A shell of it's former self - Technical Program Manager Google Employee Review

3.0
30 Sept 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits are solid. Health, dental, yearly bonus, vacation, and pay raises are amazing.

Cons

The culture and environment has become a joke. Google was once the most sought after company for employment, but it has lost it's unique charm from over a decade ago. Now it's a corporate monster that has grown far too big. We were once the #1 company on Forbes' 100 best companies to work for and it hurt us deeply when we dropped to #2 after many years at the top. Fast forward to 2020 and we don't even make the top 100. There is a serious lack of coherence and communication anymore. Motivation to succeed is not based on making great products, but instead on what you can do for promotion. This is clearly evident in the products we develop - or develop then abandon. It's also why we once had nine discrete messaging apps while many other products included messaging functions. The world would be a better place if great ideas like Google Fiber, Stadia, and Voice were better executed. However, we're left with products that are not only made fun of by the public, but given countdown clocks to when they'll be discontinued. What remains are disjointed products like Gmail - including a UI so butchered and bloated, they needed to add a loading screen so you didn't think long loads times means the service is down. We once did great work and were on the top of the tech world. This is no longer the case and I doubt we could ever get there again. We're too large, too slow, too disparate, and have so many competing visions, that there is no return to our former glory days.

Explore other reviews about Google

5.0
7 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good Pay, Ai powered work

Cons

Lay offs happen often at the company.

4.0
21 Jun 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1) Food, food, food. 15+ cafes on main campus (MTV) alone. Mini-kitchens, snacks, drinks, free breakfast/lunch/dinner, all day, errr'day. 2) Benefits/perks. Free 24:7 gym access (on MTV campus). Free (self service) laundry (washer/dryer) available. Bowling alley. Volley ball pit. Custom-built and exclusive employee use only outdoor sport park (MTV). Free health/fitness assessments. Dog-friendly. Etc. etc. etc. 3) Compensation. In ~2010 or 2011, Google updated its compensation packages so that they were more competitive. 4) For the size of the organization (30K+), it has remained relatively innovative, nimble, and fast-paced and open with communication but, that is definitely changing (for the worse). 5) With so many departments, focus areas, and products, *in theory*, you should have plenty of opportunity to grow your career (horizontally or vertically). In practice, not true. 6) You get to work with some of the brightest, most innovative and hard-working/diligent minds in the industry. There's a "con" to that, too (see below).

Cons

1) Work/life balance. What balance? All those perks and benefits are an illusion. They keep you at work and they help you to be more productive. I've never met anybody at Google who actually time off on weekends or on vacations. You may not hear management say, "You have to work on weekends/vacations" but, they set the culture by doing so - and it inevitably trickles down. I don't know if Google inadvertently hires the work-a-holics or if they create work-a-holics in us. Regardless, I have seen way too many of the following: marriages fall apart, colleagues choosing work and projects over family, colleagues getting physically sick and ill because of stress, colleagues crying while at work because of the stress, colleagues shooting out emails at midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am. It is absolutely ridiculous and something needs to change. 2) Poor management. I think the issue is that, a majority of people love Google because they get to work on interesting technical problems - and these are the people that see little value in learning how to develop emotional intelligence. Perhaps they enjoy technical problems because people are too "difficult." People are promoted into management positions - not because they actually know how to lead/manage, but because they happen to be smart or because there is no other path to grow into. So there is a layer of intelligent individuals who are horrible managers and leaders. Yet, there is no value system to actually do anything about that because "emotional intelligence" or "adaptive leadership" are not taken seriously. 3) Jerks. Sure, there are a lot of brilliant people - but, sadly, there are also a lot of jerks (and, many times, they are one and the same). Years ago, that wasn't the case. I don't know if the pool of candidates is getting smaller, or maybe all the folks with great personalities cashed out and left, or maybe people are getting burned out and it's wearing on their personality and patience. I've heard stories of managers straight-up cussing out their employees and intimidating/scaring their employees into compliance. 4) It's a giant company now and, inevitably, it has become slower moving and is now layered with process and bureaucracy. So many political battles, empire building, territory grabbing. Google says, "Don't be evil." But, that practice doesn't seem to be put into place when it comes to internal practices. :(

3865
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All