Google Tops 100 Best Places To Work 317
inetsee writes "Fortune Magazine's annual '100 Best Companies to Work For' list is out, and Google topped the list in their debut appearance. Some highlights of the benefits of working for Google that caught my eye were the free gourmet meals and the massages. The chance to spend 20% of your time working on your own personal projects also sounds very appealing. Of course, with resumes rolling in at the rate of thousands a day, the competition is fierce."
What about the 100 worst places? (Score:2, Interesting)
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Re:What about the 100 worst places? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sue away...
http://www.wanderlist.com/worstUScompanies [wanderlist.com]
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Re:What about the 100 worst places? (Score:5, Informative)
Man, this site is dead on! (Score:4, Informative)
1) if you don't meet sales targets, at your semi-annual review you get a pay cut. No, you don't get commission. You don't get a huge raise if you exceed your sales targets. You just get a pay cut if you miss.
2) Servant mentality. Employees are forbidden from using the store's elevators, escalators, etc. They must exit in the back of the mall, and even when it's dark out there is no security to ensure than employees get to their cars, and they must park in Antartica.
3) Judging from the previous item, you'd think there is no security. No, there is security -- to watch the employees. My wife had to ge a clear purse (really a bag) because she cannot carry in opaque bags. There is security watching them at their counters. They are watched in the stores. They are watched as they exit and enter. And the mall that she works in is in a good part of town.
4) Poor morale. In addition to mistreating employees, Dillards fosters a very competitive spirit among employees. So nobody likes one another.
5) Bad scheduling. My wife took this job because she has limited availability, since I work and we have two children. This leaves just a few evenings that she can work, and as such she was unable to get a job more like she is accustomed to. Well, of course, they scheduled her overnight to do inventory, which was flat out unnacceptable.
6) After about a month, my wife (being the honest, professional person she is) wrote a resignation letter. When she tried to hand it to the manager, he told her he could not accept it and instead she needed to fill out a form. Management proceeded to avoid her for the rest of the day. Needless to say, she never got a form. She made them take her letter. This is how they treat people who try to do the right thing and give notice. She should have just did a no show on a Saturday or something. That would have served them right.
So, while this site is obviously a not-so-reputable one, they are dead right. Dillards is a horrid place to work, and they deserve to go out of business. Hope you enjoyed reading this. It should make you feel *really* good about your job as you sit at your desk sipping a coffee. I know I do.
Re:What about the 100 worst places? (Score:5, Insightful)
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From the linked page:
"Worst Companies in America to Deal With or Work For"
(Emphasis mine.)
Re:Tags (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry to threadjack, but how many people had to mispell google to creat that tag?
Re:What about the 100 worst places? (Score:5, Interesting)
The company is legendary here in Des Moines ... they can break virtually any law they care to, without consequence. They are the proverbial 900 lb gorilla. With a long history of owning the State senators and Attorney General. As an example, they finally got rid of the 'Hourly exempt' class in 1999, under Federal pressure ... how many years was that illegal under the FLSA?
Recently, they had to devalue, sorry, restate their mortgage portfolio by half ... just a little stock fluffing there ... before Citi bought that division - and then canned the lot of them. Oh, and the recently departed were not allowed to apply for any other Principal job for a year. Well, actually, once they were pick-slipped, they could *apply*, but Principal wouldn't even look at them. Yep, that's illegal.
Local headhunters have learned to (mostly) avoid the company ... send in an applicant, and they'll often come back with the line "We already had the applicant on file and were planning on contacting them in the near future." The first part is completely true ... you applied back in High School, they've kept your résumé on file. The second half? Well, the applicant will get a phone call ... now.
The company does do a lot of things right, and many divisions are good, even great places to work. But it's very much up to chance, unless you have friends on the inside already. Doesn't help that the senior execs are morally and ethically bankrupt.
And, of course, I seriously question how a company makes it onto the 'Top 100' list when their out-of-court settlements to former employees range into the hundreds-of-thousands. Regularly.
Hard feelings? ADNR sounds about right.
Best is Best (Score:5, Funny)
The easiest way to find the best places to work is to look for the ones whose names end in "..University".
The money is surprisingly competitive, there are tons of holidays and always hot young chicks around. Try to live walking distance and you'll be able to sleep in on days you don't have "meetings".
