Great but could be better - Operations Specialist Waymo Employee Review

4.0
27 Mar 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-World class benefits: food & gym, 401k, health care, high end swag, vacation -Most perks of being an Alphabet employee: access to all of the beautiful campuses, recruiters hitting you up on LinkedIn regularly, etc -Employee shares have high growth potential -Inclusive culture, flexible schedule, talented team, lovely people -Virtually unlimited resources for career development - 20% projects, free classes, etc -Waymo takes safety more seriously than the parents of a teenage daughter. Seriously though, I’m extremely proud of how dedicated everyone is to the company mission

Cons

-No liquidity since Waymo still hasn’t IPOed and employees are forced to sell equity if they leave -Too many menial tasks and responsibilities slowing career growth and clouding judgment. 90% of our work could probably be automated in some way, shape, or form, but time and time again we choose to go deeper into technical debt to meet short term quarterly goals -Heavy reliance on contractors who are treated as second-class citizens, as mentioned in other reviews and elsewhere -Grooming talent to work for competitors (see: heavy reliance on contractors) -Base pay is pretty embarrassing for a FAANG class company. Sure we get benefits, equity, and a bonus that gets 42% withheld, but be prepared to either pay rent forever or buy a home 2 hours away from Mountain View because this comp is only going to get you so far. Management assures us that we are being compensated fairly, yet shut down the idea for employees to voluntarily disclose their comp internally for transparency -Too much rockfish and kale -Retention even among fulltime staff seems rough recently for all the issues described above

Explore other reviews about Waymo

5.0
13 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This place is technical strong, and AV is on a good track than few years ago.

Cons

Some politics among the org. Top talent is attracted by LLM, and company have to pay higher salary to attract more people come in

4.0
8 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good team culture and lots of room for advancement.

Cons

A lot of temp and contract work can be unstable.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All