Regretting joining Google

Jun 18 64 Comments

Joined maybe 8 months ago. At the time I felt underpaid due to my company’s low performing stock and my Google offer was a lot higher than I expected (~240k for L3). At my previous company I had a lot of responsibilities and ownership, and I felt like I was on a fast track for promos. Here I feel like I haven’t learned anything since joining. It seems all my team does is maintain a legacy system whose codebase is an absolute mess. Most of my days are spent cleaning up legacy code or slowly rolling out experiments to deprecate some old feature. It’s killing me. I asked my manager today if all this would at least help me get promoted and he indicated that it would look good but I’d need to be designing or coding to hit L4. The few projects needing design just go to our senior guys. I’ve been looking for other teams to join but I’m not seeing anything I’m interested in that’s looking for L3s. Really not sure if I should leave Google or try to find a better team, but all the teams Im seeing that need L3s look like the same legacy grunt work :/

Google
64

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
  1. TOP
  2. RECENT
  3. OLD
 TOP 64 Comments
  • Microsoft / Eng und6b1hf
    That's how all big corporates roll
    Jun 18 3
    • OP
      It’s just slowly sucking the life out of me :( I came from a smaller company where I was coding every day, designing new features, and actually had an impact.
      Jun 18
    • Oracle PgEo55
      Exactly. Higher pay but totally soul sucking to be buried under corporate process.
      Jun 18
    • BBDO sxYo02
      You ever met a lawyer who works at a big fim? They get paid similar salaries to FAANG but they all hate their jobs. There's a reason those jobs pay so well.

      You're learning a valuable life lesson - money != happiness.
      Jun 19
  • Amazon amznadssde
    If u want action, join FB. Easier to get promo to e5 because there won’t be shortage pf projects. I am considering going back some day although my amazon team is a lot more professional and chill
    Jun 18 6
    • Booking.com
      u.r.a.🐈

      Booking.com

      BIO
      🤬🤪🥴🥺🤫😜🤦‍♂️
       u.r.a.🐈more
      Or join Amazon. People have been talking about how much work they have at Amazon.
      Jun 18
    • Amazon Doby2468
      Second that. Amazon welcomes you.
      Jun 18
    • Facebook / Eng
      pddddrrr

      Facebook Eng

      PRE
      Microsoft
       pddddrrrmore
      FB is so bloated with people you won’t own anything decent. Code quality at FB - your eyes will be bleeding for a year. Systems design or architecture - these things don’t exist. You are going to be pressured to ship crap, tons of crap. You will get promoted to E5 probably faster than G. But it’s gonna be sweaty 2-3 years.
      Jun 18
    • Amazon amznadssde
      Nah I think amazon is closer to Google w little more work. Slower promo too.
      Jun 18
    • Amazon / Eng HoXw11
      > You are going to be pressured to ship crap, tons of crap
      I am experiencing the same in Amazon, sigh.
      Jun 19
  • Spotify / R&D
    J Damore

    Spotify R&D

    BIO
    Old and jaded. Lived through 2003 and 2007 like it was nothing. Laugh while you can monkey boy
    J Damoremore
    1yoe lol. Why would senior people hand over the fun stuff to you? You’re a kid and you’re worthless and replaceable at this point. Prove your worth. Millennials, so entitled. Still laughing. Sorry, funny because it’s true
    Jun 18 5
    • Intuit JSUdu
      Get out of here. You are the problem.
      Jun 18
    • Salesforce hosana
      What a piece of shat you are.
      Jun 18
    • Spotify / R&D
      J Damore

      Spotify R&D

      BIO
      Old and jaded. Lived through 2003 and 2007 like it was nothing. Laugh while you can monkey boy
      J Damoremore
      Hahaha, I’d fire you if I was an EM. Now I’m just the senior IC on the team and I’ll tell our EM you are dead weight. Guess who he’ll trust and guess who’s out?
      Jun 18
    • Spotify tvfQ72
      0/2 for Spotify here.
      Jun 18
    • I think there is some truth to @J Damores comment. I work at a small dev shop and our "best" front end dev just left, so the next best guy, knowing we couldn't afford to lose a second FE dev, went to management and demanded a 10% raise immediately and 10% more in three months. He's got like 1 year of professional experience, but he reads all of these FAANG TC's on Blind and expects to be worth that.

      I came to the tech industry from the food industry and the mentality there is "show me your work and loyalty and I'll give you a raise" to the tech where its like "I'm not happy with my salary, guess I'll go shop around". It creates an industry that teaches instant gratification instead of hard work and dedication to substantiate such compensation.

