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Great for Engineers, tricky for Product people

Engineering Director
Former Employee
Worked at Google for 4 years
September 8, 2015
Mountain View, California
5.0
RecommendsNeutral OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

Extremely smart co-workers, a lot of resources, excellent perks and working environment, modern internal tools, and an innovative and smart environment.

If you have an opportunity to work there, there's really little reason not to try it for a few years at least. If you thrive, you thrive. If you don't, it looks great on the resume. One of Google's main attractions as an employer is that it's really a win-win to work there.

Cons

Overall, Google's focus is on defending their cash cow. Their other activities almost seem like they're just trying to keep talent off the market and away from competitors. That means if you're an engineer, you'll have a great time. But if you're a product-oriented person, caring about market success, customer satisfaction, etc., you'll get frustrated after a few years. Top management is very split in its priorities. There are generally a lot of chefs involved in any decision-making, and the decisions tend to be reversed or altered fairly quickly. A surprisingly large percentage of the senior talent does not view Google as a long-term career path, which leads them to focus on a couple of promotion phases and then they're off somewhere else.

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