Jul 23 2008
Googletraz
Lastly my friends bombed me with pictures from the following collection. This is because many of them believe that work at Google is the Holy Grail of every employee. Is it?
The thesis: Work at Google isn’t exactly what many people want to believe in. Most of the time they build the picture based on current/past bad experiences with employees believing that Google a magic cure. I have a feeling that hail-to-google and hope-one-day-I-will-work-there is only a one side of a penny. There is a big underexposure of the other side. Bare with me and we try to make the balance even.
Reading all the beautiful stories on the internet I can hardly believe you don’t fall into a dream of a perfect work environment. Pick a project that suits your skills the best, meet with your at a exciting place, have a hardware you need the famous buffet… eat whatever you like. Is it how you think the work at Google looks like, or is it how you would like your work to be? In my opinion Google’s PR is the mastermind behind your perception of big ‘G’. Most of the IT people start the career full of enthusiasms, loaded with ideas on how to rule the world with the software they are about to write. Couple of years later most of the young hackers become senior programmers in corporations, fuelling another inefficient software house developing another boring project. The dreams of youth are gone. Family life and mortgage replaces them. The working day spent in greyish, cubicle office, fighting all the day with bureaucracy and the boss. Sounds like Dilbert(tm) isn’t it? Now be honest with me: How many of you feel like this? I can bet there will be quite a lot of you. This is when Google PR team starts the work and this is nothing more that cold calculated campaign. I remember when Google wast starting a new office in Poland, Cracow. Around that time there was a big buzz in polish newspapers about life and work culture in the company. All of them describing heaven for a employee. This pattern I can see al around the world. Blogs, articles, pictures, newspapers – choose the medium – all of them are full of candy like pictures and stories. The motivation is obvious, to catch best fish in the river you need to put a really juicy worm on the hook.
But think for a moment. Is it all about a choice between Google and other (worst) companies? Can your company satisfy your expectations, moving away your wish to work for Google? Please, make a short list of what you hate about your work (colleagues, environment, food – aything that comes to your mind). This is my list based on my experiences:
- incompetent people at management level
- Do it as I say! - But why? This is not making too much sense to me. If we implement that feature now we will limit ourself for the future changes in the application. - You are troublemaker, you know? This have to done. Either by you or by somebody I will hire somebody else... understood?
- hardware problems may take long to fix
- My laptop is heating and restarting couple times a day - Why don't you call the support guy? - Oh no! He would take my laptop for days. I cannot effort that now, the project is about to release.
- hardware upgrades – if ever – are synchronized with budget life cycle
- So how do you test the application before release? - We have a test server... but this is also log processing machine and network storage. It is difficult to test the application there, the machine is too slow. We have a promise to get a new test machine next year.
- there is no good food choice within a lunch brake distance
- Hi, I'm new in this job. Is there a chance for good lunch? - Yes, just drive down the highway for 20 minutes and you will find the "Food Village" - What about the sandwich bar here? Don't you like it? - ...
- I have an idea for world changing application, yet my company don’t care about that.
- This software will help our company to hit the new market and find new customers... - Stop here! It's new, it's too risky... we don't like it. We will release new version of our flagship product. All client are asking about that. - But we can access new market ... - No, no, no! That's too risky.
So, how many of the above matches yours? How many of yours are not presented here? In fact it doesn’t matter. Important is that there are problems you face at your work. Would be not facing any of those, wouldn’t? This is the promise given by Google. They give you exactly what you want to hear. Food? no problem. Hardware? Just say a word. An idea for application? We are delighted to support your new ideas by giving you a day a week to work on your own projects. Only at Google!
Now place yourself at an imaginary job at Google. Done? Think how much you would be tied to the company. You get a mobile device to be reachable beyond working hours. There is no working hours by the way, you work when you like – remember? That means you will have difficulty to distinguish your private life from your work life. Encouraged to bring your children to the workplace you mix private and working life more. Company supports you but then you have a guilt for not supporting company enough. You can work on your project but it has to be approved first. That mean you may not be able to work on your ideas if the company don’t like them. And if company likes them then the company owns them. Want to do a team meeting? Why not do a meeting like you meet your friends. Seat on the floor with drinks in your hands chatting and giggling. For me this sounds like a lot of distraction. Technical people need a table, chairs and a whiteboard, you have to agree with me. Having access to golf course, swimming pool, massage and hell knows what else I couldn’t resist myself to not to play all day round leaving work for later. Could you?
Next time you will thing about Google, think of your company first. I bet it is not that bad as you think. Look from the outside perspective and you will many positive aspects. If not then maybe you need to change the job. Believe or not there is a lot of great companies on the market. If not then maybe this is the time to found your own business and develop one of the great ideas you always wanted to become real? After all this said I don’t want you to get me wrong, if I would be invited to work on an interesting project at Google I would consider. The important is I don’t give an unlimited faith to Google as the ultimate employee for everyone just because of nice pictures and couple of stories on the internet. And this is what I hope you will do too starting from now.