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Leaving Google

jayconrod.com

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Re: Leaving Google

#61

Post by justicezyx »

I never realized how deeply the promotion mindset is damaging my personal happiness and growth, until I left Google in 2019...

Most things promoted in Google about growth boils down to promotion, which is just a cover word of getting your hands on promising project without proactively doing much by yourself.

Self motivated ideas actually get me into various trouble. In hindsight, I can see that many coworkers are silently watching this guy getting burnt without offering much helping hands.

In the end, I learned the googely way of working at Google, and find it not worthwhile to stay...

Re: Leaving Google

#62

Post by BurningFrog »

oppositelock wrote: post #25
Waterluvian wrote: post #4

I think it’s interesting that the good things about working there had nothing to do with the employer and the bad things had everything to do with the employer. Indeed, this line is the takeaway, in my opinion: “…is because we've been at least a little brainwashed into thinking a job at Google is the pinnacle of employment.” I haven’t worked for one so this take might be quite hot, but I get the sense that big tech c…

I worked at Google from 2005 to 2013, seeing it grow from 4,000 to 50,000 employees during this time. In 2005, it was a wonderful, prestigious place to work with many great people and a startup vibe, the place was vibrant. By 2013, Larry and Sergey were put out to pasture, and the company took on a much more bureaucratic, compartmentalized feel. I was working hard, most of my work was fighting bureaucracy and optimiz…

I was there 2006-2009. Each year a new level of management appeared above me, and things got ever more "political" and perf centric.

Just as people are different at age 10, 20 and 40, companies are different in different stages and sizes. Know what you want and look for it.

I realized I want to be at small companies, and have not worked at a company larger than 25 people since.

Re: Leaving Google

#63

Post by emodendroket »

bmitc wrote: post #33

Google has 140,000 employees, the size of a size-able city in the U.S. Does anyone really care when someone leaves Google?

I guess people do in the "why would you ever leave such a great job?!" sense, but people can get bored of any job after enough time.

Re: Leaving Google

#64

Post by coffeefirst »

Waterluvian wrote: post #4

I think it’s interesting that the good things about working there had nothing to do with the employer and the bad things had everything to do with the employer. Indeed, this line is the takeaway, in my opinion: “…is because we've been at least a little brainwashed into thinking a job at Google is the pinnacle of employment.” I haven’t worked for one so this take might be quite hot, but I get the sense that big tech c…

> ...selling you on the idea that they’re elite and therefore you must be elite too if you get the job

Also true of Ivy League Schools, movie studios, and certain neighborhoods. Prestige is weird, and if you value it, that's totally fine, but it's probably better the separate the myth from the real-world entity that's made up of people doing stuff.

Re: Leaving Google

#65

Post by emodendroket »

I mean, nothing wrong with anything the guy says here. But this says more about the author than Google, really. No shame in having had enough of a job and wanting to move on after nearly a decade, but I don't think the fact that they wouldn't let him move far away from the office without a pay cut or the unlikelihood of a promotion indicates that the job radically changed on him, exactly.

Re: Leaving Google

#66

Post by Jensson »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #36
thanhhaimai wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's true that "you can't apply directly to a team". I've seen many people got interviewed/hired for exactly one position. The manager of the team will need to be in the loop though. If they don't know you and don't agree with you applying directly, then it's most likely you're going to the normal pipeline.

Ah, interesting. Thank you. My info about the hiring process came from a friend at Google. But in hindsight, they were probably relaying what their own path had been like, rather than making a statement about the process in general.

Well your friend is correct in theory, you never apply to a particular team, you always apply to Google. However you are free to choose what team you'd like to work for as long as that teams manager agrees to let you join, meaning if you already know the manager you can guarantee a spot at that team if you pass the regular Google interview. But if for some reason that team disappears etc, you have still passed the Google hiring bar and is therefore free to join another team.

Re: Leaving Google

#67

Post by [deleted] »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #55
titzer wrote: post #43

I joined in 2010 and left in 2019. The company I joined was very different than the one I left. Every single one of Google's problems can be traced back to scale. Loss of trust, distance to top leadership, tone-deafness, repeated failures, escalating surveillance dystopia, perf management overhead, leaks...all of them are fundamentally due to scale. And scale is simply because greed. Gotta make that 23% YoY revenue g…

> And scale is simply because greed. Is it possible that it is simply because of survival? The general theme of business I see is if you do not keep up with others, you will lose to your competitors. Especially in a winner take all business with network effects and low marginal costs like tech.

[deleted]

Re: Leaving Google

#68

Post by AlbertCory »

2005-2017 for me. On the "20% project" stuff, which everyone seemed to have heard of:

I think it was 2008 or so when I was sitting at a table with about eight other people, and somehow or other the question came up "who has a 20% project?" Only one of us did.

The main utility of a 20% was that you could try out a new group before transferring to it, and they could try you out. Other than that, very few people actually had one, even then.

Re: Leaving Google

#69

Post by ornornor »

cube00 wrote: post #29
kevingadd wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absurd. I haven't been asked to file timesheets (other than for days off) as a sweng in over a decade, including when I was at Google. Management on that team has completely lost it.

I read that as the "30 minute increment" tracking is used as a short term punishment for not meeting the deadline.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Re: Leaving Google

#70

Post by catillac »

its_bbq wrote: post #9

I am in the middle of the same sort of sabbatical from Google. It was my first job out of college and I joined the same time as Jay. In fact for a time sat right across the aisle from the Go team when I was working on Abseil (abseil.io) and I can confirm that Alan Donovan is a really kind, friendly guy. The company got progressively more and more "corporate" and felt less and less dynamic as time wore on. Most of the…

Thank you for Abseil, if nothing else. It’s been my go-to for years now.
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