4 ms·

What's the worst part about working at Google?

28 points by gs7 13y ago

yuhong 13y ago
This needs to be traced: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3891677&cid=44076497 http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3891677&cid=44076497 An important information from the "confidential" studies here for example would be what kind of monitors were tested.
dopamean 13y ago
It's interesting, to me at least, that the first answer appears to be from the perspective of someone who hasn't worked at Google and then the second answer confirms the first from personal experience working at Google. I wonder if there are really just a ton of very bright, very bored people there and what that could mean for their future.
- mathattack 13y ago
  My anecdotal experience of friends there is that they are universally talented. I can't point to anyone who squeeked in. Of them, half are working their tails off optimized completely working at a place that can scale their abilities. The other half could immediately leave for a promotion or two somewhere else. It amazes me that the talent level has scaled to 30,000 employees.
  - eecsninja 13y ago
    Actually, it's approaching 50,000 employees. Wikipedia cites 46,421. Speaking as a Googler, I do think that people here are generally smart. However I've come to some conclusions after working here for a few years... As an established company, I think it appeals more to specialists, compared to the newer internet companies. About the saying "Do cool things that matter" ... I don't find much of the work to be that cool, but giving Google the benefit of the doubt, I suspect it's because I don't have a strong or specialized CS background (I have a EE/CE background but I work as a SWE). The company is so big now that you really need specialized knowledge to understand and appreciate why a certain project is important. I think that a lot of Googlers are are specialists in some field. To them, Google is like one big sandbox funded by the ad revenue, and they get paid to work on stuff in their field. Contrary to lagging popular belief, not every Google engineer is a hotshot creative/entrepreneurial type. Most don't seem to be -- they're content just to do work that is technically advanced and challenging, but not particularly important or innovative to someone outside of their field. e.g. one of the things people say is great about Google is that you get access to all these data centers and map reduces, and you can run algorithms over huge terabyte-sized data sets. But that "selling point" is only a true benefit to those who actually have terabytes of data to crunch. I think people with a background in machine learning or similar research might. I certainly don't. I know a lot of Googlers who have joined Google X to work on the self driving car, Glass, etc. I think that's one outlet for the people who want to do something that's new and cutting edge. Now if only we could put more people on Google X, where they're actually doing cool things that matter.
SiVal 13y ago
Google is a lot like a federal agency. They get a pile of resources first, then each sub-group figures out how to squander it in ways that make themselves, their work, and their budgets seem necessary and important. The result is they review each other, design processes for process review, monitor compliance, create regulations for other teams, try to find excuses to add more people and budget to their groups, have more and longer meetings, "develop software" by filling in blanks in some proprietary, automated process admin screen spread across three expensive monitors, go to an important Google Tech Talk related to cool technology they won't be allowed to use unless they leave Google, dish political dirt afterwards while noshing on free culinary resources, hurry back to the desk to continue an intense email debate about whether Go really needs exceptions, ride a Segway to the neighboring building for some important dry-cleaning-pick-upping, and, off to face the rush hour traffic on 101 after another brutal day of inventing the future. Unlike government, they don't take their money by force, so it's fine with me. They just won a corporate mega-lottery, that's all, and now they're finding fun ways to spend it, so they hire all the talent they can afford and try to get them to think of things to do (like government) instead of the usual non-lottery-winner approach of hiring only what they already desperately need.
- daughart 13y ago
  Except from my understanding the government is generally hugely understaffed with a large backlog of tasks that are mandated at the congressional or higher executive levels.
  - SiVal 13y ago
    Government is "generally hugely understaffed"? Sure, in the sense that Google is hugely understaffed as long as they still aren't as big and powerful as they want to be. Googlers consistently claim that there isn't enough important work to justify all the talent they already have, yet Google keeps adding headcount. Apparently, they just want to be bigger and more powerful, and the reason they need such power is...well, the reason is they want to be bigger and more powerful. They have the resources to do it, so they will, and finding ways to use that power is secondary. Fine. It's their own money. The percentage of the population whose job is to "govern" us grows relentlessly every decade, yet some people think we are in a permanent, desperate state of not being governed enough. Just because government claims that they need to be much bigger and more powerful in order to be as big and powerful as they want to be doesn't mean that they are "hugely understaffed."

