Google

One of my favorite perks of working at Google India was sleeping in the office cabs on my way home after a hectic day at work. Also, the cab service is only offered in India. In the US, Google provides a shuttle service, but the cab service doesn’t exist in any other country (to the best of my knowledge).

Talking about wallets, the security is pretty great. You can leave your wallet, watch, laptop, etc., anywhere in the office and can expect to find it back in the same place the next day or with security. In my two years at Google, I never heard of anyone’s stuff getting stolen.

Most roles allow for some overseas travel opportunities. I went on a business trip to Europe. I followed all the guidelines for daily allowances (which are pretty generous) and wasn't asked a single question about it. I had drinks when I wanted to and had all kinds of exotic food on the company's card.

Some companies are cost-driven, whereas Google is value-driven. (The cost of asking for business justification for each and every bill is more expensive than letting the employee do some productive work in that time. See point no. 4 under culture).

Google India offers very limited scope for career growth.

You obviously can’t become the CEO/SVP/VP working from India when more than 80% of your workforce is based out of Mountain View. The roles in India are very limited too since only a handful of organizations are based out of India.

Sooner than later, anyone who has some iota of ambition and is not constrained by family, moves to Mountain View. (The internal mobility is pretty great by the way, minus the tons of competition for good roles. See point no. 1).

Google runs a lot of programs to train its management and provides a lot of support to its employees to keep them stress-free and remove all politics from the workplace. However, Google is a system run by people, and at the end of the day, people are flawed. Some politics does creep into the picture. It might be comparatively less than many other places, but it does exist.

Promotions in non-tech organizations are very messy. It comes down to how much your manager is willing to push for your case. So, if you don’t have the best of relationships with your manager, or your manager doesn’t like your face, then find a new manager ASAP. If your manager is someone who backs down easily, then say bye-bye to your promotion.

I knew a guy on the floor who would stand behind his reportees like a wall (the noun, not Rahul Dravid). Multiple reportees in his team got promoted each cycle. The same cannot be said about the manager who had the reputation of backing down easily. It is not like there weren’t any hard-working or deserving candidates in the latter’s team.

The scene is significantly different and less messy for tech ladders.