What Is the Worst Part of Working at Google?

The Quora format poses a question and then people answer. In this case, many are current or former Google employees. Their answers are illuminating in that the 'issues' they cite are more theoretical or philosophical or psychological than existential.

But then maybe that's a useful window into a significant portion of jobs in this economy.  JL

Quora comments:

Tiny number of wave creators, huge number of surfers.
I am sorry I cannot ascribe my name to this, but I currently work for a company that would probably rather - from a Comms perspective - that I do not put my name (and therefore potentially theirs) on this comment.

I worked there for 7 years, and it is truly an outstanding  company.  Everywhere you turn one person is more impressive than the  next.

I often say Google has a great problem: Too many outstanding people. For example, when  I left, my direct reports were outstanding, my boss was outstanding, my  peers were outstanding, my boss's boss was outstanding, my boss' peers  were outstanding. 

I  left - a *great 7 year career*, extraordinary comp, a very high-level, senior network, and a highly respected job/role - because it just wasn't that  challenging.  In my last role there, I took over a FLAILING group in a stretch  area, and was able to fix it in 2 quarters.  It was then clear that I  was finally in a position where my role was not that challenging and  waiting for my turn for the next big, interesting gig was going to take  too long.  (For the most part in my first 6 or so years, the challenge in front of me felt like more than I deserved).  My growth would have stunted, and I would have been unhappy.   So I punched out a year ago.

I used to joke with my colleagues that Larry & Sergey go out on their yachts - tie them together, sit back on the same recliners you'll find on their jumbo jet, each on his own yacht/set of yachts, smoke cigars, and put up pictures of Googlers with little snippets like "was a GM at muti-national telecomm company, got a Harvard MBA and is now answering Orkut tickets."  and then they would erupt in laughter and clink their cigars & Scotch together in celebration.  This, of course, is highly unlikely given neither of them would ever smoke a cigar or drink Scotch.  Remainder is plausible.

Of  course this "too much talent" isn't really a problem for Google - it's a problem for people working  there who are trying to determine if they should tread water and perform  less-than-challenging work (as original poster states) or move onto  something different.  Worth noting that internal mobility is notoriously difficult there, particularly for senior people.

On  its surface, this seems so simple - many of us prefer challenge, and so  it seems we should try to effect a change... either at Google or outside, but here's the rub.  The  benefits you accrue from working there are extraordinary and can cloud  the judgment of even the most achievement oriented SWE or MBA.  The reasons this is so cloudy range:

- basic affiliation - people are impressed when they learn you work for Google.
- compensation - it's no secret how far ahead of market comp they are.  Ask any non-Google company in the valley that has made an offer to a  Googler.
- the quality of people around you - have we beaten this one to death?
- the borderline unbelieveble perks.  See articles about their life insurance benefits, for just one extreme example.

There are COUNTLESS people there in roles that are not that hard... and FEW will ever admit that. 

Larry, Sergey, Omid (huge AOL deal), and Salar (invented the auction) created a consumer product and financial juggernaut like the world has not ever seen and will not again see in our lifetimes.  Everyone else is just along for the ride. They created the wave and now 30,000 Googlers surf it everyday. 

Here's something to ponder.  The only meaningful organic products to come out of Google were Search and then AdSense.  (Android - awesome, purchased.  YouTube - awesome, purchased, etc. Larry and/or Sergey were obviously intimately involved in both.  Maps - awesome, purchased. Google Plus is a flop for all non-Googlers globally, Chrome browser is great, but no direct monetization (indirectly protects search), the world has passed the Chrome OS by... etc. ) Fast forward 14 years, and the next big thing from Google, I bet, will be Google Glass, and guess who PMd it.  Sergey Brin.  Tiny number of wave creators, huge number of surfers.

Too many great people, doing work that just doesn't matter, and they're being paid off not to care in an explicit effort to starve the rest of the valley of extraordinary talent.