Google reviews

Not a great place to work if you have a family, are female or have to manage people. Most managers do not have any management training, nor are they given any. There is no recognition given to engineering managers for their ability to help people's careers, performance, or as to how happy their people are with their manager. Almost all emphasis is placed on an engineering manager's technical contribution. Therefore, there is no incentive for managers to treat their employees well, meet with them or help them. Nor is there much incentive for managers to make good business decisions. Most engineering managers only care that they did something technically interesting. Whether it fails or not is not important. Whether it contributes to the company's strategy or business is not important. And certainly, whether their people grow and move forward with their careers is not important.

I loved working at Google until I was unlucky enough to be transferred into a team with a bad people manager. This manager ruled through confusion and an iron fist, most likely because it was clear that the entire team was smarter than this manager. I had no clear direction on my role, or even what the outcome of the project the team was working on, no matter how many times I asked. I quickly became bored and frustrated and soon realized that I was not learning anything new, and the transferrable skills I did bring were not being utilized. That's when I started looking outside the company, and here is what I found at my new job: 25% increase in salary, 50% more vacation time and 150% increase in bonus target. Once I left, I realized just how old fashioned Google really is regarding Management, Performance Reviews, and other HR-related issues. Perf and Calibration were abandoned by most companies years ago because it doesn't work in identifying the best performers, but at Google it defines you forever. Lastly, during orientation the advice given to the Nooglers is "don't be a jerk". It turns out that I have never worked at a company that had more jerks than Google. The egos and arrogance I encountered were off the charts. It was easy to overlook when I liked what I was doing, but once I was put under the bad manager my eyes were opened to the ugly reality of working at Google.