Google reviews

4.4

87% would recommend to a friend

(48,362 total reviews)
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Sundar Pichai

82% approve of CEO

81% positive business outlook

Google has an employee rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars, based on 48,362 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Google employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

48K reviews
2.0
Jun 16, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You interact with great developers, original thinkers and interesting people all the time. Unlimited munchies are great, three free meals a day (or two in satellite offices) is great, medical benefits, partial subsidy of fitness membership, subsidy for ongoing education (though in reality you are unlikely to have time to use it) are all pluses. Being on the winning team feels good, especially when winning an uphill battle against an entrenched monopolist.

Cons

The days when Google was the coolest place in the world to work are gone. Google is deteriorating at the edges. Many managers at Google got their jobs just by having low employee numbers and are otherwise unqualified. Once entrenched they tend to show little concern for their reports, concerning themselves with "managing up" to their own manager. Google is supposed to have a project matrix where tech leads are peers, not managers, but managers commonly flout this and micromanaging is endemic. Moving between projects is limited by complex procedures and is rarely attempted. In satellite offices the selection of projects to work on is limited and to make matters worse it is discouraged for engineers to work on projects not centered in their own offices. Being friends with your manager is a more effective way to get promoted than showing competence. In fact, showing too much competence or initiative is a good way to earn the ire of your manager. Performance evaluation is supposed to be by peer review but in reality, feedback from peers is ignored and only the manager's rating is taken seriously. Political infighting and character assassination are increasingly the norm at Google. Managers turn a blind eye to it, perhaps because they have found such techniques useful in developing their own careers. Google base compensation is on the low side, and is supposed to be more than made up for by incentive bonuses, but these are largely illusionary because few employees receive the necessary "exceeds expectations" performance evaluation. Managers at Google tend to consider themselves special people, better than engineers. Few will bother to greet or otherwise acknowledge the existence of anybody other than another manager if they pass them in the hall. Except for the weekly TGIF cross-company sessions where the founders candidly answer questions from all employees, management at Google is increasingly secretive about procedures and plans.

3.0
Jun 16, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It's nice to feel like part of something greater than oneself — Google has a whole lot going on at any given time, and there is a strongly intellectually curious atmosphere among the employees. The perks are fantastic, too — there is no easy nor compelling way to argue against free hot meals up to three times a day, and there's always something exciting or interesting or intellectually challenging to work on. The colorful and relatively playful atmosphere are also an excellent change of pace from the standard-issue dreary cubicle existence that plagues most office jobs out there in the US.

Cons

Long hours! Not the place for people who want to have a life outside of work, but then they aren't the type who wind up getting hired anyway.

5.0
Jun 16, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You are surrounded by by brilliant people. The executive team truly believes in making the world a better place - and they truly do "care" about their employees. Depending on your actual department - I am pretty sure most people would agree that they learn more here in 1 week - then you would in 1 year elsewhere. Its a very forward thinking organization - that is never satisfied with how things went the last time - there is a constant drive to do things better than the last time - and that culture is great for personal development.

Cons

Not many I can think of

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