Why Google Employees Quit

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
4,646
So you think working at Google would be a dream job? Hold on, buckaroo. Check out this TechCrunch article before you sign any employment agreements. That free food and unconventional office might not be exactly what you thought it was.

We’ve been forwarded what appears to be authentic posts to the thread by a number of ex-Googlers, which we reprint below minus identifying information other than their first names. The thread shows a brutal honesty about what it’s like to work at Google, at least from the point of view of employees who were unhappy enough to resign.
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after reading half of them, it sounds like typical cooperate life. You don't matter, people buzzing around, long hiring process, bad management, ect.
 
w1ngzer0 said:
after reading half of them, it sounds like typical corporate life. You don't matter, people buzzing around, long hiring process, bad management, ect.
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I thought the same thing. I think it's funny when people have certain expectations only to have them dashed when they get on the other side of the lobby. Corporate life for a large corporation is remarkably similar, no matter what they say about "corporate culture" and all that blather.
 
Terry Olaes said:
I thought the same thing. I think it's funny when people have certain expectations only to have them dashed when they get on the other side of the lobby. Corporate life for a large corporation is remarkably similar, no matter what they say about "corporate culture" and all that blather.
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the whole "google is for the good of humanity" thing is a damn farce and always was. anyone who thought otherwise is just plain ignorant. they're just like any other company.
 
I am beginning to dislike google more and more every day...
 
Same old shit. Rich people pinching pennies where they can so they can throw their money into more important things like jets, ten homes, and consistent greed.

Of course this is no different then 90% of any big corporation. Stay in your place people, stay in your fucking place.

:D
 
Sounds like a Golden Company to me. They get their choice of the cream of the crop, and they get to make them work more for less because there are a million people who are willing to kill to take their place. A lot of people inside the company drink the kool-aid and think you should work harder and not complain since, after all, you are working for Golden Company. A lot of people on the outside can't understand why you complained or why you left since, after all, you were working for Golden Company.

But of course, "the job market is kinda fucked right now so what are you gonna do?" ...I guess...
 
The grass is always greener till you get there...

Bottom line, your just a line on a spreadsheet.
 
Many of them were only complaining about benefits, but the free meals evens it out. Not sure if MS has free meals.
 
A while back, my resume was tossed in by a Google insider. They were interested enough to want to do an interview in two weeks, claiming that one of the people was on vacation. Okay, fair deal. So, I breeze through the interview, and ask a lot of questions. A lot of the answers start putting me off - this was for two positions at once, supposedly I would have had my pick between internal Ops Engineering and customer-facing Ops Engineering.

One of the first questions I always ask is, what's the on-call rotation? They .. didn't really have an answer. They said it was kind of random, but nobody was always on call. No red flags there, just caution. So I ask what a routine on call shift is like. "Oh, only like 3 or 4 a night." For 7 days in a row. Big red flag. What about fixing what causes them? That's somebody else's job, not allowed. What about root cause analysis? Somebody else's job, not allowed.
At this point, any competent system administrator should have alarm bells ringing loudly and non-stop. Top volume. So we finish things up, say goodbye, etcetera. Bear in mind, none of the interviewers I spoke with was at all familiar with anything outside of the most basic of bash-specific shell scripting and GUIs. I had to explain how an awk script worked.

So, I wait a week. Nothing. So I email my HR contact, who takes another full two days to get back to me to say that they want to schedule a second interview. She asks my availability for a range of dates three months in the future. Well, I'm out of town for half of them on vacation, so I ask if they have anything say a little sooner - like within the next say, six weeks instead of nine. The response I got was full of thinly veiled sarcasm and quite a bit of snippiness, and told me to be ready for the second interview in four hours. Like I was asking them to move planet Earth, or saying I deserved special treatment.
The second interview was with mostly new people, and the folks who conducted it very very clearly had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, what they managed, or even what was going on with day to day operations. They kept citing the "difficulties of being a booming, great company to work for!" Uh. Yeah. Sure. Sailed through it, if only because they had absolutely no clue what was going on overall.

So I get an email a few days later from HR saying they want to make an offer and to watch for it in the mail. A full week later I finally get the offer letter; $10K/yr less than what I was making in the midwest, less benefits, virtually no stock options, no comp time, the list goes on. So, I email them and tell 'em it's inadequate - we're going to need to hash out the details, what would be a convenient time to discuss it? Response? Take it or leave it - they were not interested in, or willing to negotiate.

