Pros: It's nice to feel like part of something greater than oneself. Google has a whole lot going on at any given time, and there is a strongly intellectually curious atmosphere among the employees. The perks are fantastic, too. There is no easy nor compelling way to argue against free hot meals up to three times a day, and there's always something exciting, interesting, or intellectually challenging to work on. The colorful and relatively playful atmosphere are also an excellent change of pace from the standard-issue dreary cubicle existence that plagues most office jobs out there in the US.

Cons: Long hours! Not the place for people who want to have a life outside of work, but then they aren't the type who wind up getting hired anyway.

Pros: Working at Google, you have really smart co-workers. In the beginning, it struck me that people quickly understood my ideas, something I wasn't used to from college. Another great advantage at Google is that it is very engineering-driven. Generally, engineers are given enough freedom to work on what they consider to be most important. The role of product managers is to help engineers figure out what that is and to help in communications, but ultimately, engineers make the decision. Being an engineer, I very much enjoy this, and I think it makes a lot of sense given that engineers understand the technologies involved best.

Cons: A lot of the interesting problems and challenges have already been solved. In particular, as a junior software engineer, you'll work on not-so-exciting tasks. Also, due to the fast growth of the company, the impact an individual makes is not as big as it used to be.

Pros: Work-life balance, great work, Google perks.

Cons: Everyone is so skilled; you have to be on your toes every time.