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Great place to work, unless you have children

Site Reliability Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Google for less than 1 year
June 11, 2008
Dublin, Dublin
5.0
RecommendsApproves of CEO
Pros

If you are an engineer, it's wonderful. The place is built by engineers, for engineers. The company's rules, structure, and processes usually make sense, and when they don't, anyone can fix them if they can get enough people to reach a consensus. Promotions sometimes seem very difficult, but are well-earned and very fair.

Cons

They don't suffer fools. If you move into an area that is not your strength, you can be penalized. A move from engineering to project management might take someone six months to get up to speed. In that time, they may be given only "adequate" performance reviews. All companies have 'dull jobs' that are hard to automate. Google only hires the 'best and brightest', which means some people can be really bored.

Advice to Management

Get real about parents who have a life outside work.

Unsociable meeting hours, an informal ban on telecommuting, and no part-time working policy mean that many parents feel they have to leave. And it will only get worse as the workforce matures.

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