Ask HN: Where should I work: Facebook or Google?

[newjobthrowaway]

I am choosing where to work between these two companies for my first job as a software engineer at a large tech company. The offers differ substantially in terms of dollars and cents, but I'd like to take that out of the equation for now. I know which team I'd be on at either company, and they are both excellent. This is a very difficult decision (albeit one I'm happy to be able to be making), so I'd love to hear HN's perspective.

[joelmaat]

You can try to get the company offering less money to beat the offer made by the other. If it's Facebook and Google, as you said, then this shouldn't be that difficult.

Google working on groundbreaking things (they are not) or Facebook having all these hot products that everyone wants to work on (they do not) doesn't mean anything if you aren't working on them. Look at what you'd be working on and the group you'd be working with and see which you'd prefer. If there isn't much difference between the projects, then go with the company paying more money.

As far as which company is more popular or the hotter place to work, I think that Facebook's "buzz" has waned enough that both companies are about equal, but Facebook may still have a slight edge in this area. Previously it was clearly Facebook, because Google was becoming stagnating big company wasting everyone's talent and Facebook was the pre-IPO "startup" where you could actually work on something important without all the politics, bullshitting, and churn. That is, what Google promised, only Facebook delivered.

You want to pick the company that allows you to learn and do as much as possible, not just fix bugs, and you want to avoid being around people that don't know what they are doing or that will try to get in your way. Usually at Google, all you'll end up doing is fixing bugs, or working on irrelevant projects, so this would cast a vote for working at Facebook, but I'm hearing the same situation may now exist at Facebook as well.

You can also check the reviews for each company on Glassdoor to see what employees are saying.

[newjobthrowaway]

Thanks for your input! Just a question - what do you mean by "they are not" and "they do not"?

[logn]

Well my opinion here really is just 2 cents, but you asked: I'd work at Google. When you get bored with social networking apps at Facebook, there's nowhere to hide. Google has attracted minds like Ray Kurzweil. They're working on world-changing problems.

That said, I could easily be proven wrong in 10 years, but by that time you'll be gone anyhow. Also, Facebook's scale has given rise to some interesting technologies such as Cassandra and various MapReduce technologies. Still, Google has more.

[eshvk]

Yes, Google is working on world changing problems. You are also incorrect in thinking that all Facebook is doing is work on social networking. They have so huge an engineering challenge that there are enough interesting problems.

However, the key issue in both companies is that they are both at such a huge scale that they have enough crud work that you might end up working in if you are a junior engineer. Just because some of the greatest problems are being worked on doesn't necessarily mean you will work on them.

[Peroni]

They're working on world-changing problems.

This is ultimately the best answer. Don't get me wrong, Facebook are a phenomenal company who genuinely do incredible things but from a long term perspective, the variety at Google is infinitely more valuable.

[moyajaya]

Try the following: http://www.quora.com/Which-is-better-to-work-for-Google-or-F...

The link provides Some great answers covering different points that might help give you the information you need without having to disclose more details here...

[newjobthrowaway]

I saw that, but it's hard to tell how dated the info is. The only answer that wasn't downvoted comes from a guy who hasn't been at Google since 2007 or Facebook since 2011.

[phasevar]

That's not really enough information for us to help you. The only differing factor you've given us is dollars and cents. So, in the absence of more information, I say go with the one that gives you more dollars and cents. Or choose the one that requires communicating the least amount of detail.

[newjobthrowaway]

I don't want to provide any identifying detail. I figured it might still be possible for people to generalize which is a more pleasant place to be an employee.

I will say that I am a software engineer.