitz.
Sunny state, beautiful campus, I even do my laundry there some days

Cons

You will face Software Engineering like interviews. They will test your ability to code and be excellent at algorithms and will be given utterly shitty job
You will regret joining the company unless you are a fresh graduate student who likes to be pampered
Pay is shitty as well except few lucky testers who get placed in "high profile" or "high demand" projects
You will feel like a slave
There is no getting out of it easily
I have a degree from one of the top schools and I am already regretting joining google

Advice to Senior Management

provide more opportunities to test engineers and engineers in test
they have ambitions too

Pros

* Lots of interesting, high-impact projects
* Smart (and mostly pleasant) people
* At the forefront of computing
* Great perks
* Well suited for the politically adept (this is also a con)

Cons

* Opaque promotion system with high degree of randomness in outcomes
* Way too much emphasis on process - unit testing, code reviews, etc. - seriously hinders progress and reduces otherwise intelligent engineers to code monkeys and automata
* Too many technically competent middle managers with little by way of people skills
* Arrogant, stubborn and occasionally downright malicious coworkers
* Big company feel
* Antiquated coding infrastructure (e.g. no Boost libraries allowed)
* Pager duty
* Engineering work can be boring

Advice to Senior Management

Replace broken internal promotion system. Put more emphasis on moving quickly and innovating, rather than testing and code reviews. Work harder to motivate and retain highly skilled but bored employees. Stop breaking promises made to employees. Live up to your intention to reward, and not punish, innovation.

Pros

I found that I was able to work on mostly interesting projects and be creative at work. Plus you do have great perks.

Cons

Morale has gone way down and the googly culture that is projected as being amazing doesn't really exist anymore. Promotions happened less often, became more political and were harder to get.

Advice to Senior Management

Almost five years ago when I started in the sales organization the company was an amazing place to be - there was such respect from management and the projects you could work on outside your core responsibilities were abundant. As time went on, the company no longer became one where you could be innovative and involved in change - red tape and fighting over team ownership popped up every time you tried to do something new. I find blame in the waves of MBAs they hired to be managers - the leadership of the department became overwhelmingly uncooperative, political and self seeking which trickled down to the employees. Those of us who were there for years and embodied Googlieness were quickly drowned out by the hoards of MBAs and the recent college grads from Ivy League schools who were for the most part entitled and in the completely wrong role for them. Implementing the *ridiculous* hiring standards they currently have was probably the number one worst thing the company could have done.

While it is still a better company to have worked for than all others I've been at, don't expect that the same level of independence and culture and googliness to be there.

Pros

*Perks
*Brand Name on CV
*Has long-term potential if it can become a real company and not a startup anymore
*Some really smart people can be found

Cons

Reorgs every 6 months regardless of departmental needs.
Getting promoted on merit is near impossible.
Zombie projects are the norm.
Lots of people trying to steal your ideas and backstab you for advancement opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management

Engineering is out of control. Too many duplicated projects. Quality is not rewarded, only things that ship.

Pros

great benefits
amazing people to work with
wonderful work environment
amazing food!
innovative work environment

Cons

Sometimes decisions are made top down with little to no involvement from middle management.
Although they have peer recognition programs in place I don't think management does enough to recognize the efforts of their employees -- especially their managers.
The extensive collaboration can at times drag projects out because everyone has to be involved and have their say in the project.
As a larger company now -- Google seems to be far more process and structure driven -- partly out of necessity -- but it has changed the overall attitude and work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize the efforts of your managers and involve manager in the decisions especially when it comes to initiatives that impact the people they manage.

Pros

- Technical resources
- Benefits and Perks
- Huge number of interesting projects
- Smart coworkers
- Freedom to manage your own work

Cons

Google is now a very big company, and decisions involve a lot of people -- some times it's hard to get things done even if they seem simple.

Advice to Senior Management

More focus on products that will actually make a difference in the marketplace would help the company continue to grow.

Pros

The benefits package is amazing, even if you're just a temp. Fun atmosphere, always a lot of perks, even if the job itself is boring. Coworkers tend to be friendly peers rather than smarmy corporate types, although there's a lot of corporate lingo around.

Cons

Long hours, plus I had to work occasional weekends and holidays - didn't have much of a personal life outside of work. Also gained 15 pounds. Great place to get ahead in business, but not if you've got different kinds of career goals.

Advice to Senior Management

A little more transparency in decisionmaking, but this is the case in all companies.

Pros

The benefits are unparalleled and I really enjoyed the causal work atmosphere. Also, the people were among the smartest I've ever worked with

Cons

Google definitely has a work-life balance problem. Also, some of the people had a very entitled and arrogant attitude, which was quite off-putting.

Advice to Senior Management

I think that you need to remember you motto of "don't be evil." Sometimes Google's shady business practices make me wonder if you've forgotten...

Pros

* Great Co-workers. My experience has been overwhelmingly positive in this area. My co-workers are smart, motivated, and trustworthy. I can count on them for design and execution.
* Great products. Loving the product you work on is great motivation for getting up in the morning.
* Engineer-oriented. Product managers for the most part do not call the shots. Engineering bears most of the responsibility for design, timelines, etc.
* Flexible hours. Performance really is king; engineers have a lot of flexibility in deciding when to come in and leave.
* Food. Delicious.
* Idealism. "Don't be evil" isn't just some marketing ploy that insiders scoff at. There's a real culture of accountability.
* Stability. I heard of no one in engineering that was worried about their job due to the global economic crisis.
* Scale. You're probably working on something millions of people use. There's great job satisfaction in that.

Cons

* Limited upside compared to a start-up. You don't come to Google thinking you're going to strike it rich in one fell swoop anymore. This is the price of stability.
* Company has grown quite large. There's something intangible that changes with growth, and even getting to know everyone in your extended team can be hard. There are no all-company events anymore. These have been replaced with organization-specific events.
* Management quality varies. I have a great manager but I've heard horror stories.
* Your initial project is assigned based on expressed preferences and relevant experience. It may take time to get off of it if you don't like it.
* Ramp up may take some time, but don't get discouraged as this is expected. The software stack is almost all in-house and so there's indirect transfer to other systerms.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall senior management is extremely competent, and product vision is well articulated. Better training for middle management should be a priority. Proposed increase to financial efficiency (e.g., by cutting perks) should be weighed against the impact on employee satisfaction (they've done reasonably well in this area).

Pros

The benefits at Google are amazing. The free 5-star catering for lunch. The decent breakfast and dinner options. We even have a sushi-chef on-site in the NYC office. The entire company and all of its employees enjoy learning and it is very respected when you take internal training courses and/or share industry information with your peers. You are expected to be brilliant. You are expected to output great, creative, innovative work. You are expected to be the best of the best. And they only hire the best candidates out of top-tier private schools with applicable research, industry or work experience.

Cons

The downside of working at Google is getting lost among all the other brilliant people. The loudest and most talkative employees are the ones that get the most recognition. The people who complain the most get the most attention.

Advice to Senior Management

You are doing a good job in recent years in trying to balance how promotions and recognition is distributed during review season. Thank you.