Wisely, I told them exactly where they could put their offer - along with their attitude problem.
The person who put my resume in? Quit the day their options vested, tired of the required 50 hour minimum work week under their manager, and the complete and total confusion that reigned supreme.
 
I work at Google.

My hiring process took less than a month. I am superbly happy with my job. I get to work on software that is used by millions daily, and probably most of you.

I eat three healthy, gourmet meals everyday for free (though I was offered more money elsewhere). I have a great benefits package (better than what Microsoft offered me). I work 4 levels below the SVP of Engineering and I am a ground-level engineer. I know exactly what goes into each decision and it is explained to me with a level of transparency unparalleled in the technology industry.

The people in this article are those who will not be happy anywhere. Google is as good as it gets if you're looking for a large corporation. It is sad to have articles like this try to drag down morale, but I can tell you that all of my coworkers enjoy their jobs just as much as I do.

No matter what company you look at, you will find unhappy people. Some people like to be the victim. Google is the same in that respect, and better in so many others.
 
I like google and I've a friend who works for them and absolutely LOVES it. With any company if it is going to perform they've got to keep their people working, have managers etc. There will always be people who don't get along with management, don't get their work done or whatever - it isn't necessarily a blight on the company itself:)
 
That whole article is about people whinning because Google or anybody else didn't kiss their ass or hold their hand...............

So, you got hired and are a noob as far as Google is concerned.......what did you expect...

Nobody feeds me.
I pay for my medical benefits.
I work roughly 60-70 hours a week, sometimes more.

Cry me a river, you wuss.:eek:
 
Let's reiterate some of the complaints raised:
  • Less than average medical benefits.
  • Poor management at most levels.
  • Far below market compensation.
  • Board Members making promises to employees with no intention to honor them.

This is from a company that "does no evil" - it's still in their slogan bin, you better believe it - and is practically rolling in cash. Then when they start laying contractors off and cutting costs, they switch their SEC filings to paper only, in an attempt to bury them for as long as possible if not completely.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but Google's not even close to ethical, much less "humanitarian" or "good," and there's no "offset" for it. Especially not free food.
 
AreEss said:
Let's reiterate some of the complaints raised:
  • Less than average medical benefits.
  • Poor management at most levels.
  • Far below market compensation.
  • Board Members making promises to employees with no intention to honor them.
This is from a company that "does no evil" - it's still in their slogan bin, you better believe it - and is practically rolling in cash. Then when they start laying contractors off and cutting costs, they switch their SEC filings to paper only, in an attempt to bury them for as long as possible if not completely.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but Google's not even close to ethical, much less "humanitarian" or "good," and there's no "offset" for it. Especially not free food.
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QFT
 
AreEss said:
Let's reiterate some of the complaints raised:
  • Less than average medical benefits.
  • Poor management at most levels.
  • Far below market compensation.
  • Board Members making promises to employees with no intention to honor them.

This is from a company that "does no evil" - it's still in their slogan bin, you better believe it - and is practically rolling in cash. Then when they start laying contractors off and cutting costs, they switch their SEC filings to paper only, in an attempt to bury them for as long as possible if not completely.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but Google's not even close to ethical, much less "humanitarian" or "good," and there's no "offset" for it. Especially not free food.
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Yeah, they actually sound just like every company I have ever worked for.
 
Those former employees are going to have a rude awakening in life if they expect to get their way as an employee in a large business. Employees, especially lower level, are there to work and make the company money, not be pampered and have a dream job. If you want that, start your own business.
 
Microsoft had free drinks (Pepsi, Coke, etc best offered being choc milk) in the building I worked at which was good enough for me. Anyway as it's been said above the corporate culture is the same wherever you go - profit over people - exactly why I was probably temp and not perm. For all I know the free drinks dried up when I left and that honestly wouldn't shock me in the least. They are all the same, some just hire more clever folks into their marketing departments.
 
The bottom line is that the company you work for is in business to make money, not to employ you.
 
Hey - tell these guys at [H] to take this link down - if you post a comment on the actual article at TechCrunch you will get hit with a cascading pop-up bomb!!!
 
Hey - tell these guys at [H] to take this link down - if you post a comment on the actual article at TechCrunch you will get hit with a cascading pop-up bomb!!!
 
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