Not one word about what I consider the most toxic aspect of working at Google: blind allocation.
Unless one absolutely does not care what one wishes to work on, joining Google is throwing your future into the Hogwarts hat of an ill-defined cabal of billionaires to pick your job at Google. Sometimes that works out, but most of the time you are allocated to whatever mission-critical project is currently leaking buttcheeks.
In my brief time there, I was placed on a 7-person team that lost one person per month. That is the single worst retention rate I have ever seen. I left after 4 months for that and the realization that the powers-that-be were in denial about the coming impact of an emerging technology that they have since embraced a year or so after my departure.
That said, the SCCS and the build process were top-notch.
But there are good reasons why despite all the perks and smart people, Google's overall retention rate is barely a month longer than Amazon's.
Unless one absolutely does not care what one wishes to work on, joining Google is throwing your future into the Hogwarts hat of an ill-defined cabal of billionaires to pick your job at Google. Sometimes that works out, but most of the time you are allocated to whatever mission-critical project is currently leaking buttcheeks.
In my brief time there, I was placed on a 7-person team that lost one person per month. That is the single worst retention rate I have ever seen. I left after 4 months for that and the realization that the powers-that-be were in denial about the coming impact of an emerging technology that they have since embraced a year or so after my departure.
That said, the SCCS and the build process were top-notch.
But there are good reasons why despite all the perks and smart people, Google's overall retention rate is barely a month longer than Amazon's.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/07/28/turno...