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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."
Because whoever'd publish such a list would get hit with a defamation suit within the hour?
Indeed!
Well, since the recruitment process is a machine, just write your resume like a robot. GoogleBot's sure to pick you then!
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
I want to work for Goolge too. As long as it doesn't get caught in my eye.
OK I know that was bad.
-b.
Sounds like a trip to the library is in order before I submit my resume!
Thanks for the info!
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.
Fortune has a tendancy to concentrate on public companies, since that's their industry, pimping public companies. The vast majority of companies in the US are privately held, and under 1000 employees. I notice that none on this list are less than 1000 employees. They even have the gall to call those "small" companies.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Some highlights of the benefits of working for Goolge that caught my eye were the free gourmet meals and the massages.
Sounds like you got a happy ending with that gourmet meal and massage.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I tried starting my own company, but some geek guy in glasses bought me out.
Now my pencils are all broken.
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!
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
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
*pSig = NULL;
Sue away...
http://www.wanderlist.com/worstUScompanies
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
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.
> 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.
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.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Good location?
Apple is located in Cupertino, CA, in the middle of Silicon Valley. It is not a "good location". Silicon Valley is endless, boring, ugly suburban sprawl. You'd hope that it would at least be cheap to live in such a crappy place, but it's not, cost of living is very high. I know because that's where I am living right now, and I'm moving as soon as my lease is up. I don't know if you've ever lived here or not, but I think lots of people just think that it must be cool to live in California where you're near the ocean and it never snows...
Cisco seems to be on both lists. They are both the 11th best company and the 12th worst one. Something tells me this "worst company" page is just for people to rant about companies they don't like, not a subjective review of work environment.
The company is legendary here in Des Moines ... they can break virtually any law they care to, without consequence. They are the proverbial 900 lb gorilla. With a long history of owning the State senators and Attorney General. As an example, they finally got rid of the 'Hourly exempt' class in 1999, under Federal pressure ... how many years was that illegal under the FLSA?
Recently, they had to devalue, sorry, restate their mortgage portfolio by half ... just a little stock fluffing there ... before Citi bought that division - and then canned the lot of them. Oh, and the recently departed were not allowed to apply for any other Principal job for a year. Well, actually, once they were pick-slipped, they could *apply*, but Principal wouldn't even look at them. Yep, that's illegal.
Local headhunters have learned to (mostly) avoid the company ... send in an applicant, and they'll often come back with the line "We already had the applicant on file and were planning on contacting them in the near future." The first part is completely true ... you applied back in High School, they've kept your résumé on file. The second half? Well, the applicant will get a phone call ... now.
The company does do a lot of things right, and many divisions are good, even great places to work. But it's very much up to chance, unless you have friends on the inside already. Doesn't help that the senior execs are morally and ethically bankrupt.
And, of course, I seriously question how a company makes it onto the 'Top 100' list when their out-of-court settlements to former employees range into the hundreds-of-thousands. Regularly.
Hard feelings? ADNR sounds about right.
1) Industry leader
It's nice working for companies that are arguably industry leaders. That's why you'll always have a ton of people interviewing for Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Intel, Amazon, etc. Those big names, regardless of how you perceive the companies themselves, still look awfully good on resumes. And chances are, they have pretty darn good pay as well. There's also a good chance that the projects you will work on, have a pretty large scope. For many, it's great to say you worked on "Product X", even though your actual contribution may be rather small. It's still better than saying you worked on "Product Y" that no one has even heard of, or ever will.
2) Interesting projects
Before Google was at the top, and before it could offer all those really great benefits, you still had a bunch of upstart software engineers wanting to work there, because the projects were really interesting. Even if the benefits weren't there, and Google wasn't quite at the top yet, you'd still have engineers very interested in that space. Sure, not as many, but the people you would get could arguably be the best, since they're actually excited about the work.
In contrast, you've got a ton of smaller companies that could offer fantastic benefits, but if you're missing out on the above two things
-- jchenx
Right. And this matters how exactly to how good of an employer they are?
From the linked page:
"Worst Companies in America to Deal With or Work For"
(Emphasis mine.)
That's not a proper list of bad employers. It's a random list of every company someone has a grievance with. From what I can tell, few of the posts were by current or former employers of the named company. Examples, Walmart, most people who work for them like their job. Their posting was just a typical example of "hate the big guy". Another example, Harley-Davidson, not liking their product has nothing to do with whether they are a good employer or not. In fact, HD is employee owned and, unlike in the 70's, make awesome motorcycles. However, just because I ride a Harely does not mean I am qualified to rate them as an employer.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Sorry to threadjack, but how many people had to mispell google to creat that tag? Sorry I had to be the one to point this out, but are sure you weren't one of them?
I work for Google. Sorry, but your post is misinformed.