Plus, if you are a moderately capable worker, you will immediately be made a Director, and the Administration will be amazed that you are so much more productive than anyone else in the place. Just do your job at about half-speed and you'll raise the average.
They'll even pay for you to engage in the greatest scam of all: Getting your PhD. Once you do that, you are forever enshrined in the Brotherhood of People Who Take it Easy and you can spend your days playing Eve and "walking down the street for an espresso".
Many the day I pinch myself for the great luck of having left all the corporate bullshit behind a few decades ago. Oh, there's one more important step: Marry a brilliant, beautiful Math Grad Student (preferably from Eastern Europe - the Asian ones will expect you to work hard), then when she gets a job in the Financial World, even Lotto winners will envy you.
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Looks like yours isn't all that hot either
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I said absolutely nothing about university jobs being a sham, and indeed they are not. I consider what I do to be pretty important all things considering.
The point of my original post was that working for a University is low-stress, high-reward, and most of the other employees there don't work as hard as a similar employee in the corporate secto
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I think that high-tech word you're looking for is Fiberglass.
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The loans company was horrorific, a small office filled with 5 old embittered old ladies who had been working there for years and developed unbreakable routines for every single thing that happened in the office including the highly important and unchangeable in any aspect tea making
Intersting that Apple is missing - (Score:2)
Re:Intersting that Apple is missing - (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple is located in Cupertino, CA, in the middle of Silicon Valley. It is not a "good location". Silicon Valley is endless, boring, ugly suburban sprawl. You'd hope that it would at least be cheap to live in such a crappy place, but it's not, cost of living is very high. I know because that's where I am living right now, and I'm moving as soon as my lease is up. I don't know if you've ever lived here or not, but I think lots of people just think that it must be cool to live in California where you're near the ocean and it never snows...
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Silicon Valley is not paradise, but it's damn nice. The absolute worst thing about this area is the absurd housing costs.
Yeah, it's suburban sprawl-y, but the mountains and palm trees and beautiful weather more than make up for it. As you well know, it will be over 60 and sunny again tomorrow. At the beginning of January, for god's sake. There is a reason people want to live here and are willing to put up with the housing costs and taxes. It's fucking beautiful all the
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Cupertino is an urban oasis compared to the gargantuan office parks of South San Francisco, where Genentech is located. It took half of my lunch break just to walk from my office building across the parking lot to the office building with the sandwich shop that is similar to a concession you might find in an airport. There are tens of thousands of people wo
They priced out the common man. (Score:3, Insightful)
That's what happens with skyrocketing real estate prices and high-paying jobs. People convince themselves that it all evens out... "Oh sure, the rents are higher, but the pay is higher, too!" Fine and dandy, except Joe the Science Teacher can't afford to live in the city any more. And Bob the Convenience Store Clerk doesn't feel like commuting three hours i
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Instructions for applying for next year at http://www.greatplacetowork.com/best/nominations/n om-100best.php [greatplacetowork.com]
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These benefits are certainly unusual for many companies on the list, but in Silicon Valley they're pretty mundane.
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Since HR people tend to recruit like-minded people (Score:3, Funny)
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I want to work at Goolge (Score:4, Funny)
OK I know that was bad.
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Very small often == very good. (Score:5, Insightful)
-b.
Compuglobalhypermeganet (Score:5, Funny)
I tried starting my own company, but some geek guy in glasses bought me out.
Now my pencils are all broken.
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Re:Very small often == very good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Companies are not all the same on the inside, and some groups are better than the others within a company.
I work in the R&D division of a telecom services company - and our group is very small but is great to work with. For the most part, we are encouraged to think up cool things with technology that we think are worth exploring and are given the opportunity to work with them.
Alternatively, you could start your own company and work with a company that you already know (i.e. consultant and consultancy services etc).
Not every group in a big "good" company is necessarily good, and not all departments in a "not-so-good" are necessarily not-so-good.
You need to feel comfortable with the group and the people you work for, else there is no point, no matter how amazing a company maybe rated.
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Agreed, though the small groups within companies are still more subject to orders from on high and blanket company policies than bona-fide small organizations.
-b.
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Once again, it would boil down to the group/company in question, rather than any one place.
