Google Tops 100 Best Places To Work

inetsee writes "Fortune Magazine's annual '100 Best Companies to Work For' list is out, and Google topped the list in their debut appearance. Some highlights of the benefits of working for Google that caught my eye were the free gourmet meals and the massages. The chance to spend 20% of your time working on your own personal projects also sounds very appealing. Of course, with resumes rolling in at the rate of thousands a day, the competition is fierce."

Comments

Re:What about the 100 worst places?

[Oddscurity]

Because whoever'd publish such a list would get hit with a defamation suit within the hour?

Very small often == very good.

[b0s0z0ku]

Find a good small company (~20 people) where you fit in well. You'll have much more flexibility since the Top isn't all that high in a small company. Or even start your own. Many of the companies worth considering aren't even on the radar yet.

-b.

Re:Very small often == very good.

[metlin]

Or find a small group within a company where you fit well, and you will feel much the same.

Companies are not all the same on the inside, and some groups are better than the others within a company.

I work in the R&D division of a telecom services company - and our group is very small but is great to work with. For the most part, we are encouraged to think up cool things with technology that we think are worth exploring and are given the opportunity to work with them.

Alternatively, you could start your own company and work with a company that you already know (i.e. consultant and consultancy services etc).

Not every group in a big "good" company is necessarily good, and not all departments in a "not-so-good" are necessarily not-so-good.

You need to feel comfortable with the group and the people you work for, else there is no point, no matter how amazing a company maybe rated.

Re:Very small often == very good.

[b0s0z0ku]

Or find a small group within a company where you fit well, and you will feel much the same.

Agreed, though the small groups within companies are still more subject to orders from on high and blanket company policies than bona-fide small organizations.

-b.

Re:Very small often == very good.

[metlin]

True, but that becomes a double-edged sword -- you get some benefits being a part of a bigger organization that a smaller organization can't afford (good health insurance, stock options and 401k plans, long term security (well, depends on the company) etc). Of course, on the flip side, like you said, you are still subject to blanket company policies and the like.

Once again, it would boil down to the group/company in question, rather than any one place.

Re:Very small often == very good.

[radtea]

good health insurance, stock options and 401k plans, long term security

For those of us outside the U.S., the health insurance thing isn't such a big issue. Not having to deal with an insurance market where for some unfathomable reason health insurance is tied to employment also makes it a whole lot easier to start your own company if you are outside the U.S.

Stock options are generally better with smaller companies, although they can work out for big as well. Pension plans aren't looking as good these days, with the transition away from defined benefit plans and the unfunded liability that some large companies are facing with growing retiree populations.

Long-term security can only be found in having a skill-set and professional attitude that will make you continuously employable. Some companies may be a little slower to lay people off than others, but none of them offer anything that could properly be called job security. But a good education and professional skill-set can certainly offer employment security, which is as much as anyone can ask for.

Google...

[b0s0z0ku]

20% of time working on personal projects

Fine, but if you're working in a smaller, less demanding company, you might have that time free, so you can work on the projects without the company knowing about it. Far better to market an idea independently than under the auspices of a large employer. At least you have the opportunity for profits far beyond a salary that way.

gourmet meals, massages

Just give me a decent salary, TYVM. If I want a massage, I can go to a masseur after hours. If I'm working in a city, I can pretty much order whatever I want to (and can afford) for lunch.

-b.

Re:Google...

[bcrowell]

In addition to the parent post's points, I'd add four more reasons why I wouldn't want to work there:

1. It's a huge organization, where you're a cog in the wheel.
2. Part of the point of the interview process is for the interviewee to judge whether the potential employers seem nice, and know what they're doing. If the interview process involves lots of monkey business with no objectively proven reliability, then that's a big minus for me. For me, the monkey business category includes handwriting tests, polygraph tests, contrived interview situations ("there's a snake in the trash can! just kidding!"), as well as Google's puzzles and goofy computer personality tests. (A homebrewed test is not a valid way to identify smart people. My mother works in the testing industry doing statistical modeling, and she considers even the professionally constructed IQ tests to be pretty poor.)
3. Heinous traffic in Silicon Valley.
4. Insane housing prices in Silicon Valley.

Re:Google...

[megaditto]

You can either get 10 (ten) massages from your employer for free, or they increase your salary accordingly, then you pay taxes on that get yourself 6 (six) massages.

You call that "health insurance", and it becomes yet another way to cheat the system, you see.

Like calling your huge caslte, with an entertainment park, a zoo and whatever else a "raunch" and pay no property taxes like Michael Jackson, or flying on corporate jets rather than a personal jets, or getting stocks rather than cash salary and paying 15% tax on that instead of 40%....

