> An admin role at Google pays more and works much less than an engineering role at a dysfunctional company. There's two issues here: 1) The op asked for a te

> An admin role at Google pays more and works much less than an engineering role at a dysfunctional company. There's two issues here: 1) The op asked for a technical role, so comparing an admin role to a technical one isn't helpful. 2) You're presuming Google is not a dysfunctional company. I think point (2) is actually the more important one; reading through your comment, the type of "big, rich, process-driven" company is you describe is exactly what I thought of when the gp said "dysfunctional". The only extra qualifier I would add to the gp is to "look for uncool dysfunctional companies". There are companies (like Google) that have what I would describe as a "cult factor", where they're able to create enough mythos around the brand that "good", hard-working, attentive & talented people want to work there purely based on the "culture" associated with the brand (and also having that brand listed on one's resume). This creates a competitive environment where the scale & bureaucracy might not be sufficient to save you from scrutiny. The ideal place is somewhere exactly as dysfunctional as Google, but without the same reputation attached to the brand.