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Still a good place to work, not exceptional anymore

Staff Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Google for 9 years
January 18, 2025
Boulder, Colorado
4.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros
  • Good benefits.
  • Good pay overall for a software engineer, but pay has stagnated in the last few years compared to other Big Tech. I would not say Google pays at the very top of the market anymore, despite what they might claim.
  • The internal software development stack is generally pretty good, with some exceptions.
  • Lots of innovative and interesting projects are still going on, despite the size of the company. You just need to find the right group to work with, and it can be great. Find the wrong one, and it can be boring and have dysfunctional cultural dynamics.
Cons

The culture from up top has changed dramatically. Google's leadership has dropped the ball in terms of company culture for many years now, and they simply don't care about fixing it. It certainly could be much worse; there are plenty of places to work with more dysfunctional and terrible cultures. But the magical, awesome culture Google was known for from top to bottom is dead and has been dead for a long time. And it's clear leadership considers this a feature, not a bug.

Promotions outside of Senior have gotten much harder as Google has focused on belt-tightening. It's becoming much harder to be recognized, and pay raises are not as good as they used to be. Not bad, but they are no longer paying very top of market, unless, of course, you have some special skills with AI (PhD, worked at a well-known AI start-up, etc.).

Lots of legacy systems and code to deal with, of wide varying quality. Pretty standard stuff considering the age of the company, but you need to be comfortable learning about really old systems that have gotten crusty over time. And expect a hard time getting the time and resources to make the improvements that really are necessary.

Advice to Management

They already know what employees don't like; it's clear they are not going to change course.

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
4.0
Culture and Values
3.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
3.0
Career Opportunities
3.0
Compensation and Benefits
4.0
Senior Management
1.0

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