Common sense (and my limited sample size of friends I know working at Google) tells me that the vast majority of people working at Google love their jobs.
Why is it common sense that people would "love" to work at Google?
A lot of posts/comments/etc in the last few years say "I love my job, <employer> provides free <snacks/food/hookers/whatever> and I have unlimited time off whenever I want it.
That isn't a job you love. Thats literally a job that offers ridiculous "perks" because the job itself is not enough to attract the people they want.
You think that Google being a great place to work meets this definition, despite the fact that the vast majority of people have no idea what it's like to work there.?
> It consistently tops the chats of "best places to work".
Which are answered by who? I've never even seen one of those surveys and I've worked in the industry for 13 years.
SV types tend to think the world is all like SV (which seems to be a focusing of the more general American view point)
> Combine that with the fact that there's literally a movie about how great it is to work there
There's a biographical movie about the life of Steve Jobs that has actual evidence about factual events, and they fucked it up massively. Why would you assume any movie is a true representation of something, especially a fucking comedy??
With a job you love, one is happy with just subsistence level compensation. There are very few jobs like that IMO, mainly either the ones which involve a large creative and independent component (some artists, scientists, maybe entrepreneurs) or working for the greater good.
The free perks are great, but are not the core reason that make Google's work environment compelling for the many that love it (and they don't offer unlimited time off, although I know you don't mean that literally).
Google offers a very healthy working environment for many people. It's a large and diverse company. Not everyone loves it here, of course. But many do, and it's clear it's offering an environment that has real value and pull, and tries hard to respect and empower those of us down in the trenches.
> they don't offer unlimited time off, although I know you don't mean that literally
My comment wasn't limited to just Google. It was aimed at the all the software companies where often young employees rave about food or other benefits (some of which are listed as literally unlimited holiday time) and are often very quiet about the actual work itself.
I had a colleague who worked on-site for a client that is a reasonably well known game company. He (and his gf, then wife) moved from Australia to LA for this project, and then I spent a few weeks onsite on a different project for the same client.
I heard about all the 'perks' employees (and to some extent long term contractors like himself) got, and it paints a rosy picture. This company even expected all staff to spend a % of their day playing the company's own game. (To the point that they arranged for us to play while on-site, and no amount of "No thanks, I'm not really into computer games" would be heard.)
Then I went and actually worked with some of their people on one of their projects. Then I asked him about something technical to do with the work or what he was doing.
It was literally as I expressed earlier - the actual work was a fucking nightmare of bad technical debt, shitty internal politics and ridiculous priorities.
Maybe this is all an American concept - the "I made an app to help us choose what to have to lunch together" thing on HN a few months ago gave me the same idea. I have never taken or left a job because of the 'perks'. I've absolutely left jobs because the work didn't interest me, or I wanted to do something else.
Honestly it's also hard to see how those sort of places will continue in the future as remote working becomes more common place.
1. I have a strong prior belief that most people at any company enjoy their jobs (otherwise they would leave). This includes companies like Goldman Sachs - most people there are probably super-competitive types that love "winning" and status and prestige and don't care about work life balance.
2. I have heard only positive things from people I know.
3. Every time there is a thread on HN about how bad it is to work at Google, the negative reviews are always from 1) people who never worked there or only interviewed there (you really cannot draw much impression about what it's like to work at a company from the interviews), or 2) the same group of disgruntled ex-employees.