This will probably not last

[Anonymous Coward]

I've worked at a technology company that had an on-demand gourmet chef, free massages, a concierge, free snacks and pop and very similar perks. Once somebody realized this was wasting a bunch of money and that people would work there even if there wasn't a gourmet chef, they dropped the perks all together. Alot of people then got angry about this and left and then things returned to normal. It is still one of the best places to work. Google has alot of money and they haven't had a chance to be taught a lesson in frugality. Once shareholders start demanding the impossible and they can not meet these demands with their profits from advertising only, you better believe that gourmet chef's job will be the first to go!

Re:Goolge?

[metlin]

(I hate spelling nazis, but crap, we are talking about EDITORS here...)

Editors? On Slashdot, that word does not mean what you think it does. :)

Re:Best place, despite worst pay

[Kalriath]

If you actually looked at Google's entry in the main index, you'd see that the reason they aren't on the pay table is because they refused to disclose that info. Don't believe me? Look here

Re:What about the 100 worst places?

[Andrew Kismet]

I think there was also the job of people who had to clean the hulls of boats, both modern and old. Cleaning the hull of a wooden or steel boat (as opposed to plastic or polysomething) must be horrible. Yay for barnacles.

Missing Out on...

[Beetle B.]

Don't care what anyone else thinks. The best place to work is as a faculty at a university.

And if you complain about it not being a company, then you're just plain picky.

Small companies is where its at

[jorghis]

Bear in mind that EA was also rated highly on this list for a while. This list is more about who can impress the editors with the best story about why their place is awesome to work at. What it really means is that Googles HR people are doing a great job of selling the company. Dont get me wrong, Google is a great place for a software engineer to work at, but this list doesnt mean diddly.

This list leaves most of the smaller companies off of it too. Maybe they should consider the title "100 best places to work if you want to work for a huge multinational." I am not knocking them for doing that, after all, how could they consider every small business in America? Just observing that there are some really great small companies out there. Also worth considering is that smaller companies will usually compensate you a lot better because they have fewer qualified applicants than the Googles and Microsofts of the world.

Re:Goolge?

[vistic]

Give them a break... they have to proofread/edit about a full page's worth of text a DAY! And that's without a spellchecker (uhhh... apparently)!

I mean, they're overworked as it is!

20% of how many hours per week?

[Anonymous Coward]

> The chance to spend 20% of your time working on your own personal projects also sounds very appealing.

I've known a few people that have worked there and some that do now. From what I understand, at least most of the time, you get to spend 20% of the 50-70 hours of your work week there on your side project. Yeah, the official work week is only 40 hours, and you're technically supposed to be able to spend 8 hours of that on your own thing... but managers being managers (even at Google), they still schedule the work like you're spending all 40 hours a week (and maybe a little more) on your real project and are displeased if you don't deliver.

Re:20% of how many hours per week?

[Kalriath]

Who do you think? I guarantee Google is not lacking on the "All your idea are belong to us" clause.

Good ol' supply and demand

[Opportunist]

Do you notice something? Google is amongst the top places when it comes to benefits, and they're also one of the top players when it comes to productivity. Could it be that satisfied workers are productive workers? Even if they put 20% of their time into private projects?

Simply because a dissatisfied worker will put 20% of his time into the company and slack off the rest. Why bother working harder than necessary for the slave wage you get? Why bother spending half a thought on what you're doing? Do you get more money if you do something beneficial for your corp? Or will it be swallowed away by one of the managers as "their bright idea" anyway?

So Google is in the fortunate situation to hand pick their employees. The kind that is more productive in 20% of their time than a good deal of people in 150% (i.e. with 50 percent overtime). The kind of people that don't NEED a job, but the kind that can choose wherever they want to work.

So what's left for the rest? Exactly. The sludge. The kind of worker that tries to spend the hours between 9-5 with as little effort as possible and drops his keyboard the moment the clock strikes 5. Or, more likely, he'll drop his coffee mug.

That's what you get for minimum wage and zero benefits. Supply and demand, price and quality.

Google is productive because they're automated

[Animats]

Do you notice something? Google is amongst the top places when it comes to benefits, and they're also one of the top players when it comes to productivity. Could it be that satisfied workers are productive workers? Even if they put 20% of their time into private projects?

That's more the nature of the business. They don't make anything physical, and they provide very little customer service.

All of Google's businesses other than search generate little if any revenue. Really, stuff like Google's office systems exist to push back against Microsoft, not because running a word processor in the browser is a good idea.

Re:What about the 100 worst places?

[Kalriath]

Hmm. Paypal isn't in that list. They've broken my account such that I can't use my existing account, can't sign up for a new one, can't get responses out of their technical support. They're the worst I've ever dealt with - Sony Online comes in second for me. They complete lost an order of mine and disappeared the payment. Right. And this matters how exactly to how good of an employer they are?

