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Comparison of Working at the 3 Big Search Giants
castironwok writes "Finally, everything you've ever wanted to know about being an employee at Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Tastyresearch describes his (or her) past few years interning and working at the three companies. Things I didn't know from before: Bill Gates wears old shoes, Google's internal security watches you like a hawk, the office styles of each company, and how to fill your suitcase with Google T-shirts. He calls the few select companies the 'prestigious internship circle', noting 'once you have worked at one, it's a lot easier to get into another'."
Microsoft? There are people who use MSN for searching? Name two.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Yahoo prefers one 24" monitor compared to the dual setup at Microsoft and Goolgle(19" and 20" respectively) Considering that most 24" LCDs cost at least as much if not more than a pair of smaller ones, I wonder why they opted for less screen real estate(also interesting to me since I am in the market to upgrade displays and am debating between the two setups as well)
Monstar L
When I worked at Yahoo, I had to say things like "Doinky doink" to my boss and paint my face green on one side and white on the other since I was the guy in charge of the Saskatchewan part of Yahoo...wherever the hell Saskatchewan is...anyway... the people in the cubes next to me where chimpanzees but they wore "Richard Nixon" halloween masks.
When I worked a Microsoft, I had to wear a suit, but the suit was in camoflage colours. My supervisor (I never did find out his name, I only knew him as "XZ95") was in charge of BTLIME.DLL, the subroutine that made sure that the system clock didn't accidentally exceed the number "6"...a big responsibility.
Finally, I got a job at Google... I don't know how it's going because I've spent all my time trying to win the "special day" competition to remake the "Google" web page logo on those "special days"
Thanks for listening
"Google's internal security watches you like a hawk"
Uhh...no. I walk around with my badge concealed, explicitly to see how much of a problem it causes, and I have been stopped less than a handful of times this year, and probably less than twenty last year. (Barring events that are explicitly high-security.)
This is intersting information for someone who is looking to be an intern, but that's about it.
More than you would think. Most of the hiring managers I meet consider it very high prestige.
When I worked in the military everyone was supposed to have badge-on-display and everybody was supposed to look at badges all the time. The top security guy rigged a test: He had an arbitrary soldier replace his picture with one of a baboon. He walked past security points at least 6 times a day and was only discovered after 6 months when he dropped his card and people had a really close look at it.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I've only worked for two of the three (Yahoo to Google), but as far as I've seen _nobody_ wants you to disclose the inner workings of the others to them. This true on at least three levels that come to mind:
- The competitive advantage of knowing about other companies' proprietary information is dwarfed by the liability of acquiring that information. Especially given that you'd be acquiring them through someone who had proven they could not be trusted to keep a secret.
- At least Google has the (mostly deserved) hubris to assume that their own solutions to problems will tend to be as good as or better than other companies' solutions. So while other solutions may be academically interesting, they generally won't be useful.
- Lastly and most significantly, it's unethical. And yes, every person with whom I've worked at either company would find this alone to be reason enough to refrain, even if it did grant a competitive advantage.
Really, everyone would rather just hire competent, trustworthy people who will do their actual job well and with appropriate discretion. No one is looking for a stool pigeon.
At my last contract job at MS, I really tried to use MSN search...
Sometimes the site wouldn't even load, sometimes clicking on search results would fail (because the click-tracking would fail), sometimes the main MSN site would show an server error. Each of these things were rare, but given how many things have to happen to complete a search task, overall I would estimate a 10% failure rate, to get any results at all.
Meanwhile, Google ALWAYS works. I have never once seen Google fail to load, or produce proper results. If Google doesn't load, I know it's my local network that's the problem.
Maybe it's the Parallel nature of Google's configuration vs. the apperently Serial setup of MSN. If a machine at Google fails, it dosn't affect much else, while one failure at MSN breaks the chain.
2000 is a distant memory. In 2000, VA Linux and Redhat were the it companies. Work at one and you could work at the other and the world would kill tthemselves for your autograph. Now no-one even knows what VA Linux was and Redhat is a troll. Hard to believe in 4 years we'll probably forget what Google was.
These places sound great in theory but the more you think about it, the more phony and limiting they become.
Consider that they provide all of these resources to keep you on their campus as long as possible. Their entire goal is to squeeze as much work out of you they can while prolonging the time it will take you to burn out. They create their own small community you're expected to be a part of at almost all times.
Maybe I'm in the minority but my work isn't my life. I enjoy what I do but I don't stay at the office any long than I have to. I have friends to see, places to go and personal endeavors to get to that don't involve my company. I don't want my recreational activities to be sponsored by or provided by my company. I'm not sure I want to work in a place that "optionally" provides these facilities as they become expectations of the employees and those that shun them become outcast by their coworkers.
It's like if you don't participate in as many work related activities as possible, you'll alienate yourself and not be part of the brainwashed masses at your company of choice.
Maybe I'm old fashioned but I get to the office, I do my job and after about 8 hours or so I go on my way and do whatever I want to do. I get lunch with some friends at places of our choice. I'll even participate in work related and non-work related recreational activities with people. But it's not a way of life.
I don't know, something about working for a company that has created facilities and devices to keep you occupied under their roof for as long as possible seems a little fishy. I don't trust companies like this. They don't have your best interest's in mind, like most companies, but try and create diversions from this. Many young geeks end up wasting their youth in this corporate socialism.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer