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Google employees confess all the worst things about working at Google

It isn’t all milk and honey.

A JOB AT GOOGLE.

It’s career heaven, right? How could a gig at the biggest, most ambitious tech company on the planet possibly be bad?

Well, take a look at this Quora thread, which is being used by current and former Google employees to dish the dirt on working for the search giant.

Turns out that working at Google isn’t all free food and bike rides around campus.

Take their complaints with a grain of salt. These are the complainers, after all. But we’ve heard many of these same things from our own sources.

They can hire the very best people — so *everyone* is overqualified.

google - 1 Glassdoor Glassdoor

“There are students from top 10 colleges who are providing tech support for Google’s ads products, or manually taking down flagged content from YouTube, or writing basic code to A|B test the color of a button on a site.”

There are too few “bozos.”

shutterstock_247316740 Shutterstock / Stock-Asso Shutterstock / Stock-Asso / Stock-Asso

“There are enough talented people that being talented won’t guarantee you an inside track on good projects, because there are thousands of equally smart people ahead in the queue and equally underutilized, but there are just enough bozos that you have to prove that you’re not one of them,” said a former engineer.

Google staff are so outstanding that there’s an internal joke about it.

shutterstock_155551085 Shutterstock / Natalia Dobryanskaya Shutterstock / Natalia Dobryanskaya / Natalia Dobryanskaya

“I used to joke with my colleagues that Larry & Sergey go out on their yachts — tie them together, sit back on the same recliners you’ll find on their jumbo jet, each on his own yacht/set of yachts, smoke cigars, and put up pictures of Googlers with little snippets like ‘was a GM at multi-national telecomm company, got a Harvard MBA and is now answering Orkut tickets.’ and then they would erupt in laughter and clink their cigars & Scotch together in celebration. This, of course, is highly unlikely given neither of them would ever smoke a cigar or drink Scotch. Remainder is plausible.”

The company only cares about measurable improvements.

google - 4 Google Google

“Any improvement not based on a hard metric was flatly not a respected use of time,” said a former Google software engineer. ”Usability? Number of bugs? Nobody cared. If you couldn’t measure it, nobody was interested in it.”

You won’t get time off.

“Work/life balance. What balance? All those perks and benefits are an illusion. They keep you at work and they help you to be more productive. I’ve never met anybody at Google who actually [took] time off on weekends or on vacations. You may not hear management say, ‘You have to work on weekends/vacations’ but, they set the culture by doing so — and it inevitably trickles down.”

It’s hard to be honest with your colleagues.

google - 5 Google Google

“It is really hard to discuss any issue unless it is your friend you are talking to,” said a former employee. “Objective discussions are pretty rare, since everybody’s territorial, and not interested in opinions of other people unless those people are Important Gods.”

Projects get can cancelled arbitrarily all the time.

google - 6 Google Maps Google Maps

“The biggest negative, by far, for me has been seemingly arbitrary project cancellations,” said an anonymous commenter. “To add insult to injury, people who worked on canceled projects have promotion applications denied for failing to have made an impact.”

There are managers who have been over-promoted.

google - 7 £The Internship" £The Internship"

“People are promoted into management positions — not because they actually know how to lead/manage, but because they happen to be smart or because there is no other path to grow into,” said a former technical program manager. “So there is a layer of intelligent individuals who are horrible managers and leaders.”

There’s not enough employee diversity.

“They hire the same person over and over again,” said an anonymous commenter. “Same background, same 10 schools, same worldview, same interests.  It’s no exaggeration to say that I met 100 triathletes in my three years at Google. Only a handful of them were interesting people.”

Working at Google may not prepare you for future jobs.

google - 8 Business Insider Business Insider

“The downside is that after doing that for a few years, you may very quickly lose touch with the real world on how to scale things via open source technologies,” said a former engineer.

“Get EVERYTHING in writing.”

“If you are in the process of gaining employment with Google, negotiate hard, be demanding, and make sure to get EVERYTHING in writing. Google makes lots of vague promises, and seems to not deliver.”

Only techies can feel like they’re making a difference.

google - 9 AP Photo / Jeff Chiu AP Photo / Jeff Chiu / Jeff Chiu

“If you’re in a non-technical role, (i.e. Sales, Recruiting, People Ops), it’s so easy to feel like you’re just another piece of the machine,” said a commenter. “Many of the processes are already so refined that — as many have said — you feel overqualified to be doing the job.”

Your office space can be too small.

