Why Most Google Employees Quit After 1.1 Years (On Average)

I'm surprised that Google have such aggressive deadlines, considering them not having any noticeable new products the past few years, in addition to the closure of many of their products

I learned the hard way that chasing money is a fool’s race. A healthy work environment that you can actually stand to be in is priceless!!

That perks-so-you-never-leave thing has been around a long time. It was a big part of the reason why EA was sued (and lost) during the whole "EA Spouse" debacle in 2003. I called it a gilded cage. I didn't want any of the perks. I just wanted to be able to go home at night and on weekends and have a life. I've hated all employee "perks" ever since. They even gave out rings, like class rings, with company stuff on them instead, to people who stayed the longest. I remember a woman who lived in the apartments right next to the office won, because she was there ridiculous numbers of hours, and people actually wanted the ring, and put in more hours to try to win one. I thought they were all crazy.

Worked as an intern last summer and my experience was pure joy. Starting full time next summer. Hope to be the same.

Now imagine being stressed out at a company that has nowhere near the amount of perks and benefits lol

I disagree with this. My experience at Google was awesome. It was like being on a cruise ship and in my two years I can only remember having to stay late 2-3 times. I only left because once you work at Google other tech companies want you really bad and will pay more to get you. This is just my own personal experience. Maybe I’m just lucky.

I still think I’d rather work at google then my old jobs. I’d be working 12 hours a day at my old job with no benefits, no meals, doing hard manual labor and hardly a 30 minute break. Working at google to me sounds like an absolute dream

I work for google and I’ve been here for 4 months. And I can say for a fact that it is very stress free. I can get away with working 30 hours, but I probably work closer to 40/45 because I want that first promotion ASAP. I’ve talked to other coworkers in different groups and pretty much everyone’s experience is the same. I’ve never witnessed anyone super stressed or anything. Everyone is nice af too. I know the entire company isn’t like that and it probably depends on your group. But I would say most people love it here. Also, google has been known to have a better work life balance than other tech companies. I’ve talked to friends from Amazon and apple specifically and they are the ones that are stressed out. Not sure where this 1.1 years number came from lol

My year at Google was fantastic (unfortunately my contract was not extended) - having Google on your resume definitely helps open doors.

Working at Google and here's my personal experience about these reasons: 1.1. I worked at a office outside of CA, they have only breakfast and lunch, and people just comes in as late as possible right before the breakfast ends, it is hilarious and actually reasonable because no one else is working at that time anyway. The food is not that good though. 1.2. We technically could bring dogs and some does it. They don't want cats to come however, so it really isn't about tricking employees to stay longer. 2. Work pressure differs between teams, some got lucky and has near zero pressure and some needs to wake up at midnight if the website is down for 3 minutes. If you got a good team or manager it is really great. 3. As long as you are hired, it does not take anyone a lot of effort to "just survive" because you already proved, or at least convinced them you are one of the best engineer out there(which actually surprises many engineers how bad other people can be). However you are indeed going to work with or hear stories about some insanely good people who does the work of hundreds of people. IMO it is just something average people needs to suck it up and move on about the fact that some people are really just that good instead of tryharding. 4. I remember average promotion takes 3 years, so yeah if people left with a year or two it's going to be hard. 5. The "worked at google" line on your resume beats ten projects so people gets a lot more chance going to startups and such, so if they get +30k a year then quitting does not seem bad at all. Opening your own startup is not really related to the quit data though, since those people are usually senior engineers and has saved a good fortune already.

I work in tech and my company has no perks like Google's. Yet, I put in way more time than just 3 extra hours a day. Driving in traffic is very mentally draining, and for those single people, grocery shopping, meal prep and doing dishes are all very time consuming. With Google's perks, you can almost surely have your entire weekend to do leisurely things instead of worrying about grocery shopping, cooking, meal prep and so on. So yes, I'd rather put in a few hours doing work things I enjoy instead of things I don't enjoy. Plus, have you gone shopping for groceries in the Bay Area at 5 or 6pm... or Costco run on weekends? Lines everywhere and wait time everywhere.

Regarding point 1 - It's worth noting that another way perks work against you (if your employer sucks) is to do with how much you are actually seen to be using them. For example, if you have a pool table, table tennis or even a quiet break room, spending any time in those spaces outside of a set break period (e.g lunch) can be noted down and used against you in performance reviews if they want to deny you a promotion, leave, etc etc - citing you taking time to use these "free perk" facilities

As a cs student, Imposter syndrome at google seems much better than my backbreaking warehouse position

Ex-Googler here (Seattle based). I can tell this information is far from being accurate. 1. Dinner is actually very limited, not that good and very few people stay up for dinner. 2. Shuttle back home, most people just chat, chill, take a nap. I rarely see people working on the way back. 3. I have been through 3 different teams. Everyone has families or places to be after work. I can single handedly count the people I have been in contact with who work after hours or reply to emails late at night. 4. You get paid for your on call time. Name one company that does that aside from Google. 5. I used to hit the Gym every other day around lunch time right before I get lunch. And I actually got promoted and was never questioned by what I was doing spending 1.5 hours mid day out of office every other day. Google experience was by far the best experience I had at any company (and I have been through a decent number of the big tech giants). As long as you set the right estimates and expectations and are not a lazy ass who is not willing to work, you will thrive and learn (to some extent). The major drawback in my opinion is the growth opportunity (especially at L5 and beyond). It is hard, very opportunistic and needs so much work that many people just skip such promotions by leaving and going back at a higher level

It's funny that the first ad fed to me before showing this video is Google Career Certificates

The thing is, the people that get selected for google are not your avg joe. They will be dissatisfied if they don't get the respect and treatment they think they deserve. Now people disagreeing with them are the avg or below avg joes that gets treated the same but without the perks and salary and they cannot change jobs cause they know their worth in this competing world. Ex Google employees know they have "google" in their resume and can easily land a comfy job but the avg joe is not at that level. Well in the end it's just a matter of perspectives from both parties. Personally if I had the calibre to get in google, i would also leave for better jobs

I worked in Silicon Valley. I worked 80 hours/week and I was salaried. When I calculated how much I made it was closer to $20/hr and I practically lived there. No thanks.

I'm starting to see that times really are shifting. Myself who was raised by old school parents use to believe that working hard to climb up to one company that pays well and offers good benefits with a decent/good schedule is enough for me to essentially commit my career and life into that company until I retire. Today it seems that work is all about progression and to continuously grow within whatever field you're wanting to be in or may already be in. In the grand scheme of things I suppose this has always been the game plan to anyone that wants to be successful in life but opportunities seem to be far more available today. I don't see anything wrong with doing one year of time with any job to put on your resume. Take your experience and apply it somewhere better. This my perspective.

I've been facing the same problems without been paid like a Googler, and It's even harder when you're the head of your team, and you feel that if you fail everything fail, been a Google you can lean on your teammates (I'm pretty sure they are brilliant people)

Imagine getting PAID HUGE MONEY and finding out the company actually wants you to WORK. The HORROR.