Taro Logo

Good work, great perks, but performance reviews are a joke

Senior Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Google for 4 years
June 7, 2014
Zürich, Zürich
3.0
RecommendsNegative OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Perks are great and salaries are competitive.

You get to work with very talented people and learn a lot. It rarely gets boring.

Working hours are very flexible. It's still an engineering-driven company, so it's a great place for engineers.

Cons

Long working hours are the norm, and work/life balance is not encouraged.

Career growth at higher levels is hard if you are not in the US.

The performance review process is very complicated and almost a game that you need to learn to play. It's not just about what you did and how important it was, but there are 20 other dimensions by which the work is evaluated, which no one understands in the end. They claim it's fair, but compared to other companies I have seen, it is not.

Advice to Management

Keep the red tape at check as the company is growing.

Simplify the performance review process and reward the right people, not just those who do shiny work.

Was this helpful?

Google Interview Experiences