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Having the time of my life

Software Engineer III
Current Employee
Has worked at Google for 2 years
June 4, 2016
Mountain View, California
5.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

They recognize and reward top performers better than any other company I've worked for.

I got promoted in under a year, so of course I think the perf process is fair.

They let you do anything you put your mind to. I got to do a 20% project with the self-driving car team. The projects are amazing and interesting, the type that make me excited to come to work every day.

Great and talented coworkers can be rare to have in other companies, but they seem to be everywhere at Google.

Google contracts with the local music school in Mountain View to provide music lessons at work, for anyone who is interested. I am taking advantage of this, and have music lessons during the work day, which is an amazing perk to have.

There are music rooms scattered around where you can play piano, guitar, drums, etc. They really seem to care about your wellbeing, not just how much work they get out of you.

There is a focus on long-term development for employees, such as giving us lots of resources to learn new things. From programming languages to music to machine learning, I can get involved and learn just about anything at Google.

Then there's the "regular" stuff I now take for granted, like the free food and microkitchens. You can bring your dog to work, which is awesome. I get a full body table massage every other week. There are clubs for just about any kind of thing, including re-enacting ancient battles with foam swords.

Cons

Sometimes long cafe lines while you're waiting for free food.

Large campus requires you to use GBike to get around sometimes (I'm lazy), although they do provide buses and even an Uber-like pickup service.

So many things to see and do, between talks, special events, and parties, that it can be hard to focus on your work.

Advice to Management

I love it here. Keep letting me do my thing, and I'll continue producing great work.

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