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Great company to work for, still. But flaws lower morale

Senior Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Google for less than 1 year
April 29, 2009
Mountain View, California
4.0
RecommendsNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Good benefits and good salaries. Google treats its engineers very well, even in these economic times.

Very smart people, world-class engineers (quality varies from group to group, though) that make very fun co-workers whether to discuss life, politics, or engineering.

Big impact. You know the stuff you build can affect, positively or negatively, millions of users.

Cons
  • Inconsistent vision. You're never quite sure what senior management is thinking, or whether they have a master plan. In fact, after working there for several years, you're beginning to think they don't. A lot of decisions are whim decisions. Projects get killed on a whim and resurrected on a whim.

  • Launches & rollouts [are] extremely frustrating. A lot of launch gates & reviews, some are understandable but some are quite ridiculous. Too few people control too many aspects of things.

Advice to Management

Stop pretending you're a "big company with startup culture." Admit that the "startup culture" is gone and it's time to build a new culture based on reality.

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