28 points by gs7 13y ago

This needs to be traced: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3891677&cid=44076497 http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3891677&cid=44076497 An important information from the "confidential" studies here for example would be what kind of monitors were tested.

dopamean 13y ago

It's interesting, to me at least, that the first answer appears to be from the perspective of someone who hasn't worked at Google and then the second answer confirms the first from personal experience working at Google. I wonder if there are really just a ton of very bright, very bored people there and what that could mean for their future.

mathattack 13y ago
My anecdotal experience of friends there is that they are universally talented. I can't point to anyone who squeeked in. Of them, half are working their tails off optimized completely working at a place that can scale their abilities. The other half could immediately leave for a promotion or two somewhere else. It amazes me that the talent level has scaled to 30,000 employees.
- eecsninja 13y ago
  Actually, it's approaching 50,000 employees. Wikipedia cites 46,421. Speaking as a Googler, I do think that people here are generally smart. However I've come to some conclusions after working here for a few years... As an established company, I think it appeals more to specialists, compared to the newer internet companies. About the saying "Do cool things that matter" ... I don't find much of the work to be that cool, but giving Google the benefit of the doubt, I suspect it's because I don't have a strong or specialized CS background (I have a EE/CE background but I work as a SWE). The company is so big now that you really need specialized knowledge to understand and appreciate why a certain project is important. I think that a lot of Googlers are are specialists in some field. To them, Google is like one big sandbox funded by the ad revenue, and they get paid to work on stuff in their field. Contrary to lagging popular belief, not every Google engineer is a hotshot creative/entrepreneurial type. Most don't seem to be -- they're content just to do work that is technically advanced and challenging, but not particularly important or innovative to someone outside of their field. e.g. one of the things people say is great about Google is that you get access to all these data centers and map reduces, and you can run algorithms over huge terabyte-sized data sets. But that "selling point" is only a true benefit to those who actually have terabytes of data to crunch. I think people with a background in machine learning or similar research might. I certainly don't. I know a lot of Googlers who have joined Google X to work on the self driving car, Glass, etc. I think that's one outlet for the people who want to do something that's new and cutting edge. Now if only we could put more people on Google X, where they're actually doing cool things that matter.

SiVal 13y ago

Google is a lot like a federal agency. They get a pile of resources first, then each sub-group figures out how to squander it in ways that make themselves, their work, and their budgets seem necessary and important. The result is they review each other, design processes for process review, monitor compliance, create regulations for other teams, try to find excuses to add more people and budget to their groups, have more and longer meetings, "develop software" by filling in blanks in some proprietary, automated process admin screen spread across three expensive monitors, go to an important Google Tech Talk related to cool technology they won't be allowed to use unless they leave Google, dish political dirt afterwards while noshing on free culinary resources, hurry back to the desk to continue an intense email debate about whether Go really needs exceptions, ride a Segway to the neighboring building for some important dry-cleaning-pick-upping, and, off to face the rush hour traffic on 101 after another brutal day of inventing the future. Unlike government, they don't take their money by force, so it's fine with me. They just won a corporate mega-lottery, that's all, and now they're finding fun ways to spend it, so they hire all the talent they can afford and try to get them to think of things to do (like government) instead of the usual non-lottery-winner approach of hiring only what they already desperately need.

daughart 13y ago
Except from my understanding the government is generally hugely understaffed with a large backlog of tasks that are mandated at the congressional or higher executive levels.
- SiVal 13y ago
  Government is "generally hugely understaffed"? Sure, in the sense that Google is hugely understaffed as long as they still aren't as big and powerful as they want to be. Googlers consistently claim that there isn't enough important work to justify all the talent they already have, yet Google keeps adding headcount. Apparently, they just want to be bigger and more powerful, and the reason they need such power is...well, the reason is they want to be bigger and more powerful. They have the resources to do it, so they will, and finding ways to use that power is secondary. Fine. It's their own money. The percentage of the population whose job is to "govern" us grows relentlessly every decade, yet some people think we are in a permanent, desperate state of not being governed enough. Just because government claims that they need to be much bigger and more powerful in order to be as big and powerful as they want to be doesn't mean that they are "hugely understaffed."