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Before the doubleclick merger, Google was absolutely the ideal place to work as an engineer. I feel that perhaps after 2007 a lot of Google's reputation was st

Before the doubleclick merger, Google was absolutely the ideal place to work as an engineer. I feel that perhaps after 2007 a lot of Google's reputation was still held up by what the culture was like in the years surrounding their IPO. But of course, this is ancient tech history. I haven't entertained a Google recruiter in probably a decade now.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
I wasn't there in 2007, didn't get there til 2011, but looking at the facts think 2007/2008 era it seems like a juncture from one Google to the next, for sure. The other, really major, shift -- which happened while I was there -- was Patrick Pichette leaving as CFO and Ruth Porat coming on. And then the subsequent "Alphabetization" which... it was so bungled and mismanaged... and it was clear at that point L&S were clueless about what was actually going on inside the company... that to me was when the company had seriously dramatically shifted in tone and structure. I think that was .. what... 2015? Sundar taking over was just the formalization of that degradation. For me, personally I wish I'd only stayed there for 4-5 years, and left around then. But before remote work there weren't any competitive options in my region, so I got stuck there for 10 years.
- nostrademons 4y ago
  (I was there 2009-2014 and again 2020-present. Worked with several single/double-digit employee number Googlers.) IMHO the "eras" of Google were: 1.) 1998-2001. Origins. Larry was CEO, company was still basically in the garage or the PayPal offices in Palo Alto, everything was an ad-hoc scrappy startup. 2.) 2001-2004. Growth. Eric was CEO. They moved into the Googleplex. Exploring new lines of business (Groups, AdSense, GMail, Maps/Earth), but they were all just explorations, and most of the company remained focused on Search. Key infrastructure like GFS, MapReduce, BigTable, Stubby, Sawzall were invented. 3.) 2004-2008. Conglomeration. Eric was CEO. IPO. Big college-hiring push started in this era (remember the Google Labs Aptitude Test?), as did a push to hire outside managers from other companies. GMail, Maps, Labs, Scholar, Toolbar, Chrome, Android all launched, and Docs/Sheets/Slides/YouTube were acquired. This is when the modern Google product portfolio was built, and much of its current culture and processes solidified. 4.) 2009-2010. Interregnum. Eric was CEO. Financial crisis happened here, which basically shut down growth, and it also faced serious competitive threats from Bing, iPhones, etc. As a result the culture during the interregnum almost harkened back to the 2001-2004 era: there was a refocusing on core search/ads/infrastructure and a generally scrappier mentality. 5.) 2011-2015. Google+ & X. Larry was CEO again, company shifted to make everything about G+. There was an overall futile attempt to address a major competitive threat that turned out not to matter anyway. 6.) 2015-2020. Alphabetization. Sundar was CEO, but Ruth came in as CFO and realistically runs the company. Finance plays a much bigger role - I don't think Google's produced a single successful new product post-2015 (come to think of it, there weren't many new successes post-2009), but revenue has grown through continued optimization and profits have grown through cost-cutting. 7.) 2020+. Post-COVID. Culture was hurt significantly by remote work, it's very hard to realign the company to adapt to outside changes. The irony is that what many Googlers nostalgically think of "Google culture" actually came from the 2004-2008 era, when Eric was CEO and many of the new hires either came from college or outside companies. If you listen to pre-IPO hires, they'll say that very early Google culture was a lot scrappier, a lot less entitled, a lot more opinionated, a lot more willing to take top-down direction from Larry specifically, and a lot more focused on the work itself and how to deliver excellent technical solutions quickly.
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
    "7.) 2020+. Post-COVID. Culture was hurt significantly by remote work, it's very hard to realign the company to adapt to outside changes." Agreed. I left end of 2021 after a year and a half of struggling with bad execution on WFH. Some teams did better than others but company as a whole I think lost out on that. WFH can work. But it didn't work at Google, really. And when the office was open during those times I went in, and the whole situation was just... crap. Floating reserved desks. Take away meh, food. Nobody else in the office. Ghost town but somehow the parking situation still sucked.
  - nigelk 4y ago
    As someone who was there start of 2007 to end of 2010, this resonated. My first two years were very different to the last two.
holografix 4y ago
From the lofty heights of your high horse I doubt anyone on earth would even hear you and run risk of being “entertained” by you.
- mingus88 4y ago
  Whatever dude. I'm the one getting frequent inMails from Google recruiters. I have never once applied for a role there.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

