When I started in 2009, "I work at Google" was something you could brag about at parties. Had a coworker get stopped by TSA and then told "I love what your employer does" before being waved through (that sentence sounds a lot more ominous in 2020 than 2009). I'd have people cold-email saying that it's their life's goal to get into Google and could I please share some tips about how I did it.
It's not like that anymore. My wife gets more party-cred by saying she works in climate change than I do at Google. Largely I shut up about it now, because there are people who will hate you for it. It's just a job - a high-paying, relatively cushy one, but not something where you can claim you're changing the world for the better like you could in the mid-00s.
Pretty much true of any job depending on the audience. Even my shitty job would probably have some haters.
Otherwise, to non-tech laypeople and average SWEs, I'd say anyone who is a SWE at Google or any FAANG(MULA+) are held in extremely high regard and awe.
It probably has lost a bit of its shine to be honest. But it's still exceptionally shiny if you compare it to what else is out there. Remember the overwhelming majority of SWEs are not employed at FAANG or other top tech companies. They're employed at places like Wells Fargo or Home Depot or Bank of America. These people would be jumping up and down ecstatic to be offered a chance to work at Google.
If there is one company that seems to have lost a lot of shine for a SWE career in the past few years, I'd say it's Amazon?
there are some people who are apologetic that they've worked at FAANGMULA+ like Tristan Harris at google, susan fowler at uber
I think you really should watch Tristan documentary the social dilemma to see what many "lay people" think (the opposite of high regard and awe)
Faang companies impact Is not equal
Facebook is not apple and not google.
Working on Facebook Oculus is in no way equivalent to the culture surrounding google's deep mind.
They are serving drastically different communities.
I think people who are truly conscientious will not care about branding as much as the value of the work they are producing, they will be able to think about it objectively separate from the company brand, they will be okay with working without a big name, and no attention because they trust their own judgment.
this is precisely why I still believe startups have more potential energy than established corporations, regardless of what the cynics think.
when I see anyone thinking about glitz and glamour before what they will actually be doing, I lose trust in their judgment.
impact on project > company brand
Then "Don't be evil" went away. Now it's just an evil company with employees that use this weird tone of voice to talk down to everyone else.
Sorry for the silly joke, I'll get off your lawn.
Also, lucking out on crypto or having many followers on social media are absolutely "selective" processes in that the sense that not everybody who attempts them succeeds. Typically, the people who value those activities consider it "skill" when someone's selected, while other bystanders consider it "luck". But that goes for corporate hiring as well; a lot of people consider passing the Google interviews to be just a matter of luck.
YouTube influencer would probably impress more people. That's just the way it is.
However, it's definitely lost its lustre. In the bay area software world it can sometimes feel like everybody works at or has worked at Google (obviously not literally, but ex-Googlers are ubiquitous).
If they are headhunters, they are mostly thinking about the dollar sign rather than the prestige. Most headhunters get 20-25% of your annual salary if they can place you somewhere else. And don't forget, they are competing with other headhunters as well. So someone from Google will get a easy yes and a nice fat paycheck.
1) I had to spent hours fixing a bug for an open source plugin that Google develops. The bug had a ticket that has been open for over 1 year and an existing pull requests from outside developers that provided the fix. The ticket was just left untouched even though they acknowledge the bug was critical and common usage for developers.
2) I had to deal with horrible Google Support that was of no help and wasted my time. They provided responses which was clearly wrong and doubled down. They also used coded words to tell me to bugger off. I am having to power through multiple emails to get them verify an app feature.
I feel Google has grown so big now that they can get away with being jerks. To me, its now just another large corporation that everyone has to deal with. I could only imagine the bureaucracy within. I wouldn't feel especially special for being an Google employee other than receiving a large paycheck. And I wouldn't even wink if someone told me they work for Google. Judging from comments from Google employees on Blind, my first thought would be that person probably has an ego.
Much more interesting and rewarding to work at small to mid size companies solving actual problems in industry and elsewhere.
Here’s the google trend for “Googler”: https://trends.google.fr/trends/explore?date=all&q=Googler
Peaked in 2012. That feels right.
Now it’s just a big company that pays well to still attract top people despite the well-known messy internal politics