As far as I can see from the outside, Google is much like any other Java/Web 2.0 cube farm: miserable salt-mine drudgery - though with above-average pay, plush

As far as I can see from the outside, Google is much like any other Java/Web 2.0 cube farm: miserable salt-mine drudgery - though with above-average pay, plush armchairs, and free lunches. Here is what one notable Google escapee had to say after doing his time: "The interchangeable component model of software engineers seemed to work reasonably well there. It's just not a business model in which I wish to be involved, at least not on the component-provider side. So after a year at Google I quit and returned to JPL." - Erann Gat: "Lisping at JPL" (http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html http://www.flownet.com/gat/jpl-lisp.html) If you have any creativity in you, being a fungible cog will always suck. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.