Slappers Only
Junior Member
We all shall fall.
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Working at Google
- Thread starter AstroLad
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I have two friends there and know several others. It's a great place for work-a-holics, that's what all the amenities are for...they expect you to stay and work. Great for some, not for everyone.
I like my 9-5, long lunches, free food and drinks, come and go as I please, and have plenty of paid time off job. : )
EDIT: Noticed they didn't mention the shuttles that pick up employees from their houses. Free wi-fi...so they can work on their way to work.
I like my 9-5, long lunches, free food and drinks, come and go as I please, and have plenty of paid time off job. : )
EDIT: Noticed they didn't mention the shuttles that pick up employees from their houses. Free wi-fi...so they can work on their way to work.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
brotkasten said:
I know a few people who used to work on Xbox/Xbox Live who said their cafeteria has beer on tap and people often start drinking in the afternoon on Fridays.
Honestly? I don't think I could work in an environment like that. It has too much of a country club atmosphere.
I need that structured atmosphere without distractions and deviations. Even if I was at Google, I'd want to work 9-5. I have absolutely no problem working extra hours (hell, I'd welcome a few 15 hour days on a weekly basis) but my status quo would be 9-5. I'd want to go in, work through lunch, put in my hours, then get out and do my own thing.
Nothing would irritate me more than having to stay late because someone working on a dependent piece of code or holding a dependent piece of information decided that (s)he wanted to jam in the music studio from 2-5 then work till 8pm.
I need that structured atmosphere without distractions and deviations. Even if I was at Google, I'd want to work 9-5. I have absolutely no problem working extra hours (hell, I'd welcome a few 15 hour days on a weekly basis) but my status quo would be 9-5. I'd want to go in, work through lunch, put in my hours, then get out and do my own thing.
Nothing would irritate me more than having to stay late because someone working on a dependent piece of code or holding a dependent piece of information decided that (s)he wanted to jam in the music studio from 2-5 then work till 8pm.
lastflowers
Banned
brotkasten said:
This is not false. My time there had plenty of moments with Alcohol involved. Obviously no one went crazy, but it was a very relaxed atmosphere where people in the same division could get to know everything that each other was working on (or just talk about sports).
It was a great experience. My boss told me "I don't care when you're here--just make sure you show up for meetings. Get your work done and help your fellow teammates, and you'll do fine here". Pretty much everyone I know there has bosses like that.
I would come in at 11 or 12 somedays, and 6 on other days (and leave at 2). I would put in 11 hours somedays, and 5 on others. Benefits were nice!
A friend (acquaintance) of mine started working at google a few months ago and she wont shut the fuck up about it. She begins all of her sentences about her job with "at my job at google".
Valve sounds like a touch more fun to work for though. The idea of being able to move my desk wherever I feel whenever I feel sounds amazing to me. But yea I can appreciate companies that try to keep their workers happy. I dont see why more placees dont do this. It doesnt have to be to this scale obviously but even small things help. My company is moving more and more in this direction Im noticing and it makes it very pleasant to work here.
Apparently we're getting a "creative lounge" complete with bean bags and such. A step in the right direction.
Valve sounds like a touch more fun to work for though. The idea of being able to move my desk wherever I feel whenever I feel sounds amazing to me. But yea I can appreciate companies that try to keep their workers happy. I dont see why more placees dont do this. It doesnt have to be to this scale obviously but even small things help. My company is moving more and more in this direction Im noticing and it makes it very pleasant to work here.
Apparently we're getting a "creative lounge" complete with bean bags and such. A step in the right direction.
Angry Fork
Member
Insomniac for sure, check out all the cool shit on their site for employees. Have won lots of awards for employee satisfaction and shit too.Kyaw said:
onken
Member
I interviewed for Amazon one time. The office was a long distance from where I was living so after I passed the phone interview they crammed all the physical interviews into one day. 5 straight hours, was horrendous. I didn't get the job.
A few months back I was at a LUG meeting and met a guy interviewing for Google. He went for 6 interviews (different days) and got rejected, that shit must hurt.
But anyway, my current job is great. I'm only allowed to work a maximum of 1 hour overtime a day, and we have a fancy kitchen full of free shit. Very well looked after and it makes such a difference to your outlook. On the flip side I used to work for a very large Japanese company and my god, difference is day and night.
Haha, at aforementioned Japanese company they decided to put soup into the free vending machine and it just got rinsed. I remember seeing one guy struggling to carry 4 cups at once to his desk. They pulled that pretty quickly.
