Google

Overall the job is a great and challenging place to work. Because it is still a big company, there is a lot of politics and hassles around reviews.

Work Culture:

Positives were: laid back culture, lots of fun,social events, great FREE breakfust/lunches/dinners (in Mtn View office), free snacks, culture of work hard/play hard, generally nice, friendly people (in HR and other departments), huge egos among the engineers were a downside. There was a lot of drinking and alot of happy hours (almost too many) in the Santa Monica office. It kind of felt like high school where everyone wanted to fit in and you felt peer pressure to show up at all of these off-site, social events. Those who "socialized" more faired better in their jobs. Those who didn't were marginalized.

Staffing Salary Benefits:

Salary and benefits meet industry standards. Rock stars are rewarded handsomely. Stock allocations have dwindled substantially since the IPO and are not the goldmine they once were.

Job Security:

Job Security used to be much better than what it is now. Recruiting contracts have been shortened from 1 yr to 9 months and far fewer conversions to FTE are happening. For most existing Googlers terminations for cause are rare unless you're blatantly underperforming, but future layoffs could potentially be on the horizon as Google's stock continues to tank. Google has already been written up in Vallewag about allegedly laying off many recruiting contractors.

Career Growth:

Google has a thin layer and few levels of management so it is very difficult to have a career path of upward mobility there. This is even more magnified in remote offices. It's better suited for an engineer who wants to be an individual contributor and team player.

Managment:
As they say, your manager can make or break your experience.
Unfortunately I had a moody, emotionally unstable and volatile manager who was unprofessional and the king of office politics.

Overall Comments:
Google is a great place if you want to be surrounded by bright minds & soak up all of the perks and great company culture. I had tons of fun shooting pool, drinking mochas, and playing Guitar Hero. If gaining 15-30 lbs from all the free food/snacks is your goal this is place to be. Of course if you work in Mtn View you can work off the calories at the company gym. Workwise, if you're an engineer or product manager it will probably be rewarding and you'll learn a lot. There can be significant frustrations with the bureacracy/process that exists at Google, but at least you get a sense of organization and not controlled chaos. A lot of the engineers are very high maintenance and have huge egos sometimes to the point of being arrogant and condescending. It is difficult to hire people there because the standards for prospective engineers are exceedingly high. This is why so many Googler Engineers feel excessively proud to be "in the club," have a lot of loyalty and rarely leave (there is very low turnover). What I discovered is that the standard for recruiters who get hired as FTEs or converted from contractor to FTE is low. Many of the recruiters don't have college degrees or have degrees from unimpressive, less prestigious, lower-tiered schools. It is almost as though Staffing Management feels threatened by recruiters with brains who actually produce and don't engage in "rectal smooching". The "B" players in management tend to hire "C" players. For the most part people at Google are pretty cool, but like every company there are some very rotten apples. Just hope that one of these apples doesn't end up being your boss.

Google is an amazing place to work. You are surrounded by lots of skilled programmers. It's easy to bounce of ideas when your co-workers enjoy being there! The other benefit is that if and when you want to work at another place, having Google on your resume will do wonders.

The bad? the google 15!!
Oh and Mountain View isn't that exciting..

pretty awesome place to work. free food, video games and toys all over the place, countless seminars and web tutorials to help you learn cs concepts as well as various bits of google technology, etc. etc.