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Ah the Perks of Working at Google…
By JLP | January 19, 2007
Google employees get lots of perks. All I can say is enjoy them while they last because once the company matures and can no long afford them, they’re GONE!
11 Free Gourmet Cafes on the campus
Free transportation via shuttles and buses and for those who drive: free car washes and oil changes
$2,000 for referring a person to work at Google (if they get hired)
A gym for workouts and other personal touches
They (Google) listen to your ideas
Topics: Miscellaneous | 5 Comments »
January 19th, 2007 at 4:50 am
We live just on the other side of the 101 freeway from Google, and sometimes walk to their campus as one of our weekend walks. It’s a nice place, and has livened up a part of Mountain View we used to call “The Boneyard” for all the empty buildings that were once full of fly-by-the-nighters, many of which are now full of Googlians. Some other interesting points: they’re across the street from Intuit, and Sun Microsystems’ old HQ is also nearby. The Computer History Museum is about six blocks away, and has “Google #1″ – it’s first server rack.
Note: I don’t actually work there; I work for a startup…
January 19th, 2007 at 9:33 am
I read this article in Fortune. I guess as far as jobs go it’s not too bad hey? I wonder what kind of hours the average person is putting?
They do you laundry, does that mean you don’t have time for it?
- Bryan
January 19th, 2007 at 9:39 am
One of our partner companies near by has similar perks – free food all day in the (really nice) cafe, laundry, gym, super nice offices. The downfall – they are expected to work 80 hours a week. Not worth it in my opinion.
January 19th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
The company’s a globally recognized brand that’s part of the S&P 500 – I’d say it’s fully mature.
That’s not to say there will never be a corporate belt-tightening, but they’ve explanded the number of perks since going public (not much shareholder pressure, I guess).
January 19th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Google only hires rock-stars, and they’re getting harder even for it to find since its gold-rush days are probably gone – it’s simply too big and heavily valued. So, Google’s management makes up for it with platinum benefits and some interesting strategies like huge cash bonuses for particular accomplishments (the article referred to them) that can be over $1M, even for non-executive employees. Hiring and retention are always Google’s biggest challenges according to its executives.
Really good engineers in the Valley typically want to work for pre-IPO (or at least pre-getting-bought) startups, where there’s a chance to get rich. Google’s past this phase, so it has to be creative.