Googleplex tour - who wouldn't want to work there?

[unwashed potato!]

They do it as they expect you to basically either work or sleep...having a life outside of Google is a no-go. They even allow you to bring your dog to work so your animal doesn't get lonely.

It's a coders heaven, you get everything handed to you on a plate, but they don't expect you to leave much. They even have rooms you can go and sleep in.

No thanks for me

i've heard this a lot, and when i hear it it's always from people who heard it from someone who heard it etc.

when i see the video i take it as though they're saying people would perhaps normally wake up at say 7am to get to work at 9am, do normal work, finish at 5pm, sit in traffic until 6.30pm, then do more work at home, but if you'd prefer you can stay at work for a bit longer and relax, and even stay over IF YOU WANT, so that you don't waste time in traffic and traveling.

i find it hard to believe google really believe that as they've built a massage parlour they now expect you to sleep over and wok 4/7

 

[Judgeneo]

Think I'd prefer to work at Valve

 

[PMKeates]

Looks cool, but it comes at a great personal cost i bet, you're probably expected to work 50+ hours a week, or more.

THIS

Almost every professional employer in the US will expect 50+ hours, and it's becoming ever more the case in this country. Nobody at work blinks if I'm in the office from 0730 to 1930 (the office open hours). I was sending/receiving work emails up to Christmas Eve evening, and started again 8 am Boxing Day. It'd have been going Christmas Day, too, if we had any offices open! Permanent connectivity and endless working hours are going to become increasingly the norm - getting Google-esque benefits for it are a luxury!

 

[D.P.]

Looks cool, but it comes at a great personal cost i bet, you're probably expected to work 50+ hours a week, or more.

Only 50hrs cool, sounds great to be aleto work short working weeks. No wonder everyone wants to work there!

 

[D.P.]

I know several people working at th googleplx. google is not really what it is cracked up to be.....

 

[Nazca]

My cousin did her graduate programme there. As mentioned, you're expected to stay there as long as possible - that's why they provide all these facilities. It works for most coders since that's all they love to do really. She couldn't stand it so, eventually, she left after 2 years and now works at Goldman Sachs.

 

[ElliorR]

Food, gym, food, gym, food gym etc etc. That'd be my time at Google.

How many more years before the FBI burn the place down and kill them all?

 

[cu3ed]

Arnt ALL those life things like the doctors laundry etc is because you are basically having to live in the complex from working so much?

IE, we KNOW you cant leave work to go do anything else as we have it all less than 40 feet from your work desk.

Theirs something very disturbing about all of that to me.

 

[Tunney]

I know quite a few people who work at Google and I've been lucky to have lunch at their London office in Victoria. Their cafe is pretty amazing.

It's a company that attracts a certain kind of person. If you really enjoy your work then it's the perfect place to be. The only thing that I've ever heard people moan about is the politics, which I'm sure isn't such an issue if you're based at the HQ.

 

[Curio]

They do it as they expect you to basically either work or sleep...having a life outside of Google is a no-go. They even allow you to bring your dog to work so your animal doesn't get lonely.

It's a coders heaven, you get everything handed to you on a plate, but they don't expect you to leave much. They even have rooms you can go and sleep in.

No thanks for me

Absolutely this. There is a huge software company in my town (in the US) that has a campus that's similar to the Google model. Not quite as OTT, but still pretty insane by most peoples standards. I know a few people who work there and they all say that in return you must devote your life to the company. They will work you into the ground and spit you out.

I could not do it.

 

[aardvark]

a lot of american companies are like this - they expect you to give them your entire life - sure you get holidays but if you take them you can kiss your career goodbye. They are almost as bad as the japanese.
screw that - i like money and everything but i would rather have a life.

 

[Vanilla]

I have a friend who works for google in Australia who often spends three months at a time in the US on various projects. The change in his life has been amazing - for the better.

You are NOT expected to work silly hours, to live your life in the office or sell your soul to the company.

