Ask HN: Is Google still a cool place to work?

Current 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 product areas, which makes it harder when you work across those areas (e.g. I work on Workspace, which works a lot with Android, and I have to go ask to have documents opened up to me all the time because they're locked down to just Android - and the same thing happens the other direction).

I've also heard that in the past things were a lot more bottom up - teams advocating what they thought they should build up to leadership and getting approval, and while that still happens, there's more top-down than before.

I have very little experience with large companies, so I can't compare Google to FB or Microsoft or any of the other big tech companies. But I will say that what's cool about Google is (depending on your team) you can work on highly impactful and highly visible products, you see a lot of interesting technology, the people are generally extremely smart and capable, and the benefits and quality of life are great. Because it's a big company, things are very slow - planning cycles are long. Stuff that was a six week cycle at a startup are a six month cycle at Google, but I will say that when I was at a startup, I'd often get pulled into a meeting where someone says, "Oh, hey, for X we were building, we realized that it won't work for Y reason, so we have to either push out our timeline for a lot of time, or cut Z critical feature out of the launch". At Google, that's a lot rarer, because the planning up front tends to be comprehensive and carefully designed (it is not unheard of, but it is a lot less likely).

I'm not sure that it's an ideal place for junior folks to learn how to build software, just because Google is so unique and specific in how they do things - I suspect that a lot of people who start their careers at Google and then shift to your typical smaller software company get whiplash (I have no data to back this up, it's just a gut feeling). But for people who already have a grounding in other companies or are further along in their career, I think it's a really interesting place to work at a different scope than is typically available at a smaller company.

Serious question to current Googlers: what is the diversity and inclusion sitatuon like in your department?

It is understood that Google is a large enterprise, and by no means a business unit represents the entire company culture. But it would be enlightening to hear what individuals views.

- 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.

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.

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.