“[I]f you have to work in one of the four main campus buildings, you will most likely be extremely cramped. It’s not uncommon to see 3-4 employees in a single cube, or several managers sharing an office. With all the open areas for food, games, TV, tech talks, etc, it can be surprisingly hard to find a quiet, private place to think.”

Google is so big you can’t have any impact on it.

google - 10 Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons

“I worked at Google for 3 years and it was very difficult to leave but there was one major factor that helped me make the decision — the impact I could ever have on the business as an individual was minimal. As noted in many answers below, Google is an incredible machine that prints money thanks to AdWords. Unless you are an amazingly talented engineer who gets to create something new, chances are you’re simply a guy/girl with an oil can greasing the cogs of that machine.”

Middle management is mediocre.

“I’d say the relentless daily mediocre thinking of middle management types who are completely focused on metrics to the exclusion of all other factors. They don’t want to rock the boat, they don’t know how to inspire their workforce, and they rely far too much on the Google name and reputation to do that for them.”

Googlers can get caught up in trivia.

google - 11 Shutterstock Shutterstock

“In Zurich there is a quiet room where people go to relax, or take a nap. There are very nice looking fish tanks there and you can waste as much of your work time there, watching the fish do fishy things. There was a 100+ emails thread about removing the massage chairs from that room because some people allegedly were being kept from sleeping because the massage chairs were too noisy.”

The culture is immature.

“It’s like never-never land — people never grow up. They drink at all hours, socialize constantly, play games, and do little to no work.”

You can’t work remotely.

“But the killer to me was the inability to work remotely, which I have been doing successfully for the past 5-6 years.”

Staff are rewarded for dreaming up new things even when new things aren’t needed.

google - 12 Cheap Trick Cheap Trick

“This lead to imaginative un maintained nightmares, frequently based on discarded shells of other platforms nobody maintained. We had four internal-only official JavaScript libraries. Why? Because writing an innovative JavaScript library could get you a promotion!”

It’s a big company and things move slower than at a small startup.

google - 13 SaraYeomans / flickr SaraYeomans / flickr / flickr

“The product release cycle is sluggish at best, and though teams may work and feel like startups, I found that you can often end up with the bad (long hours, grueling work) without the good (agile development, rapid iteration).”

“Stepford engineers.”

google - 14 Colombia Pictures Colombia Pictures

“The engineers Google hires fit the mold of generalist system types. They are good at algorithms, database concepts, transaction processing, scaling, etc. They generally do not have domain expertise in product areas. The culture rewards engineers who solve knotty technical problems and leaves behind those who enjoy the harder part of product development, moving a product from version 1 to a truly great version 3 by smoothing out the rough edges and adding functionality based on customer feedback, and by maintaining and debugging a product.”

Being under-used can be a nightmare.

google - 15 Shutterstock Shutterstock

“I worked at one of the larger non-MV campuses, and the only intellectual stimulation I encountered in my time there was the interview process. Not that I met that many brilliant people, but I did meet a lot of fairly mediocre people that were convinced they were brilliant, and I saw a lot of political ass kissing. I worked under a team lead who hadn’t touched code in over two years, and had been incompetent as a programmer when she was one, with a tech lead who was okay at UX, but not much else.”

Read: Denis O’Brien’s Digicel is taking on Google, Facebook, and Yahoo

Also: Are you an expert on the Internet of Things? Accenture is hiring 200 people in Dublin

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:21 PM

    I’m exhausted just reading that!

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    Mute Grumpeee Oldman
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:45 PM

    Me too. F##k that

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    Mute Brendan
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 9:59 PM

    Why was my comment removed?

    Is the journal afraid to hear what working in google is really like?

    In a nutshell folks people who work there are referred to as google robots and se to be under a google spell

    And that’s from a man I now who worked there in higher management and could only stick it 4 years and took a bit pay hit to leave but said it was unbearable to stay

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    Mute Pol O Misteal
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    Oct 4th 2015, 4:20 AM

    Remember in our home nations, we welcome oddities. Our Isles are open.

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Oct 4th 2015, 5:47 AM

    Home Nations is what England calls “colonies” when it suits them.

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    Mute Jamsey
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:18 PM

    I wonder what the burn out rate is.It doesn’t matter how smart they are, constantly demanding measurable improvements is not a realistic demand of anyone.Even Einstein couldn’t improve on his theory of relativity and no amount of pressure was going to squeeze a unified field theory out of him.

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    Mute Hung So Gud
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:03 PM

    losing your soul and eternal damnation another drawback

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    Mute Cupid Stunt
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:57 PM

    I worked in office environments and the ass kissing and one up manship did my head in, best thing I ever did was leave and just do my own thing now. you can have a choice about who you can be friends with in life and limit exposure to unsavory types but in an office environment your stuck with them forty hours a week.