A few months back I was at a LUG meeting and met a guy interviewing for Google. He went for 6 interviews (different days) and got rejected, that shit must hurt.
But anyway, my current job is great. I'm only allowed to work a maximum of 1 hour overtime a day, and we have a fancy kitchen full of free shit. Very well looked after and it makes such a difference to your outlook. On the flip side I used to work for a very large Japanese company and my god, difference is day and night.
Amory Blaine said:
Haha, at aforementioned Japanese company they decided to put soup into the free vending machine and it just got rinsed. I remember seeing one guy struggling to carry 4 cups at once to his desk. They pulled that pretty quickly.
onken said:
I work with someone who worked at Amazon. I think he only lasted like 2 years because they literally expect you to live at the office. You'll find that is the case with many of these "trendy and awesome" places to work. They offer all these cool things because they expect you to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on site. He said he was losing touch with his family because 12 hour days were pretty normal and if you "only" worked for 8 you were getting indirect pressure from your boss to do more work.
I've heard similar things at Microsoft, Apple and Google.
This is what Im curious about. All of these amenities sound fine but if I were working there, Id almost feel guilty working a 40 hour work week. On the one hand, you want to assume that they put these things here to support those that work those 70 hour work weeks. But on the other hand, its also easy to assume they put them there to encourage them.Tenks said:
Its quite bizarre thinking about it. One of those things I wish knew but never will.
I heard Naught Dog is pretty great as well.Angry Fork said:
casablanca
Member
This is true for most IT companies.Tenks said:
I've tried once:
patrickthehedgehog
Member
Troidal said:
Not necessarily true.
vas_a_morir
Banned
casablanca said:
As odd as it sounds, the fact that they acknowledge you when you send them a resume, especially in rejection, makes them better than pretty much every other company to which I have applied.
AbortedWalrusFetus
Member
A buddy of mine from high school works at Google. Knowing him, it makes incredible sense. When we were in high school he became the youngest person ever fully Linux certified. He was always really smart. We were in all of the computer clubs together and I worked with him on a few projects. I just could never get into linux like he or some of the other guys did.
Anyway, there is a technical term for what the author of this piece was feeling. It's called imposter syndrome. I think a lot of people get it when they start their careers or take on new jobs. I got it really bad when I first started my current job. I just felt like everyone around me was a ton smarter than me and there was no way I could actually live up to their level of skill. I felt like an imposter, and that someone would call me out as a fraud at any moment. After about a year you get enough confidence to realize that maybe you do deserve it. All in all though, it's a pretty good thing. Because you feel like a fraud you work much harder to prove yourself. I almost wish I hadn't gotten the self-confidence I have because I think it's made me complacent.
Anyway, there is a technical term for what the author of this piece was feeling. It's called imposter syndrome. I think a lot of people get it when they start their careers or take on new jobs. I got it really bad when I first started my current job. I just felt like everyone around me was a ton smarter than me and there was no way I could actually live up to their level of skill. I felt like an imposter, and that someone would call me out as a fraud at any moment. After about a year you get enough confidence to realize that maybe you do deserve it. All in all though, it's a pretty good thing. Because you feel like a fraud you work much harder to prove yourself. I almost wish I hadn't gotten the self-confidence I have because I think it's made me complacent.
Bboy AJ said:
I would imagine it's because legal work is generally nose to the grindstone, get through all the paperwork work. There's not much need for inspiration. While a coder/creative guy could say "Eh, I was hitting a mental block and need to play some air hockey to get a fresh perspective."
jvalioli said:
yup which is why I believe they give all these perks and benefits to try and retain top talent.
Like GE was in the decades before, Google is a meeting ground for the countries top engineers and computer specialist and considering America seems to have a lack of high specialized and skilled workers big companies of course are always trying to retain them.
D
Deleted member 81567
Unconfirmed Member
This thread has inspired me.
victreeb3l
Member
entrement said:
not that hard i suppose since a while ago, googlers were leaving en-masse for facebook, which promted google to give everyone a 15% raise
then again, i hear the culture at silicon valley is like this. people just keep switching from company to company
Lasthope106
Member
BlueMagic said:
Yes but when you get to the number you want, it might not be the first one. For example, given the sequence 1 2 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 7 8 8 9 10 10, and you have to find the index of the first 4.
The second time you divide the sequence you are going to hit the right number a 4, but it won't be the first 4.
Follow up questions to this problem were, give the runtimes of the brute and elegant solutions. How can you improve the algorithm? And there was a thing where I had to explain my reasoning how I was choosing the middle element that you compare. That one had a gotcha that if you aren't careful it won't run.
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