      Anyway, original commenter is right. It sounds very millennial of you to be expecting seniority in your first few years working professionally. In any other industry you would get laughed out the door. 🤷🏻‍♂️ But what do I know?
      Jun 19
  • Google blah🤯
    240k ?????? Wtf? I am L3 earning half!!!
    Jun 18 16
    • @blah, if it makes you feel better you're making double my salary. haha. I know it's hard to be satisfied in this industry because you see these huge TC's, but I look at your TC and am like "daaammmmnnn", so it's all relative. Just keep working away, I mean getting in the door is the hardest part.
      Jun 19
    • Google blah🤯
      @yeti - thanks, 6 months ago not in my craziest dreams did I think that I would start my career at Google.
      Jun 19
    • Google blah🤯
      @pxk- 15% of 100k, so that becomes 15k
      Jun 19
    • Oracle jdiirijnu6
      It usually ends up being 30% doesn't it
      Jun 19
    • Google blah🤯
      Well in that case, I just became a little more rich :D
      Jun 19
  • F5 Networks bhai-log
    Want to exchange with me. Would happily take that Google job.
    Jun 18 0
  • Oath Atinlay2
    Long way to go for a humblebrag
    Jun 18 4
    • OP
      Sorry if it came out like a brag. I wanted to rant, that’s it
      Jun 18
    • Grab whatalife
      It didn’t come out like a brag. Atinlay2 is just being Atinlay2
      Jun 18
    • New / Eng QTdN03
      Yeah, ever since I blocked him, all Atinlay2 ever posts is, “Content is from a blocked user.” Blind is so much better now.
      Jun 18
    • Glassdoor coppo
      I'll block that douche aswell, thanks for the tip!
      Jun 18
  • Amazon broke&dumb
    You described a vast majority, well over 50%, of software developer jobs.
    Jun 18 0
  • New cTlj55
    I'm kinda in the same boat. Joined FB from a smaller company, and I feel like a chisel is slowly chipping off small parts of my soul everyday. I'm currently in the interview process with several startups.
    Hang in there
    Jun 18 1
    • OP
      Thank you :) Glad to hear from someone else in the same situation. Hope everything works out for you
      Jun 18
  • TrueCar / Eng Twhh78
    What company previous?
    Jun 18 2
    • OP
      Snap. Doesn’t help that the stock has literally tripled since I left :p
      Jun 18
    • TrueCar / Eng Twhh78
      If you want to go down a few tiers, have great WLB, lots of impact and interesting projects, work in LA/remote, ping me
      Jun 18
  • Microsoft Vbsm66
    I don't see why you should regret joining Google. You now have Google on your resume, worst case just leave Google in a year.
    Jun 18 3
    • Microsoft Vbsm66
      It shows you can pass one of the hardest tech interviews
      Jun 18
    • OP
      That’s true! That’s one reason not to regret joining. Thank you :)
      Jun 18
    • New / Eng ggg1
      Keep coding in your spare time. Don't stop. You WILL get rusty. Push your boundaries, because work won't do it.
      Jun 18
  • Google curiousdud
    Alrighty, long time Googler here. Sorry to hear about your experience. Let me offer some advice:

    First of all congratulations on getting in. As you know there are lot of people who dream of getting into Google. I am not telling this to show off or out of pride but to put things in perspective.

    Most of the people in Google are here for long term. Do not expect great innovative projects from day 1. Depending on the product maturity and state, different teams have different proportions of legacy-to-innovative/new projects. For example, when I worked in youtube, there was lot of legacy work, but i was able to demonstrate more impact due to scale. But in my current team, i do build a lot of new cool infrastructure, but the product is struggling. So my impact is limited.

    My suggestion would be continue in team for some team with patience and get some decent rating (Meets or above) and switch to a team that is in early stages (cloud, stadia etc). Google highly encourages team switches to allow cross pollination of ideas. But remember that every team will have non-zero house keeping work (cleanups, oncall, refactors etc).

    As I said, most of the Googlers are here for long run. It is very common to see Googlers with 10+ yoe. If you are patient, it is very rewarding :)
    Jul 2 0
  • Microsoft / Eng
    samurai6

    Microsoft Eng

    BIO
    data and applied scientist in Microsoft
     samurai6more
    I had similar feeling when I joined Microsoft . If you are not happy, change your team. That might /might not work but at least u will try. Not all teams are same. Landing a job at google is not easy, so don't let go of it easily. If you are still unsatisfied, change company. Meanwhile, take some time to relax and start a new hobby. I started bodybuilding when I joined MS as my work was not challenging and I had plenty of free time.
    Jun 19 3
    • Citrix Systems / Eng peda
      Samurai where are you now ? Msft doing not challenging work ? Or did you change
      Jun 19
    • Microsoft / Eng
      samurai6

      Microsoft Eng

      BIO
      data and applied scientist in Microsoft
       samurai6more
      I am at Microsoft only. My previous team had a crappy culture with menial and boring work. I had to change my team within few months after joining and it's better now. My new team is more supportive and the work is challenging too. I, however, had a hard time in the initial months.
      Jun 19
    • Citrix Systems / Eng peda
      Okay I may need to do same. My current team is not that great.
      Jun 19
  • Paychex dunder1
    Imagine doing exactly that in a lower company and getting paid less than half. Help me if you can please
    Jun 18 1
  • eBay oldgrads
    Maybe you could start with 20% project see if there is a project you are interested in. Btw, which type of project you are looking for? I know cloud ai has some good stuff to work on
    Jun 18 1
    • Google / Eng sellihca
      20 percent is a great way to underperform in your team.

      The 20 part becomes more like 40 as you are trying to impress the other team that does not have headcount.
      Jun 18
  • PayPal .Me
    Are you sure it is the job bro? No disrespect but you are in a very privileged position. Perhaps bored at home?
    Jun 18 0
  • Google / Eng sellihca
    Change teams. You are just 8mo in.
    Jun 18 0
  • Amazon lpstrong
    Sorry to hear this, but Google is a great company to have on resume. Perhaps get a mentor to help you identify or propose more impactful and interesting work. Earn your manager’s trust so that s/he hands you the next juicy project. It makes sense to stick around for at least two years. In the worst case just free up time to learn.
    Jun 18 0
  • Citrix Systems / Eng peda
    Same everywhere !! Don’t know why companies hire
    Jun 18 0
  • New WaVi51
    95% of FANG is maintenance....5% of innovation drivers are already taken by long time insiders.

    Google pays you 20% more for 100% more work/competition...They are just lucky that Fed is boosting risk assets for extended period of time and happens to have GOOG rise significantly.

    But you have no other alternatives as a digital serf.
    Jun 22 0