Comments on: Life not THAT Great Working at Google?

By: Don't want to tell you

Don't want to tell you — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:00:49 +0000

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.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:48:56 +0000

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.

By: William Frantz

William Frantz — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:16:22 +0000

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.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:52:10 +0000

COX use to have free sodas but it got abused, especially by the field techs so they went to Soda Machines at 25Â¢ 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.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:34:43 +0000

@Seth – I’m just curious what you did at Yahoo, and what made you decide to leave?

By: Seth Brundle

Seth Brundle — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:34:14 +0000

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.

By: onlineapps

onlineapps — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:38:41 +0000

All I can say is that the three people I know who work at Google LOVE it. Of course, they’re not programmers…

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.

I think one of their cafes also got a 5-star rating or something.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:09:10 +0000

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.

By: irv

irv — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:00:47 +0000

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.