I wasn't there in 2007, didn't get there til 2011, but looking at the facts think 2007/2008 era it seems like a juncture from one Google to the next, for sure. The other, really major, shift -- which happened while I was there -- was Patrick Pichette leaving as CFO and Ruth Porat coming on. And then the subsequent "Alphabetization" which... it was so bungled and mismanaged... and it was clear at that point L&S were clueless about what was actually going on inside the company... that to me was when the company had seriously dramatically shifted in tone and structure. I think that was .. what... 2015? Sundar taking over was just the formalization of that degradation. For me, personally I wish I'd only stayed there for 4-5 years, and left around then. But before remote work there weren't any competitive options in my region, so I got stuck there for 10 years.

nostrademons 4y ago
(I was there 2009-2014 and again 2020-present. Worked with several single/double-digit employee number Googlers.) IMHO the "eras" of Google were: 1.) 1998-2001. Origins. Larry was CEO, company was still basically in the garage or the PayPal offices in Palo Alto, everything was an ad-hoc scrappy startup. 2.) 2001-2004. Growth. Eric was CEO. They moved into the Googleplex. Exploring new lines of business (Groups, AdSense, GMail, Maps/Earth), but they were all just explorations, and most of the company remained focused on Search. Key infrastructure like GFS, MapReduce, BigTable, Stubby, Sawzall were invented. 3.) 2004-2008. Conglomeration. Eric was CEO. IPO. Big college-hiring push started in this era (remember the Google Labs Aptitude Test?), as did a push to hire outside managers from other companies. GMail, Maps, Labs, Scholar, Toolbar, Chrome, Android all launched, and Docs/Sheets/Slides/YouTube were acquired. This is when the modern Google product portfolio was built, and much of its current culture and processes solidified. 4.) 2009-2010. Interregnum. Eric was CEO. Financial crisis happened here, which basically shut down growth, and it also faced serious competitive threats from Bing, iPhones, etc. As a result the culture during the interregnum almost harkened back to the 2001-2004 era: there was a refocusing on core search/ads/infrastructure and a generally scrappier mentality. 5.) 2011-2015. Google+ & X. Larry was CEO again, company shifted to make everything about G+. There was an overall futile attempt to address a major competitive threat that turned out not to matter anyway. 6.) 2015-2020. Alphabetization. Sundar was CEO, but Ruth came in as CFO and realistically runs the company. Finance plays a much bigger role - I don't think Google's produced a single successful new product post-2015 (come to think of it, there weren't many new successes post-2009), but revenue has grown through continued optimization and profits have grown through cost-cutting. 7.) 2020+. Post-COVID. Culture was hurt significantly by remote work, it's very hard to realign the company to adapt to outside changes. The irony is that what many Googlers nostalgically think of "Google culture" actually came from the 2004-2008 era, when Eric was CEO and many of the new hires either came from college or outside companies. If you listen to pre-IPO hires, they'll say that very early Google culture was a lot scrappier, a lot less entitled, a lot more opinionated, a lot more willing to take top-down direction from Larry specifically, and a lot more focused on the work itself and how to deliver excellent technical solutions quickly.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  "7.) 2020+. Post-COVID. Culture was hurt significantly by remote work, it's very hard to realign the company to adapt to outside changes." Agreed. I left end of 2021 after a year and a half of struggling with bad execution on WFH. Some teams did better than others but company as a whole I think lost out on that. WFH can work. But it didn't work at Google, really. And when the office was open during those times I went in, and the whole situation was just... crap. Floating reserved desks. Take away meh, food. Nobody else in the office. Ghost town but somehow the parking situation still sucked.
- nigelk 4y ago
  As someone who was there start of 2007 to end of 2010, this resonated. My first two years were very different to the last two.

holografix 4y ago

From the lofty heights of your high horse I doubt anyone on earth would even hear you and run risk of being “entertained” by you.

mingus88 4y ago
Whatever dude. I'm the one getting frequent inMails from Google recruiters. I have never once applied for a role there.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]