If anyone every wants to work at Google, he or she should head over to a Quora thread which spills some inside secrets about working for the company.
The thread drew the notice of Business Insider, which summarized some of the more interesting threads, including recruiting top-tier college graduates to do low-level jobs.
"There are students from top 10 colleges who are providing tech support for Google's ads products, or manually taking down flagged content from YouTube, or writing basic code to A|B test the color of a button on a site, " one poster wrote.
Another important aspect was that despite their ability, most of Google's engineers were considered arrogant and territorial, so there was rarely a conversation without some insults or derision.
"Objective discussions are pretty rare, since everybody's territorial, and not interested in opinions of other people," wrote another poster.
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Other topics included Google being so large and corporate that workers really couldn't make an impact, the tech company doesn't appreciate design and middle management is dull and uninspiring.
The atmosphere is also considered a little too partyish, with many young workers drinking, socializing and playing games rather than working, and if employees don't like that environment they can't choose to work remotely. Also, if you're a temp at Google, you are treated like an "inferior."
However, one of the biggest complaints was the small workspaces for workers -- frequently with three or four "employees to a single cube," one poster wrote. "With all the open areas for food, games, TV, tech talks, etc, it can be surprisingly hard to find a quiet, private place to think."
As for those trying to get jobs at Google, the posters say to get it all the perks and promises in writing. As one poster wrote, "Google make a lot of vague promises" which may never be forthcoming.
The revelations aren't surprising since it's well-known Google recruits heavily from top-tier universities and competition is fierce for each job. However, it is surprising that after more than a decade in business, the tech company hasn't realized that more diverse hires can create a stronger and better office and business dynamic. It may also lead to a more committed workforce without the drinking and playing games.
