My experiences may not be representative. My observations are. I've met countless people who've been screwed over by its anachronistic closed-allocation regime.

My experiences may not be representative. My observations are. I've met countless people who've been screwed over by its anachronistic closed-allocation regime. Some people have good experiences, some don't, and for 95+ percent of the "don't" category, it's because Google screws the pooch when it comes to people management. I've never met a Googler who (a) got smacked by its antiquated HR system, and (b) actually deserved it. There probably is one or two out there-- it's a Poisson distribution with parameter around 2.5-- but I've never met one. Most of Google's problem employees (I've been personally attacked by a few) seem to do just fine.