It did to me. I worked there for 12 years. It had immense prestige when I started the first time (2007) and it was totally justified. By the time I left (2021) it was a sad excuse for an employer. Terrible managers (that's you Megan K), constantly misleading information from leadership (that's you, Jeff dean), lack of ethical and human behavior from leadership (lookin' at you Megan K) lack of resources for high priority projects (that's you Urs), slow reduction in benefits (that's you, Ruth Porat).
Props to You!. Very rare these days to see people just speak their honest mind anywhere, not just here on HN. I had an interview scheduled for July 2020. COVID hit and my plans changed and since then pivoted multiple times towards finally settling down on a niche where I have someone on the inside to help me out with MVP development.
It's still top-tier, but it's no longer something people aspire to as a life goal, just another big company that pays well, works on challenging projects, and has a good reputation on resumes. It's sort of like Microsoft in 1995, or Goldman Sachs in the financial industry, or McKinsey in consulting, or Proctor & Gamble or Coca-Cola in consumer marketing, or Boeing in aerospace.
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.
I work for an Automotive OEM in Infotainment. The first question I get is “Do you get a free car?” And the second is “Car infotainment systems suck, why don’t you just switch to CarPlay?”
I work in finance. People want stock tips all the time. One, I'm not licensed to give advice. Two, do you think I'd be working this job if I could make a ton of money trading?
My honest is opinion is that the people inside Google often think it has more prestige than people outside Google. I have many friends that became oddly arrogant after joining.
Part of me wants a job with prestige just so I can acrew with the pompous people. Like if I had a doctorate - just call me by first name. Oh, this guy's an asshole - that's Dr x to you.
It shifts over time - prestige has a shelf-life of about 3-5 years. It was Google from ~2005-2009, Facebook from ~2009-2012, being a startup founder from 2012-2014, US Digital Service from 2014-2016, making shitloads of money off cryptocurrency speculation in 2017, being a YouTube/Instagram/TikTok influencer from ~2017-2020, working on COVID tests or vaccines in 2020. I think it's now climate change - basically anything related to renewable energy, carbon capture, energy savings, etc. Other hot areas include real estate, cryptocurrency speculation, politics, and (still) being a YouTube/Instagram/TikTok star.
I don't think that anything you listed after Facebook was ever that prestigious, certainly not the cryptocurrency or influencer stuff. Prestigious places are prestigious mostly because they are selective in addition to the type of opportunities they offer. There's nothing selective about lucking out on crypto in a bull market or about having many followers on social media.
I think another phenomena is that after (and perhaps because of) Facebook, the definition of "prestigious" fragmented. People today don't agree on what's prestigious, because they have different values and different subcultures. In some circles Google is still prestigious; in others, they are literally the devil. So you might be looking at a job for prestige, but for many younger people, the roles they hold prestigious are various forms of entrepreneurship or public service.
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.
I know quite a lot of people working in research relating to vaccines / viruses and in climate change e.g. glaciology, just because I happen to live near a large UK university. They are regularly quoted in journals and one friend is regularly interviewed by Sky / BBC etc. While I think it's kind of cool, I'm not sure they'd be viewed in that way by the general population. The probably get paid 10% of what people get at Google / Facebook.
YouTube influencer would probably impress more people. That's just the way it is.
I would be more impressed meeting someone who works at Snowflake, MongoDB, or some other high flyer. Especially living in the Bay every other person I meet works at a FAANG company.
It did in my mind at least. Before college, I imagined it as some utopia that could be someone's life goal to work at. Now, I've heard from friends, read stories, even interviewed there. It definitely lost its lust for me.
Maybe in the small circle of elite SWEs; the ones that can get easily get offers from multiple (or all?) letters of FAANG?
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?
I don't held them in awe or find them or people they employ anything special. But the pay sure would be nice and I would probably take the job only for that.
there are people who will actually look down on you if you work at certain big name tech companies,
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.
To me the idea of working at Google probably feels like working at Exxon 20 years ago. A large, dominant company with dwindling prestige that powers a large chunk of the world but in 20 years will be commonly despised. I feel the same way about Facebook.
At the risk of going off-topic, I would remark that prestige is kind of meaningless and doesn't even fetch $1.99/lb on ebay. If you are asking this question because you are looking for a job, I would recommend following the gradient of your bank account and ignoring prestige. If the gradient of your bank account points to Google, good for you.
If I were to work there, I'd have be completely afraid to express any opinion outside of my scope of work, and I'd completely nuke my social media accounts and history to the full extent possible. I'd be in it for the money, only.
It seems to have prestige with recruiters. When I was at Google I got several LinkedIn spams per week, sometimes multiple in a day. Whereas I got a lot fewer spams when working at Square. It pays well enough to be a great part of a career path if you can get through the hot mess of an interview process (which often takes multiple tries).
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.
For me, as a developer, it's a yes. Just this week:
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.
For me none of the FAANG are as prestigious as I used to think. They’re solving some interesting problems for sure, but for what end goal? Money is easy to make, and I’m not interested in giving my skills and time to these companies. Easy money is the only reason to choose working at one of these companies (prerequisite that you are competent).
Much more interesting and rewarding to work at small to mid size companies solving actual problems in industry and elsewhere.
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[ 0.17 ms ] story [ 85.1 ms ] threadWhen 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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