How do you see your dream job? What do you value the most? Good salary? Nice working environment? Meeting great people? Or maybe some additional perks that employer would give you such as medical care, or access to hi-tech gadgets? There are companies that
offer it all!
The Fortune Magazine publishes the list of the best employers called "100 Best Companies to Work For" each year. Among such well known names as Dreamworks, Mercedes-Benz, Cisco, Hasbro and Starbucks there is one IT company well known for its web search engine -- Google. Actually it is in the top five of this ranking for the fourth time in a row.
Here is a nice video from 2007 when Google achieved the top of this ranking:
What makes this web search service provider so special? Everything begins with a simple philosophy -- "Don't be evil". Google has very specific criteria for hiring people -- not great work experience, zillions of professional certificates, etc. What makes a Googler (as Google employees refer themselves) is his or her passion and dedication for the job, work environment and -- most importantly -- for the people.
You can read more about Google philosophy at:
To give an example of "Don't be evil" philosophy: Each Google employee may spend 20% of the working time (fully paid of course) to work on his or her own project, which may have nothing to do with company's current development strategy. This is especially important for innovative knowledge workers, as it stimulates creativity and helps to avoid burnout, while keeping the team in shape and focused. On top of that, the company benefits by regularly having a few new products and services available. The most notable recent example of "20 percent time" at work is the Japan Crisis Response Page:
A lot of Googlers, firstly, those at the Tokyo office, but soon many more from around the world, devoted their time to setup a page which has up-to-minute information on the disaster and allows searching for missing persons.
How Google became one of the biggest players on the market, while keeping the great majority of its services, including the trademark search engine absolutely free, and not willing to charge for them in the future (that would certainly be evil!)? The answer is very simple -- well-designed business model which fits neatly to all those services. Only two of them make the most of Google earnings. They are: AdWords and AdSense, both aimed mostly at other businesses (which usually are willing to spend more than individuals). AdWords are simply the sponsored links which appear at the top of the search results and are highlighted. AdSense is a context-aware way of placing relevant sponsored links on web pages.
I would like to discuss:
What is in your opinion the best company to work for?
What makes a good employer and what is important for you in your career?
Is it possible to not be evil and still earn money not only in IT?
Do your current job have any special features that encourage you to be loyal employee?
It is hard to say what is best company to work for, becouse i haven't work in many companies, especially in such as google. But reading this article, I could say that working in google should be nice and pleasant.
ReplyDeleteTo be a good employer, the most important think is to like yours job and have passion. But in this times most of people works for money, they picking work with better salary. Despite the fact that people works for money, it is possible to have nice work, decent money and "not be evil".
Google is nice, I have seen only some pictures of the company before, and now I have full view with the movie you attached. Ofcourse it is specific company and it would be great to work there...
ReplyDeleteI think the best company to work for is the company that you would like to go there, do your job - do it with passion not as every day routine.
I like my job because I don't have to be there every day 8 hours - I just have to do my work. My employer doesn't care when and where I do this - but it must be done till the given deadline.
By the way third link doesn't work at least for me
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html
ReplyDeleteworks ;) ensure 'l' at the end of the file's extension
It would be nice to work at Google. The film shows that workers there are happy to work there, all the attractions are in place for free and can spend the whole day there. Probably there are also nursery for children that their mother could work. As for me, as a young person I would like to work in company who helps in employee career I mean training, courses and of course good atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDuring last lecture, the teacher of web-mining showed us how company Google look likes inside-referring “similar to power station”. Everyone was shocked what a huge place it is-we thought that is a small open space located in skyscraper (like most nowadays offices). Nothing more misleading.
ReplyDeleteIt`s hard to say who can we call “Perfect employer” but if I can wish that one would be a provider of a good salary, the company internal policy gives many possibilities to achieve more personal objectives, be promoted and self-happiness employee. It seems that Google can be titled exactly a Perfect Employer for me.
The question about “being evil” is misunderstanding because skills decide about who you are and what kind of responsibilities you have and thus how much you earn.
I cannot complain for my current job and I have no reason to be disloyal. I won`t hide working in Google place is my dream. Sometimes dream comes true
We have to bear in mind that each of us has a different view of work and conditions in workplace. The most important is to wake up each day and have a motivation to go to work.
It's just too good to be true :) too good...
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it all scary you a bit?
Maciej says that it's the most important thing to have the motivation to go to work. True. But this statement also contains one tiny detail I'd like to focus on...
You wake up, you go to work but eventually you leave it and come back home! What we could see in this first part of 'Working at Google' presentation is just a propaganda. Okay, it might be just my opinion :) maybe even too strong one.
But I simply take a view that mixing or combining the priavate life with the professional life is just sick! Where's the privacy? Where's your own life?
Your comment reminds me of my friend who was in Google Zurich on a summer internship. Once he came back, I was curious how Google really looked like. Everything what he said agreed with what you see in the video (that -- as you called it -- propaganda). Of course it seems to good to be true, so my first thought was that Google has a machine to erase and program memories. Google probably reprogrammed his brain before his return to protect their image and trade secrets :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with those above me that say that you have to like your job in order to be a good employee.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't like about most nine-to-five jobs is that most of the time you are doing nothing or browsing the Internet while waiting to be able to go home.
In my opinion the best companies to work for are small to medium sized ones which offer little redundancy at work. It is easier to be noticed by your boss for good performance.
I'd love to work in such brilliant system ;>
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Adam's post I started laughing. In my job, as an graphic designer and animator there is no such thing at work as "doing nothing while waiting to be able to go home" it sounds hilarous. I often have to stay after my work hours or give my work with me. A lot of people would love to find work where they will be paid for doing nothing.
I can add I prefer smaller firms than big companies, because companies are stresfull and they have a bad tendency to change workers in animals in rat race. You are only small, changeable puzzle in whole picture and really noone cares about you until you are powerfull. Of course behind this stay big money.
In smaller firms there is more family atmosphere and better connections with workmates.
But remember guys, we are in XXI century, we don't need to work whole life in one company! We can switch jobs and places freely as long as we have money and willing ;)
I thing that it is impossible to choose the best company to work for. It depends what we expect from our employer. There are three aspects important for me: good salary, nice people and opportunity to develop.
ReplyDeleteCurrently I work in big company. There are good and bad sides of this situation. What is positive? Working in place like this gives stability and safety, salary is always on time, there are plenty of trainings and lots of people to get to know. Although there are some negatives. Every worker is only a small part of big machine. Sometimes even your director doesn't know how you look like. If you don't mind this - big companies are for you ;)
The best company to work for is the one that gives you best financial benefits and perks, is not very stressful, does not need you to be available 24/7, gives you self-development opportunities and finally -- is well-known.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it's not the question of a company but of a job you're doing in a company. When you're doing something fulfilling and what you are really fond of, you often don't consider it a job. That's pretty optimistic but I don't need to work yet :)
As for being 'evil' and earning a lot -- there are many companies that are just exploiting the niches they've found. So you can earn money while not being evil, but you have to be creative and innovative.
The best company to work for is this one which gives you many opportunities to widen knowledge, gives you good salary, gives you good condition and work with good people.
ReplyDeleteGood employer should be nice, friendly, can talk with employee, be open for workers needs.
I don't understand 3rd question...
Actually I don't work so I can't talk in this topic
In the third question, I mean: Is it possible for a company to be for example: socially responsible, offer free services, provide employees with perks and competitive salary and still manage to stay on the market, especially non-IT.
ReplyDelete