Everything about google is simply to make you as relaxed as possible. you're going to have to go to the gym anyway, you're going to have to go to the laundrette anyway (remember a lot of apartments still don't have such facilities, people still go to laundrettes over there) so they bring all of this as close as possible to the place where you are going to be that day.

This makes life easy. The gym is a 2 minute walk, you can get your computer repaired in the next building, etc.

If you think about leaving it means there's a whole ton of benefits that people will miss out on. The free fitness trainers, the free food, etc. it's all about retaining people.

I spent 8 years working for your typical soulless American company - they all expect you to be working 50/60/80 hour weeks and they give you nothing like what google offers.

 

[Bengaboy]

I cant believe people would say no to working here! Morons the lot of ya!

Free washing, free gym, free food, free everything(ish)!! Wow - sounds terrible!

And you are encouraged to stay late and work / stay over - but the key word is "encouraged".

 

[smelly_legend]

Yeah, their answer was to build circus nets around the complex so you couldn't jump. Personally I think a helter skelter would have sorted the issue.

I just LOL'd at this big time!

 

[Jono]

I have a friend who works for google in Australia who often spends three months at a time in the US on various projects. The change in his life has been amazing - for the better.

You are NOT expected to work silly hours, to live your life in the office or sell your soul to the company.

Everything about google is simply to make you as relaxed as possible. you're going to have to go to the gym anyway, you're going to have to go to the laundrette anyway (remember a lot of apartments still don't have such facilities, people still go to laundrettes over there) so they bring all of this as close as possible to the place where you are going to be that day.

This makes life easy. The gym is a 2 minute walk, you can get your computer repaired in the next building, etc.

If you think about leaving it means there's a whole ton of benefits that people will miss out on. The free fitness trainers, the free food, etc. it's all about retaining people.

I spent 8 years working for your typical soulless American company - they all expect you to be working 50/60/80 hour weeks and they give you nothing like what google offers.

I don't know anyone who works for Google, but I wish *I* did.

 

[dowie]

All businesses around the world need to adopt Google's working design. This will definantly increase productivity instead of businesses treating their employees like robots.

We are not robots, we are humans.

having free food and a funky office doesn't mean employees won't get frustrated

 

[///Rage]

Looks cool, but it comes at a great personal cost i bet, you're probably expected to work 50+ hours a week, or more.

LOLOLOL

You sat that like 50 hours is a lot.

Go to work you bum.

 

[dowie]

I don't doubt that they've got some very very smart people there though it doesn't mean that you're not going to have problems in a place like that - its a big company now despite trying to maintain the appearances/feel of a start up.

not being in the head office is likely a negative for a start

rapid growth over the past few years will likely mean there will be people in more senior positions simply due to the fact they joined at the right time - I don't doubt that this causes internal political issues

if you're the sort of person who'd work for google and who google would want to have working for them I wonder if you'd not be better off taking a risk and joining a different tech firm at an earlier stage... or even setting something up yourself. Creating something cool, outside of this sort of place and having it bought by a bigger firm (along with you team/collaborators) would likely be much more lucrative than using your 20% time to work on some similar project and then have to argue for some bonus/stock options or whatever with your direct manager.

I'd expect that joining something as big as google is at an entry level role wouldn't leave much room for career progression unless you're a total superstar - given that everyone they try to recruit is supposed to be super intelligent you'd likely have a lot of competition just to get a team leader role.

 

[King Damager]

For those pointing out you'd have to work a lot, that's true in many jobs.

Few companies offer the same facilities mind...

kd

 

[estebanrey]

Here's my intersting Qi styled fact about Google.

Contrary to popular belief, Google's spelling is correct and the original spelling of the word. Yes, it was a deliberate mispelling of 'Googol' (a 1 followed by 100 zeroes) but that term in turn was a deliberate mispelling of Barney Google's surname. Barney Google was a comic strip character created in the 1920s.

So in this case two wrong(spelling)s do make a right