Google was founded 25 years ago today

Post by cmrdporcupine » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:10 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #106

paxys wrote: post #99

Without commenting on the direction of the company in recent years and where it is today, I'll be forever grateful to Google for setting the standard for how tech companies need to treat their engineers. People who have entered the industry in the last decade or two may not realize it, but the sky high salaries, stock grants, benefits, flexible work hours, free gourmet meals, stocked pantries, gym memberships and lot…

I'm not sure how much of it is Google and how much is just a broader collection of SV companies, but engineering salaries, including software, in general were much more conventional professional salaries until at least the dot-com era. I started with a computer company for about $40K in the mid-80s (with a grad degree) so a bit over $100K today with nothing special with respect to other benefits.

Post by jjoonathan » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:21 AM UTC

carlosjobim wrote: post #183

satvikpendem wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I'm sure they love being billionaires now. At some point most people will sell out. You see it all the time with companies, mainly consumer product companies, that sell to private equity who then create objectively worse products than before.

> At some point most people will sell out. That might be true, but I don't believe people sell out for the money. There is no concrete difference in lifestyle between having a hundred millions and a billion. And no matter how luxuriously you live, there will be an enormous amount of wealth left to your heirs. When you have that kind of money, changing the world and the future becomes more interesting than getting as…

Post by sanderjd » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:23 AM UTC

drewg123 wrote: post #109

paxys wrote: post #99

Without commenting on the direction of the company in recent years and where it is today, I'll be forever grateful to Google for setting the standard for how tech companies need to treat their engineers. People who have entered the industry in the last decade or two may not realize it, but the sky high salaries, stock grants, benefits, flexible work hours, free gourmet meals, stocked pantries, gym memberships and lot…

Yes, no. They are also a major proponent of open office space, and (at least the group that I worked for was) very intolerant of remote work pre-pandemic. It was very grating to see all these showy spaces (cafes, gyms, theaters, climbing walls, ball pits etc) that were featured in the REWS (Google Real Estate and Workplace Services) newsletters, with absolutely no focus on the overcrowded open office spaces that engi…

Post by scarface_74 » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:26 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #99

Without commenting on the direction of the company in recent years and where it is today, I'll be forever grateful to Google for setting the standard for how tech companies need to treat their engineers. People who have entered the industry in the last decade or two may not realize it, but the sky high salaries, stock grants, benefits, flexible work hours, free gourmet meals, stocked pantries, gym memberships and lot…

Post by ghaff » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:34 AM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #176

shepherdjerred wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do any companies today still have this culture?

R&D in pharma/biotech can be like this. But there are fewer and fewer free-wheeling R&D groups in industry these days, probably because people saw Xerox PARC and thought it was a waste of money (a single invention at PARC paid for all of PARC).