Pros
Leading company Smart coworkers Strong senior leadership Great products World-class benefits Delicious and free food all day long Decent work/life balance in certain orgs Envy of friends and family
Cons
Terrible place for career advancement and developing new skills: promotions are more difficult and much less frequent vs. similar companies and are just as political...95% of folks are top overachievers anyways, so competition is fierce and slots are few. Flawed leveling/stack ranking process inhibits growth, opportunities to transfer, and eventually impacts sense of self-worth and work ethic (burnout is inevitable as mentioned). Little to no impact/meaningful work at less than a Level 6. For context, if you're hired as an L2, it'll take 15+ years to achieve an L6 - and then you can be a middle manager. Woohoo! Sure, you can transfer (not easy though), but you'll be doing the same menial clerical work for a different division unless you level up and you'll have to restart your promo clock all over again. Re-orgs are every 6 months, delaying/killing career traction. Layoffs do happen here, but company keeps it quiet. Culture isn't for everyone: very snobby, often distrusting - company culture outside of walls is face value-only. Peers are collaborative only for promotions sake. Lots of bureaucracy and conformity, very corporate culture. Poor camaraderie outside of office. Terrible internal systems. Proprietary Google CRM is a joke. Transfer packages are terrible; HR always finds ways to negate merit increases when transferring by lowering salary, relocation packages are bare minimum (but most people here come from money, so that's ok I guess). Slowly turning into a conventional company; bloated middle-management doesn't ruffle feathers, protects selves vs. team/good of the company. Benefits are decreasing as company grows and becomes more conventional.
