I think Google could go a long way towards addressing their current woes by doing away with their blind allocation policy. During my brief tenure there, the number of times I was told that Google runs on generalists and not specialists was ridiculous. Seriously, would you allow a podiatrist to do your heart transplant because the heart surgeon was too busy with his many proctology patients? That said, the food was great and TGIF was always fun.
That was precisely my experience, but I did see a lot of things going on around me that were both interesting and for which I was far better qualified than what was assigned to me. The dealbreaker for me was when it was made abundantly clear that there was a near zero chance of transferring off my assigned gig, and given that I had plenty of other options besides Google, I quit and moved on to one of them.
The dealbreaker for me was when it was made abundantly clear that there was a near zero chance of transferring off my assigned gig, and given that I had plenty of other options besides Google, I quit and moved on to one of them.
Yes, that's horrible. It's harder to get a decent transfer than a promotion, but if you start out on a dud, you're not going to get either on a decent schedule.
Did they say why they were keeping you stuck there? Don't they realize that they're losing good people with these policies?
For most people (the 80% that will never get anything interesting, but that Google will happily use for grunt work) Google is culturally a halfway house for those who are afraid of adult life. You have foosball tables but no chance of getting on a good project. It's infantilizing.
Comments
I think Google could go a long way towards addressing their current woes by doing away with their blind allocation policy. During my brief tenure there, the number of times I was told that Google runs on generalists and not specialists was ridiculous. Seriously, would you allow a podiatrist to do your heart transplant because the heart surgeon was too busy with his many proctology patients? That said, the food was great and TGIF was always fun.
The blind allocation policy exists because a lot of the work at Google isn't very interesting.
That was precisely my experience, but I did see a lot of things going on around me that were both interesting and for which I was far better qualified than what was assigned to me. The dealbreaker for me was when it was made abundantly clear that there was a near zero chance of transferring off my assigned gig, and given that I had plenty of other options besides Google, I quit and moved on to one of them.
The dealbreaker for me was when it was made abundantly clear that there was a near zero chance of transferring off my assigned gig, and given that I had plenty of other options besides Google, I quit and moved on to one of them.
Yes, that's horrible. It's harder to get a decent transfer than a promotion, but if you start out on a dud, you're not going to get either on a decent schedule.
Did they say why they were keeping you stuck there? Don't they realize that they're losing good people with these policies?
For most people (the 80% that will never get anything interesting, but that Google will happily use for grunt work) Google is culturally a halfway house for those who are afraid of adult life. You have foosball tables but no chance of getting on a good project. It's infantilizing.
Yup. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2800880