The grass is always greener on the other side

[retro128]

I'm going to have to run with a lot of what the Slashdotters are saying about this article and say that small companies are really nice to work for. I work for a small manufacturer about 10 minutes away from where I live. The pay is good and we get bennies. The flexibility I have is second to none. I can clock out, walk downstairs and tell the girls up front that "I'm leaving and I don't know when I'll be back, but you can get me by phone if you need me." Plus it's probably the only place I can wear a T-shirt depicting a newly married couple with the huge letters "BIG MISTAKE" below it three days after my boss' wedding. Additionally, I take off a day a week for my "own projects". So there's my 20%. True, I don't get paid for it, but since my project is a consulting company I make up for it.

It sounds like the late 90's are coming back at Google. It's nice to have little perks like what they offer I guess, but it isn't for me. I like to know everything that's going on and hate the idea of being just another cog in the machine. Gourmet meals and massages wouldn't make up for the diminutive part I would play in a large corp, even if it is Google.

At this company I'm at, the buck stops with me regarding the administration of this network. The pay is 25K less than what I was offered at a large corporation, but when you factor in power of decision-making, flexibility, the commute, and the overall freedom in a small company like this one I would have to say it's worth the pay cut.

IMHO, Google isn't any different from any other large corp except that they can burn more cash and seem to try to treat their employees well. But keep in mind that even if they offered a large starting salary it would be sucked up matching the insane cost of living in the area they're in, with a terrible commute as an added bonus. Maybe those applying in droves want to be a part of history and say "I worked for Google", but not me. I'm perfectly happy right where I am, and am not buying into the hype.

Re:Intersting that Apple is missing -

[Kalriath]

Actually, the ulterior motive is that Microsoft probably doesn't expect you to have time to go shopping in amongst all the extra hours you'll need to put in, and Google's gourmet food is probably just an incentive to get you to stay at work until dinner time.

Shocke no one's mentioned govt

[gelfling]

Govt jobs can be both the best and the worst. On the upside expectations are nil and no one cares. You can be lazy and evil and treat people like shit - as long as you're not sexist, racist or insulting to the handicapped or muslims you can have another job at your job. And if god is really smiling on your you can be a small city cop. On the downside you can work in hell in shitty surroundings and there's no way out. On the really bad side you can be working for a dept that is indicted and people go to jail.

Re:I want to work at Goolge

[DrEldarion]

(Many many people ... in the Bay Area, work incredibly long hours)

Fixed.

Re:Check out Google's wrongdoing!

[orasio]

"Google is an outsourcer of US jobs to other countries, at a time when many US tech workers are unemployed. "

That is great, "US jobs".
Google takes money from all over the world, but somehow, the jobs are sacred and belong to the US.
Please stop staring at your bellybutton, and look around.

They priced out the common man.

[Civil_Disobedient]

There are tens of thousands of people working in this area and none of the usual amenities you would find in an area with tens of thousands of people.

That's what happens with skyrocketing real estate prices and high-paying jobs. People convince themselves that it all evens out... "Oh sure, the rents are higher, but the pay is higher, too!" Fine and dandy, except Joe the Science Teacher can't afford to live in the city any more. And Bob the Convenience Store Clerk doesn't feel like commuting three hours in each direction just to give you cigarettes and lotto tickets.

When you price out the people who run the guts of a city—the teachers, the firemen, the street sweepers and convenience store clerks—the city turns into the Office Park Wasteland you so aptly describe.

Re:Best is Best

[PopeRatzo]

Actually, the school I work for is perennially listed in the top 10 Universities in the US, and is universally considered to be on par with any school in the world.

I said absolutely nothing about university jobs being a sham, and indeed they are not. I consider what I do to be pretty important all things considering.

The point of my original post was that working for a University is low-stress, high-reward, and most of the other employees there don't work as hard as a similar employee in the corporate sector, so if you work at normal speed, you will appear to be working twice as fast as anyone else in your department.

I love working for a University. I spend my day around smart people (there are half a dozen Nobel winners and several Macarthur Genius award winners in this place) and my coworkers really care about what they do. Most of my colleagues aren't doing "just a job" but are engaged in their life's work.

But there's a real effort to make the environment comfortable and engaging.

My real message is don't just assume that you've got to move into the corporate world. Academia has much to offer to someone who also has something to offer.

It's hard to reach the position I'm in today. It took a lot of hard work (not compared to laying bricks, though). I spent a lot of years eating spaghetti and peanut butter at first. But today I make pretty good dough, I've got a ton of vacation time, and I love my job. If I'd gone into the corporate world like many of my own classmates way back when, I'd probably be more wealthy, but nowhere near as healthy or happy.