Just say "NO" to Google

Jun 27, 2007 14:27 GMT  ·  By

An internal email circulating over at Microsoft, reveals a unique perspective over what life is like at Google. An anonymous employee with the Redmond company has posted the email on a blog over at WordPress. The email is designed to share Microsoft's own insight and view over the Mountain View search giant Google. The email is nothing more than an interview done with a former Google employee. The story has its decent amount of meanders and is not without irony. It started with a Microsoft employee leaving the Redmond company to focus on a start-up. The new business put together was then subsequently acquired by Google. And as such its creator became a Google employee, with the following role Senior Software Engineer II / Technical Lead. Subsequently the person was yet again hired by Microsoft, after leaving Google this time, into ABC Development as a Sr.SDE.

"The culture at Google is very much like the old culture at Microsoft - back when the company felt like most employees were in their mid 20's. These kids don't have a life yet so they spend all of their time at work. Google provides nearly everything these people need from clothes (new T-shirts are placed in bins for people to grab *twice* a week!) to food - three, free, all-you-can-eat meals a day. Plus on-site health care, dental care, laundry service, gym, etc. Imagine going from college to this environment and you can see how much everyone works. People are generally in the building between 10am and about 6pm every day, but nearly everyone is on e-mail 24/7 and most people spend most of their evenings working from home," the email reveals.

If you want to get an insight into the inner workings of Google then make sure to read the entire Microsoft internal email. It looks not only at the Google culture, but also at the 20% time for personal projects policy, workspace design, management infrastructure, career evolution and even provides some advices for Microsoft, based on the Mountain View company's policies. "Google believes that developers are, with few exceptions, interchangeable parts. This philosophy shows through in their office arrangements which in Mountain View are all over the map. There are glass-walled offices, there are open-space areas, there are cubicles, there are people who's desks are literally in hallways because there's no room anywhere else" reads another excerpt of the email.