Has Google lost its soul?
Used to be my dream job like everyone else here. But now I wouldn’t touch the company with a 10 ft pole. Enjoying my paltry $220K TC for 20 hours a week and no fear of getting laid off or work pressure.
The problem was in ever believing that Google had a soul. It's a job and always has been. Not as good as it used to be, but as far as jobs go, it's not too bad IMO.
it did have one with larry+sergey, don't be evil was a real thing and they pulled out of China
Can confirm Google used to have a heart, a soul, a sense of humor, integrity and truly valued its employees. Part of their strategy early on was to treat their employees, especially their developers, better than competitors. Free food, great pay, perks and a fun, friendly work environment were a core part of the company’s strategy to attract and retain the very best employees - and it worked, for awhile. Things changed when their amazing CFO, Patrick Pitchette left the company and was replaced by ex-Wall Street finance head, Ruth Porat, who immediately, though slowly started to tighten the reigns and cut costs at the expense of the culture. The deterioration began to accelerate after Larry and Sergey stepped down, stopped doing TGIF and were replaced by an ex-McKinsey robot named Sundar Pitchai. I was there and saw the decline in person. By the time I left my role in Ads & Commerce, I could look up and see nothing but ex-McKinsey managers, at every level above me - literally seven layers of ex-McKinsey managers all the way up to our new CEO, Sundar. In short, Google was great, genuinely great, but it was ruined, first by bringing in ex-Wall Street finance types and then it was infected by the political parasites from McKinsey & Company. Such a shame, now the spark of innovation is gone and all that is left is to cut costs, lay off their best talent, offshore jobs to low cost countries, and start paying dividends since the company has no idea how to grow or build amazing product anymore.
They still live in your mind rent-free, so there's that.
Google built a great reputation with their employee benefits and engineering culture. People who rate them high are living in nostalgia.
New IBM focusing on shareholders.
ouch, that must hurt for young Google employees to hear
Which one is the new Google?
AOL.
Unfortunately, there isn’t one currently as far as I can tell. The good news is that there could be and the founders may very well be Blinders among us here. Maybe it’s you anon. Google was born during turbulent economic times and we find ourselves in turbulent times once again. Historically speaking, many of the greatest companies were built in difficult economic circumstances. Times when huge TC and lavish perks for employees seem to be a thing of the past. This makes it easier to justify taking the entrepreneurial leap since the alternative is less lucrative and less safe than otherwise. Here is what it would take: 1. Smart talented founders with a big idea and great vision 2. A unique and innovative solution to a huge problem shared by a large or growing market 3. A bit of luck - Google wouldn’t be Google if they had not stumbled upon a radical and ingenious business model like AdWords auction based pricing model 4. An opportunity to create a business so strong as to result in a near monopoly in an important new market which requires 1-3. Google had this, so did Facebook, and every other hugely successful company. Read Peter Thiel’s - Zero to One for an instruction manual on making such a monopoly through innovation. 5. The wisdom to protect your company’s competitive moat by recognizing that attracting and retaining the best innovators as loyal employees is how to win big by being long-term greedy instead of short-term greedy. So Blinders, some of you may be the ones to make the next company as great as Google was. Only time will tell.
It's just a job.
What soul? It’s just a company like any other place. We make good money, the best wlb and the best perks even with spending cuts. I don’t know why people love obsessing over google and “fear of layoffs” when every company does the same thing.
Op, is your job remote?
It never had one
It's definitely a different company now vs. years ago. Cultures change as goals change. That's why it's so hard to find one that fits your needs. It's like surfing a wave . . . the great ones always feel far too short.
How the fk would you know
I know over 100 Google employees past & present, I've been in tech for 26 yrs, and I'm a tech career coach whose job it is to understand the cultural differences between tech companies to help clients find their ideal job.