At a 100,000+ company it would be impossible to generalize
People can generalise about many millions in a country. I think with generalisations, some people forget its only generally true (or not).
Theres almost always some truth to them.
Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
31–40 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
People can generalise about many millions in a country. I think with generalisations, some people forget its only generally true (or not).
Or never really true like with the case of of the average Air-force pilot. https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/16/when-us-air-...
Great article - thanks for sharing.
I think this talks to "I think with generalisations, some people forget its only generally true"
Here sizing was specific. E.g. Even simplified to a single measure, the Dutch are generally tall. Few are likely to be exactly the average height, and that number of exactly average people is going to reduce the more specific the measurement e.g 183cm vs 182.523431412cm
So if you want to fault a generalisation, be more specific.... see second line.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#33Present Googler. Been here 7 years. As with all these things, this depends largely on what you are looking for. This comment applies to engineering exclusivelyq. A good number of teams and products at Google are very mature with large teams working on them. This leads to slow growth and obviously less challenging work on one hand. On the other hand, if you would like an easy job with time to focus on personal priorit…
"A good number of these teams also consist of engineers who have hit a certain level of growth equilibrium which prevents other junior and newer engineers from growing beyond a certain level." Unsure what you mean here. Do you mean because teams can only have so many heads at certain levels, the people who are holding those seats block others from getting promoted?
That's right. Also, as with most hierarchical engineering teams, the senior engineers are expected to push the boundaries of a project and define new stuff for the junior engineers to work on. However, the senior engineers might not care about growth anymore and end up maintaining the status quo. This could hamper the growth of the junior engineers on the team.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#34- Google is a monoculture. It is just boring. - Promotions are hard and work is boring. - A lot of time is spent on red tape. - Perks are excellent. While I despise the work that is the only thing keeping me here.
It was a lot easier to leave in the last year since we don't get many of those perks anymore. Except vacation, which is below average at Google for those who haven't been at the company forever.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#35I'm a Xoogler. I joined in late 2016 and quit January 2021. In my opinion, the company didn't change much in absolute terms while I was there. It became more secretive, but overall the experience was similar in 2017 and 2020. It was generally good given the alternatives - no major complaints that don't apply to other software companies. Good work-life balance and good compensation. Many great people under-leveled (bu…
How big is the "very qualified Googlers take all the interesting positions" issue? It's something that has always put me off those huge companies, you apply for a chance to work with them, not to work on something specific. And it seems very likely that, as a newcomer, you won't be assigned to the cool projects, but to the things no one else want to do.
You can definitely match to an interesting team if it has openings and your recruiter finds the opportunity for you. For example, when I joined I was working on Instant Apps, a new and technically interesting project I'd heard of that hadn't launched yet. The clearer you are about what interests you the better the recruiter can be.
The difficulty I saw was more that your actual slice of responsibility on such a project is likely to be somewhat small. Of course, your mileage may vary.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
"A good number of these teams also consist of engineers who have hit a certain level of growth equilibrium which prevents other junior and newer engineers from growing beyond a certain level." Unsure what you mean here. Do you mean because teams can only have so many heads at certain levels, the people who are holding those seats block others from getting promoted?
That's right. Also, as with most hierarchical engineering teams, the senior engineers are expected to push the boundaries of a project and define new stuff for the junior engineers to work on. However, the senior engineers might not care about growth anymore and end up maintaining the status quo. This could hamper the growth of the junior engineers on the team.
It's unfair to say this is due to senior engineers refusing to push boundaries. A team (eng + product + management) collectively defines its vision and strategies.
I'm on my 3rd team, and 2nd PA in 9 years at Google and I've never seen a dearth of upward mobility opportunity for any junior engineer who wants it. There are almost always new an innovative projects beginning and available to work on.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#37Not sure about this anymore. You dont seem to get interviews at google anymore if you apply directly via the website. Much like the support policy for their "products," you need to know someone within, be aligned politically from your past with the person and only then get a call. In short, Google has become good at hiring cliques.
finally someone said it out loud. It is so hard to even get a call if you do not go through a referral. Hard to say it is a google problem as the pool they can access is one of the biggest in the world.
Isn't this really true about most companies of a certain size? Applying via online application system always seems to be a first class ticket to ghosting or automated rejection letter.
I don't think I've ever gotten a single positive response from applying to any company via their online application system. Every interview I've ever gotten from any company was via a recruiter reaching out first, or through an internal referral.
Having said that, there was a Google recruiter I had spoken to in the past, but I had declined to interview back then due to being in the process of getting married. Reached out to him last week but seem to have been ghosted.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#38Xoogler, current facebooker. Reach out: tehlike@gmail.com Edit: Not sure why I got negative votes. Having this discussion on HN is not effective. I am fairly unbiased, but i need to know what kind of person he is, what kind of work he is willing to do, and might also offer career advice.
Upvote from me. Up to you but I recommend put the email in your profile. You can remove it later if needed which is not possible with the comment after so many hours.
that's a fair point that i normally do, but forgot to do this time.
Thanks.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
"A good number of these teams also consist of engineers who have hit a certain level of growth equilibrium which prevents other junior and newer engineers from growing beyond a certain level." Unsure what you mean here. Do you mean because teams can only have so many heads at certain levels, the people who are holding those seats block others from getting promoted?
That's right. Also, as with most hierarchical engineering teams, the senior engineers are expected to push the boundaries of a project and define new stuff for the junior engineers to work on. However, the senior engineers might not care about growth anymore and end up maintaining the status quo. This could hamper the growth of the junior engineers on the team.
I don't think these problems are exclusive to Google or Google-sized companies.
Once devs have worked on a particular system for long enough, they become a nuisance because they know all the (good) reasons not to do something. Not necessarily because they are lazy / don't want to grow.
Re: Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?
#40Current googler here - only for a few years, so I don't have years of comparison. My perception in general is that, as someone else has mentioned, the openness has been dialed back a lot. It used to be standard that basically anyone could read or look at almost anything aside from obviously sensitive information like revenue and earnings. Today, it can be annoying - things are default blocked off to particular produc…
My parents had a saying when I was little: “every rule can be traced back to at least one asshole”... I believe google had some incidents (people) that resulted it needing to dial back the openness...
That asshole could be someone that made troubles, or could be the one that created the rule