Pros

Many colleagues are good people and good at their job, it's exciting to work at somewhere so influential, it's good on the resume, great food

Cons

Neverending workload and hours, constant firedrill - change for change's sake, lack of recognition, very limited career opportunities for many (all of whom are used to being high achievers), highly political, company rests on its laurels regarding its reputation as a great employer

Advice to Senior Management

Too many leaders who contradict the company "values" every day are promoted and recognized - sets a bad example to the rest of the organization

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

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

great compensation, travel, amenities
great food
information / knowledge sharing
lot of interesting opportunities, however one needs to be lucky to get them...

Cons

no fun and culture as compared to google in other countries
no appreciation and encouragement
less transperency than expected from google

Advice to Senior Management

internships are meant for learning, making mistakes and mentorship, and one really needs to be appreciated for ghardwork, and guided when gone wrong

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

Tons of career development, transparency, benefits, intelligent coworkers, exciting industry to be engaged in. Relaxed, casual and fun atmosphere. Lots of side projects that you can dip your toes in.

Cons

Too much ambiguity at times, relatively low pay, promotional structure is opaque and frustrating, engineers can be difficult to work with.

Advice to Senior Management

More transparent and clearer promotional structure and guidelines would be incredibly appreciated and helpful. Make sure there is movement in management.

Pros

- Very flexible working hours
- having a good life/work balance is encouraged
- internal exposure to projects/products that can have a huge impact globally
- working with very talented and diverse teams

Cons

- Not blabbing a lot about what you do means that you're not doing much.
- Can be too competitive in some teams.
- A lot of monkey business in Sales..

Advice to Senior Management

Don't try to innovate just for the sake of innovating!

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...