Google reviews

It's ridiculously hard to get hired at Google. They place a premium value on your pedigree (education, GPA, even outside interests) rather than on your skills and ability to contribute on a practical level. A Stanford grad with a 4.0 GPA doesn't automatically make a better employee than a UC grad. Or even (gasp!) someone without a degree at all. There's no career path, and no career planning. I never had a good manager, much less a mentor, the entire time I was there. The people who got promoted were the ones who kissed up and knew how to play the game. Low salaries. I know there are a lot of perks to "make up for it," but I'd rather have the money and decide how to spend it myself. Not being a new grad fresh out of college, I didn't care about the perks.

Where do I start? If you have completed more than 5 years work in your career, don't even consider joining this glorified telesales centre. It is mind-numbing work, filled with smart people bored out of their heads and quitely killing time to get the 2 year stint onto their CV. The place is full of politics. My line manager did not address me for more than one sentence at a time for the first FOUR MONTHS I worked there there. It simply was not going to bring her any benefit or kudos to be seen fraternising with an inferior. The arrogance of the place is pretty astounding too. 'You should be honoured to be working there'. My peers were great people, but it's the kind of place you have to be sure you are going to fit in, because if you don't (in my team about 20% of us) you will not last more than a year before slowly losing the will to live. If fussball, free food and a great social life is high on your agenda, go for it. If self-development, career progression, nurturing and supportive environment and understanding management are important to you, look elsewhere