One of the people featured is a friend and former coworker at a different company. When I sent him this link, he said they never talked to him. They just pulled info off of his blog.
"We spoke to several former Googlers to find out why they left the company, compiling their responses with those of other former employees who have written about their departures publicly."
I'm am, once again, quite impressed by hn's top comments.
Posted anonymously to avoid work repercussions.
-Googler of > 5.5years
The reverse is also true. Could Satya navigate the old Microsoft and deliver it as (still) one of the most valuable companies in the world?
But I digress. The point is, maybe Gates would've done just fine if he had chose to do so. Personally, I'm glad for B&M Gates Foundation's role in the world right now, so I'm kind of glad he didn't
as much as he's a business guy, it really feels like he's a coder-first.
In my opinion, what you're experiencing is more to do with Google becoming a big, public company with a clearly defined mission statement. Unlike the Google of yesteryears whose mission was everything from self driving cars to domestic fiber internet.
All successful companies eventually find their boring but profitable mission and tool their processes around it
Otherwise it was a fine place to work. No better than Microsoft or Netflix or the rest, but no worse either.
(I mean, how many skilled, driven, ambitious people don't want to promote themselves?)
What does the quantity of employees have to do with the discussion?
Obviously any organization with thousands of people will have this happen at a much bigger scale.
It's just another Silicon Valley bigco. That's especially true now. In the early 2000s, it was probably a very cool place. But all big companies get more awful as they get bigger. I'm sure the bureaucracy and politics there are stifling, like all bigcos.
I was happy at the other companies I worked at. I selected and targeted all the companies I worked at, and Google wasn't one of them. I never answered the voice mails from Google recruiters and never responded to their LinkedIn messages.
This circle jerk needs to stop.
I just remembered this
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/20/occupy-fo...
Like holy shit. It’s a joke I guess but like is it really?
(uBlock Origin)
The first two years were enjoyable but then it started going downhill, fast. Some close friends and co-workers had major implosions on the job and I was burned out. Once I realized that Google would suck me dry if I let it and that reality was completely different to the expectations I had going in, I found ways to drastically reduce the number of hours I actually worked and spent the rest (company time) doing things that contributed to my self-development (side projects and reading books, mostly).
I spent the last ~5 years doing no more than two hours of actual work per day. Needless to say, these were some of the best, most carefree years of my life. My mind rebounded and it felt great knowing that I was screwing the company that only viewed me as a commodity whilst getting paid top dollar. I am pretty sure I wasn't the only one doing it, either.
