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Living the Good Life, Leaving Google Behind
inetsee writes with an article in the San Francisco Chronicle profiling seven early Googlers who have left the company, part of a cohort the article claims amounts to 100 out of the first 300 workers hired by Google. For these former employees, all the acclaimed perks of life at the Googleplex can't compete with calling the shots in their own lives. Google's chef is opening his own restaurant, Olana Khan has started a non-profit that makes micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries, and Aydin Senkut has become an angel investor. Others are simply enjoying retirement, making things in the garage shop or skydiving in South Africa.
I hope you are being sarcastic. If you aren't, you obviously have no understanding of the financial markets. In that case, I have a friend in Nigeria that I'd like for you to meet.
How is this news? They have been at the company 6 years, saw it grow and have ambitions of their own. I am not shocked in the least bit.
If you made multi-million dollars in a start up tech company would you:
1. Leave to pursue your interests.
2. Continue to work at the company until retiremennt.
3. Burn the money in a huge trash barrel and join a Buddist monestary.
4. Hire private detectives to stalk CowboyNeal?
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
If you are young, healthy, single, and debt-free, you dont need to be a millionaire to pursue your dream. Ramen noodles, a backpack, and a good attitude is all you need. I don't understand why people think they need to "pay their dues" before doing what they really want to do in life.
You live only once. You are young only once. So, you should do whatever it is you really want to do.
This, of course, is why it is so important to live frugaly and avoid debt -- it can rob you of your freedom. There's nothing worse than some student debt with a side dish of some credit cards, a long-term cell phone contract, and a car lease.
In addition to adverstising, they make their money selling their services to other providers and businesses. Google is not merely a link aggregator but more a service provider. Think Apple. Yes, they sell an operating system but they really make their money on the hardware.
Google is actually a very good business and your surprise at them still being in business, well, let's just say I wouldn't give you my money to invest.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I've done about 10 interviews with them, they went OK (although they don't really seem to know what they are doing in their hiring process...) but after the "on-site" interviews 2 months ago they simply forgot to get back to me with feedback. I imagine this happens with a lot of people, they spend several months being interviewed with google and getting this sucky treatment. Google deals with the hiring process as an investment, and as it seems, so do the job applicants. Part of the people that get actually hired will spend some time in the company and get away for a "promotion" in another company just because they've worked for Google, partially motivated by the way the company dealt with them since the beginning.
Big companies spend about 15% of their budget on advertising, because that's what advertising consultants tell them that they need to spend. That hasn't changed. What happened was that they stopped spending too much of it on untargetted advertising. Google lets them spend it on targetted ads, which even if they don't get clickthroughs still buys them brand awareness among potential customers. Google does this very well indeed, and the question that you should be asking is: how does any other ad-supported service stay in business.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Just because you leave a job doesn't doom you to a future of unemployment. I'm no HR guy, but being one of the early guys at Google probably doesn't look too bad on someone's resume. But besides that, these are likely talented and highly motivated people, and now that they've got some money in the bank, they can do their own thing and put their time and energy exactly where they want to. For some of those people, Google was still doing what they wanted to do, so they still work there. Others are using their money to try to start up their own businesses. Still others might be perfectly content to sit on a couch and play PS3 on a 80" TV all day.
I can promise you that a lot more than 100 people have made millions off of Google. Their stock has gone nuts, there's many billions of dollars to go around. Just one billion dollars divided by 100 people is 10 million each. A million dollars is a lot of money to an individual person, but for these big corporations, that is not an unsual amount of money at all.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Part of it is that they're not just posting adverts on their own sites, they're also posting ads on services and acting as an ad broker posting ads on other peoples' sites, with a simple, rather unobtrusive, and relevant method to boot. To compare them to past (Web 1.0?) companies, they're not just Yahoo!, they're DoubleClick as well. There are also other sources like licensing their search system to a number of other players (which I suppose makes them a bit "Inktomi" as well).
Even then, I agree that it's a bit odd that they're as high afloat as they are right now, but I think that if things start going sour, they do have respectable and consistently innovative search technologies that they could apply to any number of pay-for products or services (kind of like pre-AOL Netscape did, although not that well, when the browser wars made their flagship browser go freeware-- selling server software and other such things on the reputation of their free products).
