Yes, perf is garbage and management is chaos, but let's be honest with ourselves. Four years' worth of GSUs oughta be enough for anybody.
"Devoted employee" followed by "expert at gaming the perf system" followed by "project cancelled and adrift" is, sadly, the normal progression for a Googler, from what I've seen.
No. Not even close. There's a reason it's called golden handcuffs. It all depends on where you are in life. If you have a mortgage, it won't be enough depending on the house you have. If you don't have a house, you will have a lot of FOMO. Big time.
It's all about pscyhology - you need exactly 0$ if you are dedicated and don't have dependencies. Ok, let's say just couple thousand for a room and food.
And the best thing to do after leaving a job at Google is to move somewhere cheaper!
"$640K in GSU over 4 years ought o be enough for anybody"
That's actually the ballpark for a senior engineer.
If author wanted to express this opinion I completely agree.
Stock compensation in the form of actual shares (not options) that vest over some time period.
Thanks a lot for the clarification!