Careers of newly graduated CS PhDs in Google?
A lot of people go to Google to learn things and gain advantages for the next hop of their careers. But is joining Google alone enough? In my current company over half of my colleagues are PhD. We do a lot of challenging things and I feel I'm learning new things every day. Unfortunately for some organizational reason many of us have to find a new job. So I got an offer from Google, and matched a team where only one colleague of my level has a PhD. The others are bachelors with a lot more industry experience than I have. Does that mean the skills of a PhD are not really needed in such a team? Is that a good sign for career development?
Where did you receive PhD? Thesis on ?
You do know most PhDs work in industry not doing typical researchy stuff. That doesn't mean it's not interesting or innovative or smart. As far as "skills of phd" is concerned -- My impression is that there is nothing "unique" about skills in PhDs in industry that can't be done by any guy with strong CS background and enough experience and exposure. (Exceptions exist, but very rare) Degrees are just piece of paper. So perhaps talk more with you potential team and learn more beyond what piece of paper they hold?
Most new PhD grads at Google start off as L4 SWE to push protos for Ads or Search
You'll anyway end up doing frontend.
True
OP probably got assigned to a shitty team like cloud or android. You never want to be the smartest person in the room.
What makes a team shitty or not?
Lots of ramblings about titles and credentials and academia. That’s been your life for some time now. Now, in the real world, things are very different. The only thing that matters is working at an optimal rate and increasing revenue. At Google, they want that and a little more. They usually get mediocrity. So just do your best and excel in every way, and you’ll be fine.
I have an offer from another company which pays me more and there are more colleagues with a similar background. So I'm not sure if Google, particularly the team I matched, is he best choice.
if you looking to match backgrounds, take the other job.
Not needed. Not good for you!