Information wants to be free.
Entertainment wants to be paid.
You just want to be cheap.
Actually, they probably ARE all millionaires, or darn close. Microsoft minted millionaires out of thousands of early employees. Google stock has gone up by over 500%, it's pretty reasonable to assume the first 100 employees were given at least 2,000 shares over time in the $1-5 range ... which would make each of them millionaires.
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
How does Google stay in business by offering so much of their stuff for free?
They are in the business of selling eyeballs, not search results or email services or... The latter are simply the costs of acquiring eyeballs.
When in school, I attended an Accenture (Andersen Consulting at that time) hiring event in which I was told that I could be VP in 5 years just because almost everyone just quit within the first 3 years (with some money and a breakdown). The funny thing is that they managed to tell this almost as something positive.
Me too. I thank the Lord that Andersen Consulting rejected me - several years later I met a couple of the guys that did get in and they were both depressed and on the verge of leaving. Some of their friends at the company had even had breakdowns.
I've seen the bumperstickers saying "The Worst Day Fishing is Better than the Best Day Working". That kind of sums it up. Even if it's the best place in the world to work, if you don't have to work and can be doing something else, there's a lot of fun things out there.
There are lots of people out there who "love their jobs", but in reality it's only relative. They love their jobs, when compared to other jobs. If you don't have to work, there are lots of other things to do out there.
if you are single with no family and want to work all your life and spend most of what you earn on outrageous housing costs, higher taxes, and urban sprawl then google is the place for you. Just like most of northern cali/simi valley/san fran the culture is also secluded and anti-social. how many couples walking on the sidewalks do you see? or people walking their dogs? heaven forbid i get a flat tire or run out of gas. i'll be walking to the gas station on my own.
if you have a family and they are first in your life above anything else(including work), want to save and not throw money away on outrageous housing costs and want privacy without having to drive one hour one way to work then google is not the place for you even if you could get a job there.
more people are figuring out that they dont want to work 50 or 60 hours a week because they want to do other things, stay healthy and just have a life outside of work. most people dont want to work where they feel like they live in China and Japan, where workers typically work 70 hour weeks, but of course their country works and thats all it does, yet where is the reward? It's hard to enjoy rewards in life that you earn if you are too busy working. Our culture has turned into the mindset slowly and on a different scale of china. that to be successful we have to work all the time and nothing else comes before it, including family. I am not sure where or when this trend started.
there is a reason why we have weekends and a reason why most people dont work more than 40 hours a week. its to take a breather from work so we can refresh. its also a reason that people have burnout and productivity decreases. In google's case there are enough people that want to work for them that have the mindset that google is their life and that is why google provides things like laundromats, bringing your pets to work, 3 gourmet meals and swimming pools. if people just wanted to go home for lunch and promptly go home after 5 or 6 pm then what would the need be to offer all these ameneties? think about that one for a moment.
I know that they have offices in NYC and Seattle as well as sporatic jobs here and there but NYC and Seattle is the same as Simi Valley/Mountain View -- that is heavy traffic, no privacy(unless you want to drive 1 hour one way to work), up to the sky housing costs and taxes and living in a culture where everyone wants to work their whole life and thus they think their employees should have the same attitude. Trying to not to sound too stereotypical i am sure there are other smaller places in these areas that at least offer stable working conditions.
In Seattle's case i dont know how in the world all these tech companies keep people in that area. Traffic is still heavy but most of all for me i just cant bear the thought of at most 3 months of sunshine and cold rainy winters. I was there in november 2 years ago and the sun did come out 2 days out of the week(the rest of the week it was raining) but you still couldnt see the sun because it was so overcast. Maybe theres a reason why it's the #1 suicidal city in the country.
Leave Google behind? I don't think so. Google will always find you. Google knows everything. Does this make Google God. Maybe the ancients screwed up the spelling?
At the peak of the dotcom boom, I was a millionaire. (at least on paper).
Yet I was a backline support technician, making a base salary of about $65k/yr.