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    Mute Dave McCrea
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:25 PM

    so basically it has the same issues as any large corporation. no news here

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    Mute Philip Cavanagh
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    Oct 4th 2015, 8:43 AM

    Exactly. Ridiculous Article.

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    Mute voice of raisin
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:10 PM

    Do Google staff really think that they’re the best around? That idea is not shared by the industry.

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    Mute Scorpionvenomm
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:26 PM

    Who do you think is the best to work for in the IT industry

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    Mute Spilt Pint
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 9:21 PM

    @scorpion, think you missed the point of the comment..

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    Mute Paudi Onail
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    Oct 4th 2015, 2:00 AM

    like the article states and nails it, you’ll get very mediocre who ‘think’ they’re the best around cos they got lucky at google. yet, how lucky is it? a big brand name to drop at the point of pulling a date? i know a few in there and a few who left, those that left are less mediocre than those still in it, that explains. if you’re talented you’ll be snapping out of there and off to the next viable startup or set one up.

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    Mute Brendan
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 7:46 PM

    I know someone who worked in google for 4 years in management and he had to get out of it, he called the others who worked there google robots and said they seemed to be hypnotised by all things google,

    He took a big hit in salary too when he left but said it was unbearable and he would of cracked eventually

    Sounds like a great place to work

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    Mute Scorpionvenomm
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:24 PM

    Money won’t make you happy, it’ll help obviously pay bills but it won’t make you happy, and I don’t believe that working in Google is the best job ever total bull that is.

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    Mute Keaneland
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:35 PM

    Some real serious first world issues there!!

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    Mute Always Right!
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:13 PM

    This sounds seriously better than been stuck in a sucky minimum wage paying job

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    Mute Wang King
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 6:44 PM

    I’d still work there

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    Mute Wang King
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:46 PM

    It’s good for you’re CV

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    Mute The Guru
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 8:55 PM

    You know what else is good for your CV? Knowing the difference between your and you’re.

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    Mute Wang King
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 10:18 PM

    Fcuk off and relax and take some bell, stop worrying about grammar on a feckin Saturday night?……. Jesus?

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    Mute Grumpeee Oldman
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 11:29 PM

    You spelt f##k wrong!

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    Mute Paudi Onail
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    Oct 4th 2015, 2:02 AM

    whats good on your cv is having the ability to carry out what you’ve bloated off on both it and that linkedin profile of BS.

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    Mute James Onedin
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    Oct 3rd 2015, 11:10 PM

    In all fairness, who gives a fukkkkk?

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    Mute saoirse janneau
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    Oct 4th 2015, 12:22 AM

    Pretty exclusive interview selection process. Did you note the ‘same old 10 schools’ comment? Only ivy league for google and only Trinity grads will get a look in in Emea headquarters..

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    Mute Paudi Onail
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    Oct 4th 2015, 2:04 AM

    its a bit generalised that one. theres many going in there from non-unis as well but can talk s***.

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    Mute Marie
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    Oct 4th 2015, 8:25 AM

    Reads like working in Microsoft years ago. Being available to socialise with the work crowd at hours notice was expected and having a life outside Sandyford or Leopardstown facilities was somewhat career limiting. I was a mere “vendor” – contractor in other words and moved on. Can’t say what it’s like now…

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    Mute iohanx
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    Oct 4th 2015, 12:04 AM

    Unfortunately all too true with regards
    ‘Doogle and the likes. I see IT graduates starting out and think, unless they’re very talented and single minded, a mediocre boring career beckons working in a corporation. Traditional IT departments are vanishing in normal businesses. You’re typical IT start will become an expert in a very small area going forward

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Oct 4th 2015, 5:39 AM

    Profitable American corporations tend to “love bomb” their employees.
    Squeamish yes.
    Good pay yes.
    (The employees make the corporation).

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    Mute Timmay Timeo
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    Oct 4th 2015, 11:03 AM

    Get Ad Blockers and never click on sponsored links, retype the link instead.
    Never log in to google account you dont want or need.
    Google is smoke and mirrors, the advertising is the biggest con and is virtually impossible to quantify.

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Oct 4th 2015, 12:08 AM

    I didn’t read it, I just thought backdoor and the NSA…

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    Mute Tauseef Alam
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    Nov 12th 2015, 2:53 PM

    This is the first time I am reading an article in which Google employees told worst things about Google. I read an article on mbafrog.com in which each Google employees told only best thing about Google.

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