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For those of us outside the U.S., the health insurance thing isn't such a big issue. Not having to deal with an insurance market where for some unfathomable reason health insurance is tied to employment also makes it a whole lot easier to start your own company if you are outside the U.S.
Stock options are generally better with smaller companies, although they can work out for big as well. Pension plans aren't looking as good these days
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Exactly why I think that nationalized or state-owned health insurance would actually help true capitalism. It would remove another impediment in the path of startup companies. BTW - it's actually not that difficult to find even in expensive states. Be prepared to pay $2-300/mo in the more expensive pla
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Yeah, that kind of system...
Very small often != very good benefits (Score:3, Interesting)
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Actually, for people with families, having their own business might be even more important. Something with the ability to *make* money (rather than just having a worth) which can be passed across generations.
-b.
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Anyway, advantages and disadvantages.. that's all I'm saying.
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Then again, it's better to have one or two levels of clowns above you than six or seven levels of the same :D
I think it ultimately comes down to the individual company. I've just found small organizations less annoying than large ones. This may be be
How can I find out more about this "Google"? (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks for the info!
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Google... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fine, but if you're working in a smaller, less demanding company, you might have that time free, so you can work on the projects without the company knowing about it. Far better to market an idea independently than under the auspices of a large employer. At least you have the opportunity for profits far beyond a salary that way.
gourmet meals, massages
Just give me a decent salary, TYVM. If I want a massage, I can go to a masseur after hours. If I'm working in a city, I can pretty much order whatever I want to (and can afford) for lunch.
-b.
Re:Google... (Score:5, Funny)
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which is a good thing in my book.
Re:Google... (Score:5, Informative)
"Fine, but if you're working in a smaller, less demanding company, you might have that time free, so you can work on the projects without the company knowing about it. Far better to market an idea independently than under the auspices of a large employer. At least you have the opportunity for profits far beyond a salary that way."
Check the terms of your employment again. Most likely your employer owns rights to anything you produce while they are paying your salary, unless it absolutely has nothing to do with their line of work (and even then, you are going to want to get a lawyer to make sure everything is by the book). Generally speaking hiding another job on the side from your employer is a good way to get your ass sued.
Re:Google... (Score:4, Interesting)
try doing that as a vegan/veggie and you'll see that having a vegan/veggie-friendly cafeteria onsite would be great.
In my opinion the only big minuses with working for google are that
#1 it's in the valley (plenty of nicer places to live in the US/Canada, of course if you live to work this doesn't really matter)
#2 everybody and their dog is applying to work there, which means that the odds of the company culture deteriorating are not insignificant (not to mention that the bigger the company the more likely that it will become a series of fiefdoms and so on)
#3 given #2 the interview process is way way way way too convoluted and drawn out, but that's just to be expected with the sheer volume of resumes they receive: the downside is that it will turn away a lot of really qualified folks, since in general people at a certain level of competency/employability won't feel like putting up with that (since on average they'll have plenty of other companies vying for their services and honestly, you wouldn't want to hire somebody that's just going through the motions for a few months at their current job just waiting for your call, would you? that wouldn't be exactly the type of ethics you ought to go for IMHO).
Re:Google... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Google... (Score:4, Informative)
(I work at Google. I'm not speaking for them in any official capacity, just talking about my experiences here.)
We try pretty hard to make that be not the case. Most development teams are three to six people, specifically to result in projects that are long on individual excellence and short on bureaucracy.
I've never known Google to do any of these things. If someone did decide to do handwriting tests, faux-snake tests, or whathaveyou, I doubt they'd be asked to do any more interviews. I'm not sure I know what you mean by "Google's puzzles and goofy computer personality tests", but it doesn't sound like anything I've ever seen done here.
I (and to my knowledge, all other interviewers here) tend to ask questions that focus on and understanding of fundamental technical concepts, and the ability to reason effectively with that understanding. We try to stay away from technical trivia questions ("Oh yeah, well what's the -m option to mkdir do!?") and rely on questions about the underlying ideas.
Fortunately, not all of Google is in Silicon Valley; we have offices around the world. I'm not in Mountain View myself.
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If they give you income, and then you spend that income on massages and food, then you're paying income tax on it. If they give you the massages and food directly and cut your salary a little less than the cost of the massages and food, you both come out ahead. In addition, since your income is lower, you'll be paying s
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You call that "health insurance", and it becomes yet another way to cheat the system, you see.
