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Good employer, but not necessarily the best for international recruits

Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Google for less than 1 year
October 19, 2016
Mountain View, California
3.0
RecommendsPositive Outlook
Pros
  • Free food
  • Nice weather
  • Plenty of on-campus amenities like showers, gyms, massages, and cafes
  • Great technical infrastructure and tooling
  • Great colleagues to work beside
  • Lots of teams to choose from in Mountain View
  • Processes to progress in the company are well defined
Cons

The salary, once adjusted for Bay Area cost of living and taxes, isn't competitive with similar positions in other locations (such as Google's Seattle office, which has similar compensation but with half rent and no state income tax).

Vacation time is very limited (3 weeks), particularly for people coming from other countries, where 4-5 weeks is usually a legal minimum. If you're moving away from your family, consider how hard it'll be to keep in touch given this limitation. Consider the fact that you're losing 1-2 weeks paid time off when you look at the compensation.

Relocation bonuses are paid after relocation, so you need to be able to pay them upfront prior to relocating.

Advice to Management

Give employees more vacation time, particularly international employees who need to leave their families.

Make Bay Area employment more worthwhile or move teams elsewhere.

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