Google depends a lot on your manager. If you have a good manager, then it's still the Old Google and the company is still open to you. With a good manager, you

Google depends a lot on your manager. If you have a good manager, then it's still the Old Google and the company is still open to you. With a good manager, you can transfer as you wish, and as long as you don't have a complete don't-give-a-shit attitude toward your assigned project, you're OK no matter how things play. I'll be the first to say that there are good managers at Google. However, the major reason why people work for large companies is to be protected from the event of a bad manager. Startups fire same-day. Large companies offer transfer for the no-fault "fit" cases. Google does not extend such protection, which means it lacks the one upside of a large company. That's why I always tell people that if they get a chance to work for Google, they should give it a shot. Nonetheless, their HR infrastructure and executives have failed to do their jobs; that much is clear. The matter of whether that will affect a specific individual is unpredictable.