Due to mistakes in judgment, bad investments (I invested in a construction company, and the guy ran it into the ground), and tax laws, I am no longer a millionaire (though I am in a nice house right now).
Let me tell you this: being a millionaire is nothing. You can lose it all overnight. And even when you have it, there's a great temptation to spend it, at least some of it - to "reward" yourself. (otherwise it's just numbers in a bank account somewhere). In any case - if you're a millionaire, just that alone doesn't make you "set for life". Your best assets are your marketable job skills, and your brain, and your connections.
I'd say that when you get up around TEN million in assets, then you can shield yourself from bad decisions or risky investments, and you can maybe quit your day-job, live off the revenue-producing investments.
One is not truly financially independent until one has probably fifty million dollars in assets.
I say again. A million dollars is NOTHING.
Most "middle-class" Americans think they're rich because they have a Ford Explorer and a DVD player, and a 45" plasma screen tv. They have no idea how poor they are.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
The real story isn't that 1/3 of the first 300 employees left Google... Its the fact that 2/3 of them STAYED even after having the wealth to do whatever they want. That is a pretty strong endorsement for Google that they can keep people working and happy, even when the people don't NEED the job!
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Sheesh. If they're poor, what am I? I make just under 28,000/yr (USD). My TV is a 25" and over about 6-8 years old. Oh, and my wife and I have 2 kids.
:)
Money doesn't make you rich, perceived lack thereof makes you poor. I know many people with far more money than I that complain about money far more than I. If you can afford to put food on the table, a roof over your head and not live in fear for your life, health or well-being, it is hard to justify a claim of 'poor'.
No, I'm not the guy who sold his house and cars to live poor on purpose, we're just a young family starting out. A big problem, especially here in the States, seems to be that if you are not able to consume everything your heart desires that you are poor and living without. If that describes you, I strongly suggest you spend some time determining what really makes you happy and focus on that.
Sorry for the rant, but those of us that live a bit below the 'living wage' (here in Utah I'd have to make a few thousand more a year to be at it) are tired of hearing about how people that make a multiple of what we do are 'poor.'
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
As Robert Mondavi once said: "Find a job that you love and you'll never work a day in your life."
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
Because if you don't, you can easily find yourself with your dream fulfilled - but years behind where you need to be in able to get a job, let alone fund your retirement. Fulfilled dreams don't put a roof over your head or food on the table. (Unless you hit the jackpot and write a bestseller about your experiences and spend a couple of years on the talkshow and lecture circuit.)
Don't forget the other 600,000 starving programmers working in startups exactly like Google but who are never going to get the financial jackpot. It's so rare to hit the jackpot, you can't take it seriously.
As far as working hours, I put in 40-50 hours per week, and that is as much as I'm expected to do. I've worked longer than that on occasion, but it was special circumstances. Sometimes I get in the groove and stay until 9pm or whatever, but that's my choice. I *want* to do that. And you know what? I don't have to worry about missing dinnner. I have no problem putting in whatever time is needed to get my job done -- and that's all you have to do. Nobody expects you to work yourself to the point of burnout.
I also have no trouble walking the dog. I live 5 miles from work, and there's a park right behind me. My neighborhood is probably 85% families, and there is a near-constant flow of pedestrians. The wife and I are walking distance to a grocery store, a nice pub, some restaurants, etc. It's a little sleepy for some types, but it suits us more than living in the big city. There are four gas stations within 2 miles of my house. Housing prices are not all that much more than they were in San Diego. Sure, it's way more than like in Nebraska or someplace, but then again so are the wages. There are also a lot more job prospects out here if I ever decide to move on and find something new.
Have you been to silicon valley? Do you know anyone who works at Google? Because it sure sounds like you really have no idea what you're talking about.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
Thus, a person living in the jungle alone is free and not dependent on society but is not rich because they still cannot buy anything that society produces.
A person is rich, however, if is able to escape a country in war although the currency has been devalued and become worthless, or is able to live quite well during a financial crisis when other people are starving on the street.
Sometimes society may ask you to do things you don't want, and can force you to do it because you aren't rich. But if you are wealthy, you can ignore society's demands without giving up the ability to buy its products and services. This is the essence of wealth.