Google Reviews

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

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Really smart people, great benefits, amazing level of transparency and access, people -especially at the top are really committed to "getting it right"

Cons – Essentially Google has more than a few terrible middle managers. This is mostly because the really great people will often leave for school or more lucrative opportunities (because getting promotions can be very difficult) and often the people who stay are those who bide their time and are solid but not rock start performers. So your Google experience will depend a lot on who your direct manager is...

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – -Google Full Timers are very helpful in terms of meeting with interns to give advice.
-Information is freely shared and the company is very transparent.
-Great recruiting staff that are an awesome support system for interns
-Fun perks
-Sweet pay
-Opportunities to learn and network
-Surrounded by intelligent and savvy people

Cons – Hardly any, there are literally no reasons not to intern here.

Advice to Senior Management – None, keep up the great work!

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

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – The company allowed me to achieve growth and a better willingness to learn! I was able to advance from working within groups.

Cons – It was under a 2 year (only) temporary contract. It gave little growth for promotion within the company. I would have loved to get hired in.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep giving young adults the opportunity to work for a great company. Maybe more promotional moves will be highly appreciated!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – They work hard, but are allowed to play hard. 3 free meals/day + unlimited snacks. Great company sponsored outings!

Cons – getting very political, a lot of nepotism. Very negative vibe from employees regarding manager competency.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – In the right Eng group, young engineers will learn a lot. The food is good. The bicycles are handy.

Cons – For more senior people, odds are, you're going to be waiting a long time for any kind of promotion. You will also be way older than most of the people you work with, and your manager may or may not understand family commitments. (Google in general does.)

Your manager may or may not care about you. If you get a good manager, great. If you get a lousy one, it may or may not get fixed in any reasonable amount of time, and it can be hard to transfer out if you're having any difficulty with your manager. I had the worst manager of my 30 year career there, and should have just quit after I figured that out.

Advice to Senior Management – Emulating the secrecy, siloing and hierarchy of Apple will not result in Google being as good at focus and product as Apple.

Google needs to encourage lightweight experimentation (in a way that 20% time doesn't really do, since it's often "120% time"). Once there are a bunch of organizations who all want to prevent you from launching quickly and easily, innovation suffers.

Even line engineers, TLMs, and lower level managers are not in fact interchangeable, and the company (or at least the Sales organization) shouldn't re-org every few months.

People get promotions based on politics and who sucks up to whom, not based on merit.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Google

Pros – Perfect job as noticed by press.

Cons – Difficult to get an offer.

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

Current Employee – been working at Google

Pros – We are plied with small perks like espresso and organic vegetables.

Cons – The first month was very rough for me. I was given no real introduction to the company, and had to learn by fire. The security restrictions on your personal computer and network get in the way of productivity, and are generally frustrating. I need to have a field tech come to my workstation to install software that doesn't happen to be whitelisted.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't take away sudo on linux machines. Make Noogler classes available to contractors.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend