We’ve read over and over again about all of the perks that come along with working at Google. Three free meals per day, exercise facilities, doctor and dental care on-site, money towards the purchase of a hybrid vehicle, and the list goes on and on. They’ve also had the honor of being named the #1 company to work for in 2007 by Fortune Magazine, but is it really THAT great?
It probably is, but it could also change depending on who you ask. If you’d like an insiders look at Google, here’s your chance to get a glimpse. An internal Microsoft email includes details of the experiences of a Microsoft employee who started out at Microsoft, quit to start his own start-up, got acquired by Google, and eventually left Google to go back to Microsoft.
You can read the email in its entirety here, I’m just going to point out a few interesting details. During the interview, he was asked several questions about the environment at Google. One of the first things that stood out for me is that while the perks sound great, the perks are needed because people spend so much time a day there working. The former Google employee explains how it’s much like a college campus in that all of your needs are taken care of, but that the younger employees in their mid 20’s don’t really have a life yet so they spend it all at work.
Remember the 20% that employees are supposed to get to work on a project every week? According to the former Google employee, you have to create that time in your schedule. If you don’t take it out, it doesn’t get used, and really, nobody notices. He says most people don’t even have a project, and managers don’t tend to remind you to start one.
Then he was asked if he had any advice for Microsoft that would “help in our battle for talent against Google.” His suggestion? Make all the food in the cafe’ free. Yep, that’s the only suggestion he had. Apparently Google knew what they were doing when they made this one of their perks. He explains that while Microsoft may not offer free food, they start at a higher salary. If Microsoft were to cut back on starting salaries and put that money towards the food of their employees, he thinks it could help them out.
So there ya have it, an “insiders” look at the real Google.
Source: I Started Something
Read Entire Email here
The free food suggestion may be better than you think. When I started at my current employer, they gave us free soft drinks. It took me a year to convince the AA to order Coke instead of Pepsi. Shortly thereafter, the free drinks were discontinued to save money.
It was almost like losing an old friend. The pay sucks. The users are arrogant and malicious imbeciles. There is little possibility of advancement.
Those 2 or 3 cans of Coke a day actually meant something! It meant that, for all its faults, the company actually gave a damn.
It doesn’t any more. My resume is currently circulating.
I guess the free meals also save Google employees quite a bit of money and time. No getting up to pack a lunch in the morning, or no running out to grab something during the middle of the day.
All I can say is that the three people I know who work at Google LOVE it. Of course, they’re not programmers…
I think one of their cafes also got a 5-star rating or something.
I know two employees at Google – one hates it and one quit the day the bulk of their options vested.
I guess YMMV at Google.
As an ex-Yahoo! though, I have to tell you that NO ONE gripes about their job until the return on stock options levels out – thats when you get to hear the *honest* opinions.
@Seth – I’m just curious what you did at Yahoo, and what made you decide to leave?
COX use to have free sodas but it got abused, especially by the field techs so they went to Soda Machines at 25¢ a can.
As far as everything else with Google, sounds like my kind of place, I have no life so I don’t care. Go Daddy is suppose to have free on-site massages.
The free food wasn’t the only suggestion. The author also pointed out that Google’s “Tech Stop” concept was good idea.
I’m not a fan of “free food” myself, but I’d heavily subsidize the food service. It should be half the price as any other local option and just as cheap as brown bagging.
I like the idea of free cans of pop, because that is affordable and yet a nice gesture from the company. I could see the free food getting awfully expensive though, but as Will suggested they could at least offer it at a discounted price.
IMO:
If you want to have a happy job, very few of the US companies can offer. Try a european company. I used to work for one of those. There was no free pop, no free food, but people are NICE! the environment was cooperative, instead of competitive. The work place is usaully very diversified: old, young, f/m, people of all colors, different cultures/languages, different education, etc.
If you want to retire sooner, line up for interviewing at a hot startup, after options vested, quit and line up for interviewing again for the next hot startup. I have a few friends doing that, and they have millions. But I don’t know if they are happy. The current hot is facebook. The previous ones were google and apple. The ones before that were Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, sun, amazone, yahoo.
But IBM is always a good place to work if you want to work until you die.
If you want to have a good career advance, I suggest you starting your own venture. It’s very sastifying experience. You can have any title as you like. Don’t work for someone else and hope you can be a real decision maker. That just dosen’t happen.