Google Software Engineer (Site Reliability) reviews

They spoil us. I'm glad I worked elsewhere between college and Google, otherwise I might not realize how great of a place this is to work. I'm on-call for several services for about 48 hours each month, though the pager is relatively calm. Google admittedly makes mistakes in hiring, often turning away good candidates if there's any doubt; as a result, many smart people are bitter about Google because they get turned down--but I encourage them to try again in a year or so. And if you wear Google-branded apparel in public, sometimes weirdos stop you and ask lots of bizarre questions about what it's like to work there.

Long hours, high stress. Depending on which part of the organization you are in, expectations can be wildly different for the same job level, and promotion is a very tricky path and done by committee, and decisions from them seem arbitrary and hard to justify. It seems to have become an unwritten rule that not seeking promotion over a 2-3 year period is unacceptable.