I don't think i'd work for any large corporation at this time of my life. Maybe if I launched something which was acquired and had a good amount of freedom.
Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
21–30 of 82 posts
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#22After more than 5 years as an engineer, I left Google on April first. I was surrounded by intelligent, friendly, and honest coworkers. Across the company, good, reusable, well-documented, well-designed code was normal. People also go out of their way to help, answer questions, and put an end to BS.
I'd consider returning.
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#23I would jump at a chance to work there, but mostly if I didn't have to go through an interview process. I hear it's quite difficult to get through.
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#24Yes - vast resources, computational, logistical and brains to talk to, learn from and share. No - I'd probably end up working on something rather mundane. So, no.
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#25[deleted]
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is not true. Google is actually fairly open about this. For projects that fall into the grey area, there is a committee of engineers and lawyers that you can submit your (personal) projects to, and they can give you a clear answer that the IP is owned by you. From anecdotes I've heard, the committee is very friendly to employees.
I find the idea of bringing a personal project into the office and having a committee decide whether I own it or not, to be rather distasteful. The obvious course of action is for developers to universally stop signing over their rights willingly like this. Nobody should ever have to sign these invention clauses to be employed.
Often is it hard to justify whether you completely own the IP. For example, you could've used the company resource to respond to an email related to your personal project. Or some ideas for your personal project might've been influenced by your day work. Rather than delaying this type of problems till later stage, it is easier to just resolve such issues explicitly.
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#27After more than 5 years as an engineer, I left Google on April first. I was surrounded by intelligent, friendly, and honest coworkers. Across the company, good, reusable, well-documented, well-designed code was normal. People also go out of their way to help, answer questions, and put an end to BS. I'd consider returning.
Out of curiosity, why did you leave?
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#28I recently graduated with a CS degree and turned down an offer from Google in favor of one from Twitter, mainly on the grounds of it being a smaller company (for now). Google is still at the top of my list of BigCo's that I'd consider joining, as they have an incredible range of solid projects. However, my desire for a greater opportunity of individual contribution would prevent me from working there for the time being.
EDIT: Not to mention that Twitter (and many other software companies) is crawling with ex-Googlers, so the caliber of engineer coworkers will be roughly equal.
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#29I worked there for 5 years in cluster management / datacenter operations, from 2005 - 2010. While I had a blast, I'm now working for myself (consulting + startups) and could not be happier.
Google is the right place for certain kinds of people; I don't think entrepreneurs are one of them.
Re: Poll: Given the opportunity would you work at Google?
#30At the moment I am still in college but I'd be happy to go there when I finish my degree. I don't think I'd like to spend there my whole life though - optimally, I'd like to stay there a few years and then go try something different, like a startup.