Google is still a fantastic place to work. - User Experience Designer Google Employee Review

5.0
May 6, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Google is an extraordinary place to work: the perks are second to none, the quality of employees is exceptionally high, and the products are mostly cutting edge and interesting. Google treats its employees very well and believes in leadership from the bottom up, which provides a sense of ownership and personal investment that is unequaled in my experience. Google employees are encouraged to treat each other as respected equals, no matter what the difference in job title might be. Google also encourages the notion that good ideas can come from anywhere, and that the best ideas rarely come from management. Perhaps most importantly, Google is one of the only places in the world where you can work on products that could potentially be used by hundreds of millions of people. It's very satisfying to share your work with family and friends, and to see people using your products nearly every day.

Cons

The larger the company gets, the more the culture becomes dilute. The past year or two has brought extensive change in terms of management hierarchy to certain area of the company. With the hiring or more and more managers from the outside, the company has lost some of its democratic idealism in favor of traditional corporate politics. Google is now a very large company, and it's hard to avoid all of the downsides that accompany such size. It can also be very difficult to find a career path at Google. Promotions are exceptionally rare. Despite the fact that employees can theoretically excel in both individual contributor and management tracks, there is still a feeling that the only way to climb the corporate ladder is to become a manager. It's also the case that people are often promoted into management roles without the necessary skills and training, leading to poor relationships between teams and leaders. It also becomes more and more difficult to make fast progress on projects as the company gets larger. Google is still very nimble compared to most large companies, but it's no longer a scrappy startup unencumbered by size.

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5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Awesome company with great benefits!

Cons

Sometimes hard to navigate ambiguity!

4.0
Jun 21, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1) Food, food, food. 15+ cafes on main campus (MTV) alone. Mini-kitchens, snacks, drinks, free breakfast/lunch/dinner, all day, errr'day. 2) Benefits/perks. Free 24:7 gym access (on MTV campus). Free (self service) laundry (washer/dryer) available. Bowling alley. Volley ball pit. Custom-built and exclusive employee use only outdoor sport park (MTV). Free health/fitness assessments. Dog-friendly. Etc. etc. etc. 3) Compensation. In ~2010 or 2011, Google updated its compensation packages so that they were more competitive. 4) For the size of the organization (30K+), it has remained relatively innovative, nimble, and fast-paced and open with communication but, that is definitely changing (for the worse). 5) With so many departments, focus areas, and products, *in theory*, you should have plenty of opportunity to grow your career (horizontally or vertically). In practice, not true. 6) You get to work with some of the brightest, most innovative and hard-working/diligent minds in the industry. There's a "con" to that, too (see below).

Cons

1) Work/life balance. What balance? All those perks and benefits are an illusion. They keep you at work and they help you to be more productive. I've never met anybody at Google who actually time off on weekends or on vacations. You may not hear management say, "You have to work on weekends/vacations" but, they set the culture by doing so - and it inevitably trickles down. I don't know if Google inadvertently hires the work-a-holics or if they create work-a-holics in us. Regardless, I have seen way too many of the following: marriages fall apart, colleagues choosing work and projects over family, colleagues getting physically sick and ill because of stress, colleagues crying while at work because of the stress, colleagues shooting out emails at midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am. It is absolutely ridiculous and something needs to change. 2) Poor management. I think the issue is that, a majority of people love Google because they get to work on interesting technical problems - and these are the people that see little value in learning how to develop emotional intelligence. Perhaps they enjoy technical problems because people are too "difficult." People are promoted into management positions - not because they actually know how to lead/manage, but because they happen to be smart or because there is no other path to grow into. So there is a layer of intelligent individuals who are horrible managers and leaders. Yet, there is no value system to actually do anything about that because "emotional intelligence" or "adaptive leadership" are not taken seriously. 3) Jerks. Sure, there are a lot of brilliant people - but, sadly, there are also a lot of jerks (and, many times, they are one and the same). Years ago, that wasn't the case. I don't know if the pool of candidates is getting smaller, or maybe all the folks with great personalities cashed out and left, or maybe people are getting burned out and it's wearing on their personality and patience. I've heard stories of managers straight-up cussing out their employees and intimidating/scaring their employees into compliance. 4) It's a giant company now and, inevitably, it has become slower moving and is now layered with process and bureaucracy. So many political battles, empire building, territory grabbing. Google says, "Don't be evil." But, that practice doesn't seem to be put into place when it comes to internal practices. :(

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