Like calling your huge caslte, with an entertainment park, a zoo and whatever else a "raunch" and pay no property taxes like Michael Jackson, or flying on corporate jets rather than a personal jets, or getting stocks rather than cash salary and paying 1
Personal projects are not just about money... (Score:2)
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They'd have to prove that it was done with work equipment and on the clock. I'd refuse to si
Large companies. (Score:5, Informative)
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And the best way to find such a small company to work for is sometimes to open the phonebook (or use a yellow pages site) and start making calls and sending resumes. Look at their websites as well, a lot of companies show open positions on web sites without advertising on the bigger job boards like Mon
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1) There's a huge park here. For Johnson employees only. Includes a full-service fitness complex (think YMCA) and 9-hole golf course.
2) SC Johnson owns timeshare properties all over the world. Employees can book them for vacations.
Plus, on-site day care, etc. The Johnson family has no one to keep happy
yehp (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like you got a happy ending with that gourmet meal and massage.
Goolge? (Score:2, Funny)
(I hate spelling nazis, but crap, we are talking about EDITORS here...)
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Editors? On Slashdot, that word does not mean what you think it does.
Not a misspelling (Score:2)
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I mean, they're overworked as it is!
This will probably not last (Score:5, Insightful)
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Personally I can see the logic behind free food more easily than I can see the logic behind free drinks. I wont stay at work an extra hour for a coke, but I will stay if I can get a free meal by doing so.
Free drinks still at MS (Score:3, Informative)
The free drinks are still here (*sips on Diet Dr. Pepper*). If you're referring to the selection, it really hasn't changed all that much over the past few years. It's a pretty wide selection really (all the major brands, regular and diet).
If anything, MORE perks have been added, such as upgraded coffee
Missing Out on... (Score:2, Insightful)
And if you complain about it not being a company, then you're just plain picky.
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Well, arent they companies (non-profit corporations) even in the strict legal sense?
-b.
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at number 44... (Score:2)
Not my first choice of employer...
Small companies is where its at (Score:5, Insightful)
This list leaves most of the smaller companies off of it too. Maybe they should consider the title "100 best places to work if you want to work for a huge multinational." I am not knocking them for doing that, after all, how could they consider every small business in America? Just observing that there are some really great small companies out there. Also worth considering is that smaller companies will usually compensate you a lot better because they have fewer qualified applicants than the Googles and Microsofts of the world.
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Really? I've worked at and gotten offers from both large and small companies, and the large companies always had much better compensation than the small ones. The small ones were always super-cheap, not just about compensation, but about everything else too, like travel costs, equipment purchases, etc.
goolge? (Score:2, Funny)
20% of how many hours per week? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've known a few people that have worked there and some that do now. From what I understand, at least most of the time, you get to spend 20% of the 50-70 hours of your work week there on your side project. Yeah, the official work week is only 40 hours, and you're technically supposed to be able to spend 8 hours of that on your own thing... but managers being managers (even at Google), they still schedule the work like you're spending all 40 hours a week (and maybe a little more) on your real project and are displeased if you don't deliver.
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Good ol' supply and demand (Score:5, Insightful)
Simply because a dissatisfied worker will put 20% of his time into the company and slack off the rest. Why bother working harder than necessary for the slave wage you get? Why bother spending half a thought on what you're doing? Do you get more money if you do something beneficial for your corp? Or will it be swallowed away by one of the managers as "their bright idea" anyway?
So Google is in the fortunate situation to hand pick their employees. The kind that is more productive in 20% of their time than a good deal of people in 150% (i.e. with 50 percent overtime). The kind of people that don't NEED a job, but the kind that can choose wherever they want to work.
So what's left for the rest? Exactly. The sludge. The kind of worker that tries to spend the hours between 9-5 with as little effort as possible and drops his keyboard the moment the clock strikes 5. Or, more likely, he'll drop his coffee mug.
That's what you get for minimum wage and zero benefits. Supply and demand, price and quality.
