Google Gripes

TechCrunch has a fantastic article on former Google employees and their gripes in a private Google group. The well known search firm that moves the Internet is like any other corporate culture apparently, with questionable managers, flawed hiring processes, unsatisfactory pay rates, and the typical work related complaints.

Says Issara, formerly of Google’s Singapore branch:

I was hired to work in Google’s Singapore office. I found out very
quickly that Google International is not the same as Google-US. The
offered pay was way too low to survive in Singapore, so I left after I
got another job offer that I felt was better for me. I really do
believe that Google is doing some important work with humanitarian
mapping projects and digitizing libraries. But for me, I felt that
Google’s popular image did not match its actions in the work place,
and that some of the things they did were not very “Googly.”

Shelby talks about the bad judge of character of the hiring managers, not to mention a slight case of discrimination:

However, I passed my interviews with flying colors
and was surprised 3 weeks later when I still hadn’t heard from my
recruiter about the results of the hiring committee meeting. Finally
he called to tell me that I was rejected because I was currently
working as a Flight Attendant. A job I had started 4 months prior
because it was a great opportunity to move into their management group
but then the airlines started downsizing management and so I applied
for the Google Travel Sales role instead. However, apparently the
elitist hiring committee members believed that FA’s are stupid and
there was no way they would be able to work at Google. Lucky for me
the recruiter agreed it was incredibly sexist and fought with HR to
bring me on as a temp. Three months later they resubmitted me to the
committee and had me remove my former job - instead I mentioned that I
was “traveling” for four months and bingo! I got hired full time. 3+
years later I was promoted twice and named a Google Luminary!

Aaron not only got a raw deal on his salary, as he states below, but also got slammed by the cost of the move, which Google apparently only slightly compensated him for.

First, I was really disappointed with the salary that Google offered.
During negotiations, they accommodated me a little, but not much. I
was barely making more than I had been in the midwest, and the
difference in CA state taxes wiped out almost all of that. Then
there’s rent. My wife and I don’t have any debt, we pay cash for our
cars, we live in a modest apartment, we only have one small child, and
we don’t travel or live a luxurious lifestyle. Yet we were already
dipping into savings during the second month just to pay the bills.
Part of it was certainly my fault; I shouldn’t have accepted such a
low offer.

Not all the stories are bad, and most everyone seems to agree that Google definitely has a solid business model, even if they are lacking in managerial structure.

Hey Google!  I’d suggest hiring me to go in there and clean up your act… but… yeah… nevermind.

Read it all HERE.