Is Google, as an employer, losing its prestige?

It did to me. I worked there for 12 years. It had immense prestige when I started the first time (2007) and it was totally justified. By the time I left (2021) it was a sad excuse for an employer. Terrible managers (that's you Megan K), constantly misleading information from leadership (that's you, Jeff dean), lack of ethical and human behavior from leadership (lookin' at you Megan K) lack of resources for high priority projects (that's you Urs), slow reduction in benefits (that's you, Ruth Porat).

It's still top-tier, but it's no longer something people aspire to as a life goal, just another big company that pays well, works on challenging projects, and has a good reputation on resumes. It's sort of like Microsoft in 1995, or Goldman Sachs in the financial industry, or McKinsey in consulting, or Proctor & Gamble or Coca-Cola in consumer marketing, or Boeing in aerospace.

When I started in 2009, "I work at Google" was something you could brag about at parties. Had a coworker get stopped by TSA and then told "I love what your employer does" before being waved through (that sentence sounds a lot more ominous in 2020 than 2009). I'd have people cold-email saying that it's their life's goal to get into Google and could I please share some tips about how I did it.

It's not like that anymore. My wife gets more party-cred by saying she works in climate change than I do at Google. Largely I shut up about it now, because there are people who will hate you for it. It's just a job - a high-paying, relatively cushy one, but not something where you can claim you're changing the world for the better like you could in the mid-00s.

My honest is opinion is that the people inside Google often think it has more prestige than people outside Google. I have many friends that became oddly arrogant after joining.

Maybe in the small circle of elite SWEs; the ones that can get easily get offers from multiple (or all?) letters of FAANG?

Otherwise, to non-tech laypeople and average SWEs, I'd say anyone who is a SWE at Google or any FAANG(MULA+) are held in extremely high regard and awe.

It probably has lost a bit of its shine to be honest. But it's still exceptionally shiny if you compare it to what else is out there. Remember the overwhelming majority of SWEs are not employed at FAANG or other top tech companies. They're employed at places like Wells Fargo or Home Depot or Bank of America. These people would be jumping up and down ecstatic to be offered a chance to work at Google.

If there is one company that seems to have lost a lot of shine for a SWE career in the past few years, I'd say it's Amazon?

To me the idea of working at Google probably feels like working at Exxon 20 years ago. A large, dominant company with dwindling prestige that powers a large chunk of the world but in 20 years will be commonly despised. I feel the same way about Facebook.

Yep. Seemed like it was going to be this benevolent futuristic software company back in the day. That's how they positioned themselves.

Then "Don't be evil" went away. Now it's just an evil company with employees that use this weird tone of voice to talk down to everyone else.

If Google isn't a prestigious employer, which companies are?

It seems to have prestige with recruiters. When I was at Google I got several LinkedIn spams per week, sometimes multiple in a day. Whereas I got a lot fewer spams when working at Square. It pays well enough to be a great part of a career path if you can get through the hot mess of an interview process (which often takes multiple tries).

However, it's definitely lost its lustre. In the bay area software world it can sometimes feel like everybody works at or has worked at Google (obviously not literally, but ex-Googlers are ubiquitous).

For me, as a developer, it's a yes. Just this week:

1) I had to spent hours fixing a bug for an open source plugin that Google develops. The bug had a ticket that has been open for over 1 year and an existing pull requests from outside developers that provided the fix. The ticket was just left untouched even though they acknowledge the bug was critical and common usage for developers.

2) I had to deal with horrible Google Support that was of no help and wasted my time. They provided responses which was clearly wrong and doubled down. They also used coded words to tell me to bugger off. I am having to power through multiple emails to get them verify an app feature.

I feel Google has grown so big now that they can get away with being jerks. To me, its now just another large corporation that everyone has to deal with. I could only imagine the bureaucracy within. I wouldn't feel especially special for being an Google employee other than receiving a large paycheck. And I wouldn't even wink if someone told me they work for Google. Judging from comments from Google employees on Blind, my first thought would be that person probably has an ego.

For me none of the FAANG are as prestigious as I used to think. They’re solving some interesting problems for sure, but for what end goal? Money is easy to make, and I’m not interested in giving my skills and time to these companies. Easy money is the only reason to choose working at one of these companies (prerequisite that you are competent).

Much more interesting and rewarding to work at small to mid size companies solving actual problems in industry and elsewhere.

It’s lost its prestige a while back.

Here’s the google trend for “Googler”: https://trends.google.fr/trends/explore?date=all&q=Googler

Peaked in 2012. That feels right.

Now it’s just a big company that pays well to still attract top people despite the well-known messy internal politics

At the risk of going off-topic, I would remark that prestige is kind of meaningless and doesn't even fetch $1.99/lb on ebay. If you are asking this question because you are looking for a job, I would recommend following the gradient of your bank account and ignoring prestige. If the gradient of your bank account points to Google, good for you.

It did in my mind at least. Before college, I imagined it as some utopia that could be someone's life goal to work at. Now, I've heard from friends, read stories, even interviewed there. It definitely lost its lust for me.

If I were to work there, I'd have be completely afraid to express any opinion outside of my scope of work, and I'd completely nuke my social media accounts and history to the full extent possible. I'd be in it for the money, only.