More to it than merely benefits (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Industry leader
It's nice working for companies that are arguably industry leaders. That's why you'll always have a ton of people interviewing for Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Intel, Amazon, etc. Those big names, regardless of how you perceive the companies themselves, still look awfully good on resumes. And chances are, they have pretty darn good pay as well. There's also a good chance that the projects you will work on, have a pretty large scope. For many, it's great to say you worked on "Product X", even though your actual contribution may be rather small. It's still better than saying you worked on "Product Y" that no one has even heard of, or ever will.
2) Interesting projects
Before Google was at the top, and before it could offer all those really great benefits, you still had a bunch of upstart software engineers wanting to work there, because the projects were really interesting. Even if the benefits weren't there, and Google wasn't quite at the top yet, you'd still have engineers very interested in that space. Sure, not as many, but the people you would get could arguably be the best, since they're actually excited about the work.
In contrast, you've got a ton of smaller companies that could offer fantastic benefits, but if you're missing out on the above two things
Google is productive because they're automated (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you notice something? Google is amongst the top places when it comes to benefits, and they're also one of the top players when it comes to productivity. Could it be that satisfied workers are productive workers? Even if they put 20% of their time into private projects?
That's more the nature of the business. They don't make anything physical, and they provide very little customer service.
All of Google's businesses other than search generate little if any revenue. Really, stuff like Google's office systems exist to push back against Microsoft, not because running a word processor in the browser is a good idea.
The grass is always greener on the other side (Score:3, Insightful)
It sounds like the late 90's are coming back at Google. It's nice to have little perks like what they offer I guess, but it isn't for me. I like to know everything that's going on and hate the idea of being just another cog in the machine. Gourmet meals and massages wouldn't make up for the diminutive part I would play in a large corp, even if it is Google.
At this company I'm at, the buck stops with me regarding the administration of this network. The pay is 25K less than what I was offered at a large corporation, but when you factor in power of decision-making, flexibility, the commute, and the overall freedom in a small company like this one I would have to say it's worth the pay cut.
IMHO, Google isn't any different from any other large corp except that they can burn more cash and seem to try to treat their employees well. But keep in mind that even if they offered a large starting salary it would be sucked up matching the insane cost of living in the area they're in, with a terrible commute as an added bonus. Maybe those applying in droves want to be a part of history and say "I worked for Google", but not me. I'm perfectly happy right where I am, and am not buying into the hype.
not all Google employees (Score:3, Informative)
Or even somewhat worse...
I interviewed with them for such a job and was startled to learn that although Google does all the interviewing and hiring, they always hire their entry-level employees through a temp agency for the first year. So while many companies have a one- to three-month probation period, Google has a full year before they trust you enough to bring you on as a real employee.
Re:not all Google employees (Score:4, Informative)
I work for Google. Sorry, but your post is misinformed.
As far as I've seen, all the contractors, interns, etc. get the same access to the cafes and microkitchens as everyone else. In the middle of the night you'll often see some of the janitors enjoying a game of pool between emptying garbage cans. I have seen bus drivers -- who technically work for the bus company which runs our shuttles -- grabbing dinner in the cafe before going on their route. Some benefits are limited to full-time employees, but I have never heard of a benefit being limited to engineers.
I know many people who went straight from college to Google and I have never heard of this practice. I myself was considered "entry-level" and this did not happen to me. I do know one person who was a contractor before he became full-time, but this certainly isn't the norm.
Obligatory disclaimer: I don't speak for Google. What I write here are my own observations, not official Google policy, and it's possible I am just blissfully unaware of some other side of the company where things work differently.
The Google Story - by David A. Vise (Score:3, Interesting)
Here is a link to the WWW site of the book [thegooglestory.com]
The Company mode seems to have changed somewhat since the early pre-IPO days, but if I was able to replay my life I'd certainly try very hard to get on the Google payroll. "The Google Way" seems to have replaced the old "HP Way".
Shocke no one's mentioned govt (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Best place, despite worst pay (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not all X jobs are the same across the industry (Score:2)
Not all X jobs are the same, across the industry. I have interviewed many candidates which think that job X means you need skill Y. But in our team, it might be different. It may be Y + Z, or perhaps something rather different.
I've had folks balk at the type of questions they've been asked, even to the point of arguing, "Do I REALLY need to know this
Re:Check out Google's wrongdoing! (Score:5, Insightful)
That is great, "US jobs".
Google takes money from all over the world, but somehow, the jobs are sacred and belong to the US.
Please stop staring at your bellybutton, and look around.