Google vs Microsoft: Who would you rather work for?
I stumbled across this blog post from some anonymous person online and thought it was too interesting not to share. As someone who has played in both camps, I found the observations pretty profound. I think it would be very eye-opening to a lot of folks.
Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective
Excerpts…
Q: What are the office arrangements like? Do you have an office or cube space?
A: Google doesn’t seem to think that private offices are valuable for technical staff. They’re wrong.
Q: Do they actually have plans for career development?
A: Not really. There is no career development plan from individual contributor to manager. Basically if you get good reviews, you get more money and a fancier title (“Senior Software Engineer II”) but that’s about it.
Q: Who would you recommend Google to? Is it for the college kid or family type, worker bee or innovator?
A: College kids tend to like it because it’s just like college – all of their basic needs are taken care of. In fact, even most of your personal-life can get tied up in Google benefits. Google provides free or subsidized broadband to every employee. Google runs its own, private, bus lines in the Bay Area for employees. Google provides free or subsidized mobile phones. A college kid can literally join Google and, like they did as freshman at university, let Google take care of everything. Of course, if Google handles everything for you, it’s hard to think about leaving because of all the “stuff” you’ll need to transition and then manage for yourself.
Mid-timers, people who’ve worked at other places for a few years tend to be a mixed bag. For some, this is the first stability they’ve seen after a few failed startups. For others, this is the company that represents a “better” way to run a company than the company they worked at before. Either way, for these folks to succeed at Google they have to drink the cool-aid and duke it out with the college kids because Google doesn’t place any value on previous industry experience. (It puts tremendous value on degrees, especially Stanford ones).
“Old-timers” tend to like Google because they’re the ones who know to take the most advantage of the perks. These are the people who religiously take their 20% time, use as many of the services as possible, and focus on having a “peaceful” experience. They’re here to do a job, enjoy the perks, and that’s about it. They still put in a lot of hours, but the passion of the college kids isn’t there.
OTHER KEY INSIGHTS
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Google actually pays less salary than Microsoft.
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Google’s health insurance is actually not nearly as good as Microsoft’s.
Curious? Read more: Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective
One Response to “Google vs Microsoft: Who would you rather work for?”
By Daniel Sweet on Jun 30, 2007 | Reply
Just because I’m being ornery (that’s a Texan word…) today, allow me to make another comparison:
The benefits, work conditions, work availability, and pay are much worse as an actor than as a librarian. But there still a shortage of librarians and no shortage of actors.
Why do you think that might be?
I always think it’s ironic to hear these stories coming out of Microsoft. For those who can remember, Microsoft was the same way back in the early-to-mid 90’s. Less pay, worse hours, crappy vesting schedule, and Kool-Aid drinking was a requirement to work there. And, yet, people were flocking to work there.
Times change, eh?
Dan