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From an employee’s perspective, I joined Google around 2022. Although I joined during a time when Google’s reputation was declining, so I might not have experienced its golden age, I still feel that Google is a good company. In today’s era where many companies are just “less bad” than others, Google still holds onto some principles (though perhaps not as many as before). There have been some employee scandals in the past, but I’d say the vast majority of Google employees are genuinely good, kind, and pure-hearted people.
On the technical side, having interned and worked at other companies, I feel many industry practices originated from Google or were popularized by them. For example, ByteDance feels like a mix of Google, Meta, and traditional Chinese corporate culture. Many standard practices across other companies can trace their roots to the book Software Engineer at Google. Internally, there’s a wealth of technical knowledge sharing—people voluntarily summarize their experiences into documents, and regardless of their level, they comment on or contribute to these documents. There are also design reviews where you can learn a lot, though some complain they slow things down. For someone early in their career, getting feedback from industry experts on documents is a great starting point. The atmosphere is gentle but rigorous. People rarely criticize others personally, and tech leads or managers might even apologize or clarify if they feel they’ve spoken too harshly. However, many pay close attention to details like code style, anti-patterns, or document wording—if they think the phrasing isn’t clear, they’ll rephrase it line by line.
As for the work experience, psychologically, you can choose to stay in a relatively “pure” state. Maybe because I’m at a lower level, I feel that many people around me, even those in their 30s or 40s, remain quite genuine. They love technology, take their work seriously, and sometimes find sincere joy in simple things. For instance, my tech lead and I might both get excited because the peaches at the company cafeteria were especially good today. As I get older, I realize it’s not easy to stay this pure. Of course, climbing to higher levels might be a different, more competitive story.
Though layoffs have been frequent in recent years, which has caused a lot of frustration, the broader economic environment is tough, and leadership probably faces pressure from investors. That said, Google now has a voluntary severance program, which is an effort to make layoffs less harsh. On the employee care front, many in our team have had kids in the past couple of years, and taking maternity leave has been smooth—most people take the full leave. Not every company makes it easy to take full maternity leave. Even our high-level leader, who had two kids, took nearly six months of maternity leave for each and still thrived in her career. Male employees also get nearly the same amount of paternity leave, a policy initially championed by YouTube’s former CEO. It’s a nudge for us guys to step up and take care of our wives and kids—since we’re given the time off, we’d better do it well.
There are also various internal employee organizations—for charity, murder mystery games, sports discussions, origami, knowledge sharing, and more. Employees organize all sorts of social events, and the vibe among colleagues is generally great.
As for benefits, things like insurance, free meals, and free gym access are common at many companies. But good benefits aren’t just about having them—they need to be encouraged and accessible. Google does well in this regard. Another cool perk is that you can visit most Google offices worldwide, check in, and grab free food. Many offices are in stunning locations, like the Shanghai World Financial Center, Shibuya in Tokyo, or Hudson River in New York, and the offices themselves are often beautiful. I’ve included a photo of our current office and the Shanghai office.
Overall, it’s probably easy to find a place that pays more than Google, like Meta, ByteDance, or Netflix. You could also find jobs with less work or more stability, or even better benefits or faster promotions. But finding a company that excels in all these areas is tough.
One day, Google might fade or even disappear, but I hope the next era’s “Google” represents a brighter future for humanity. Right now, though, I’m feeling a bit pessimistic. |
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Post time 2025-9-18 00:38:37
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