For sure, that's the upside of working there. Every aspect of my life outside of career satisfaction improved considerably - I relocated to the US, was able to buy a house, my work life balance got a lot better compared to working at startups, etc. But as a job in and of itself it was pretty lame (apart from a few periods that were fun). The thing is, I feel like that's true for most people there.
I've had that feeling as well, absolutely agree that people can feel that way at Google. Personally the feeling of ennui was much more at my previous jobs, and I expect will exist anywhere I go. I do see however people incredibly engaged. I think there's a ton of luck in terms of what team/product you're placed in.
Probably. But I feel like there's something in Google's current culture that leads to this. I've mostly had these conversations with people from the search and cloud PAs. Could be different in other orgs. Maybe I just got extremely lucky with my pre-Goog jobs that were ultra satisfying and challenging in a good way, I just had a blast coming to work every day and doing the work.
Another ex-Googler here. I never had a job that was ultra satisfying and challenging in a good way. The only way I got that was from my own projects / businesses. Maybe I got unlucky job-wise. Or maybe I'm an entrepreneur at heart, I think fundamentally I cannot be fully satisfied working on someone else's project.
Either way, at this point I think I've seen enough. I think I should minimize time working and maximize pay. Working remotely for G was pretty great. The work sucked but there was so little of it. If it weren't for mandatory RTO I'd still be there. I'm gonna see how FB compares.
I also find that the stress and the promo process creates an environment where people are aholes to each other, but using Googler Norms of social combat.
