[piaw]

Google is still the best big publicly held company in the valley to work for. I wrote this to guide the thousands of Googlers they'll add this year.

Having said that, I've been at well functioning startups, and I've been at Google. Google when I joined was better than many many startups. Google when I left was not so.

[moultano]

What I've noticed at Google is that there's really no comparison between teams. Different parts of the company might as well be entirely different companies, aside from a few common cultural attributes (flat hierarchy, data driven decision, and of course all the perks.)

The best piece of advice in there (I think) is to pick your team carefully, and more importantly, don't feel shy about switching if you aren't making headway.

[whatusername]

I think you'll find that is true for any company of sufficient size.