As far as I've seen, all the contractors, interns, etc. get the same access to the cafes and microkitchens as everyone else. In the middle of the night you'll often see some of the janitors enjoying a game of pool between emptying garbage cans. I have seen bus drivers -- who technically work for the bus company which runs our shuttles -- grabbing dinner in the cafe before going on their route. Some benefits are limited to full-time employees, but I have never heard of a benefit being limited to engineers.
I know many people who went straight from college to Google and I have never heard of this practice. I myself was considered "entry-level" and this did not happen to me. I do know one person who was a contractor before he became full-time, but this certainly isn't the norm.
Obligatory disclaimer: I don't speak for Google. What I write here are my own observations, not official Google policy, and it's possible I am just blissfully unaware of some other side of the company where things work differently.
Have you ever lived anywhere else?
Silicon Valley is not paradise, but it's damn nice. The absolute worst thing about this area is the absurd housing costs.
Yeah, it's suburban sprawl-y, but the mountains and palm trees and beautiful weather more than make up for it. As you well know, it will be over 60 and sunny again tomorrow. At the beginning of January, for god's sake. There is a reason people want to live here and are willing to put up with the housing costs and taxes. It's fucking beautiful all the time. Mountains all over the place for hiking and biking, plus you can always head up to the Sierra for skiing. Tahoe could be a (long) day trip. And you know what? Firms down here pay enough to make it worth your while at least to rent, if not buy.
Where else would you live? The places that are cheap to live suck ass. I'm sorry, I won't dig my car out of the snow 3 months out of the year.
I moved here from Seattle and would fucking NEVER move back. The housing is almost as absurd but without matching salaries, traffic is an order of magnitude worse, and the weather just sucks ass. Seriously. The rain is novel for a few weeks, but after a winter you realize you never want to go months without seeing the sun again. Sure you can do outdoor activities, but I find the valley to be a lot more conducive to it, just because you can never find a dry day in the Northwest, and if you ever try to plan an activity for one of those days, it will rain anyway.
I can only imagine living on the West Coast, and between San Diego, Santa Barbara, the bay, Portland and Seattle, I'll take the bay area hands down...
OK, I'll go over this once more:
The easiest way to find the best places to work is to look for the ones whose names end in "..University".
The money is surprisingly competitive, there are tons of holidays and always hot young chicks around. Try to live walking distance and you'll be able to sleep in on days you don't have "meetings".
Plus, if you are a moderately capable worker, you will immediately be made a Director, and the Administration will be amazed that you are so much more productive than anyone else in the place. Just do your job at about half-speed and you'll raise the average.
They'll even pay for you to engage in the greatest scam of all: Getting your PhD. Once you do that, you are forever enshrined in the Brotherhood of People Who Take it Easy and you can spend your days playing Eve and "walking down the street for an espresso".
Many the day I pinch myself for the great luck of having left all the corporate bullshit behind a few decades ago. Oh, there's one more important step: Marry a brilliant, beautiful Math Grad Student (preferably from Eastern Europe - the Asian ones will expect you to work hard), then when she gets a job in the Financial World, even Lotto winners will envy you.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"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.
Dillards is at the top of their list...this hits home for me. My wife just quit her job there. I have to say, that in the month she worked there I know enough to say that Dillards is the worst place to work for. Hear this:
1) if you don't meet sales targets, at your semi-annual review you get a pay cut. No, you don't get commission. You don't get a huge raise if you exceed your sales targets. You just get a pay cut if you miss.
2) Servant mentality. Employees are forbidden from using the store's elevators, escalators, etc. They must exit in the back of the mall, and even when it's dark out there is no security to ensure than employees get to their cars, and they must park in Antartica.
3) Judging from the previous item, you'd think there is no security. No, there is security -- to watch the employees. My wife had to ge a clear purse (really a bag) because she cannot carry in opaque bags. There is security watching them at their counters. They are watched in the stores. They are watched as they exit and enter. And the mall that she works in is in a good part of town.
4) Poor morale. In addition to mistreating employees, Dillards fosters a very competitive spirit among employees. So nobody likes one another.
5) Bad scheduling. My wife took this job because she has limited availability, since I work and we have two children. This leaves just a few evenings that she can work, and as such she was unable to get a job more like she is accustomed to. Well, of course, they scheduled her overnight to do inventory, which was flat out unnacceptable.
6) After about a month, my wife (being the honest, professional person she is) wrote a resignation letter. When she tried to hand it to the manager, he told her he could not accept it and instead she needed to fill out a form. Management proceeded to avoid her for the rest of the day. Needless to say, she never got a form. She made them take her letter. This is how they treat people who try to do the right thing and give notice. She should have just did a no show on a Saturday or something. That would have served them right.
So, while this site is obviously a not-so-reputable one, they are dead right. Dillards is a horrid place to work, and they deserve to go out of business. Hope you enjoyed reading this. It should make you feel *really* good about your job as you sit at your desk sipping a coffee. I know I do.
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