The best job in the world?

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

You won’t believe this!

Regards,
Wayne

[Sonnie]

Almost too good to be true! Simply amazing!

[Josuah]

That's what it's like at Google, but you also have to realize the employees match a certain mindset. The Google engineers I met did not really live at home because breakfast, lunch, and dinner were free and thus it was expensive to buy your own food. Many of them would work on the weekends as well. But if you really like what you do and it matches what Google is looking for, it's exactly the sort of place you want to be.

I, unfortunately, like home too much and Google is a ~40minute commute each way. I couldn't build my home theater at Google. :P

It's not just the environment and perks. The culture is very unique. Many of the sorts of things you find at other places are not there and are designed to do things right.

[basementjack]

So Joshua, do you work for google?

[Sonnie]

Yeah... I agree Josuah... it takes a certain kind of person to want to work there. I could probably see more single people that are not homebodies being interested. I also saw a lot of young people in that video. It would not be for me.

[drf]

In Australia the closest thing to a job in Google would be unemployment benefits, you get rent assistance, food stamps, healthcare card ($4 prescriptions), medicare card ($10 doctor visits) discounts an all public transport and no rego fees (just compulsory Insurance).

[Josuah]

basementjack wrote:

So Joshua, do you work for google?

No, it's too far a commute and I don't really want to "live" there. The incentives are sort of set up that way. But they've tried to recruit me several times. The compensation and perks are still the best you can find, including stock options.

I work for Netflix. Not as "nice" as Google in terms of compensation and perks (Google will even drive you to and from work if you live in SF, with wireless on the bus so you can work during your commute), but still extremely good compared to many other companies.

[Sonnie]

I bet you never run out of movies to watch.

[basementjack]

Hey Neflix huh?

We need a Netflix powerbuy! unlimited movies for Shackmembers for $9.99 a month!

is Netflix affiliated with anyone that rents video games?

Thats the one thing thats kept me signing up for any of these online services - seems you can get games, or movies, but not both.

[Josuah]

Yeah, never run out of stuff to watch.

But no, Netflix isn't affiliated with anyone who rents video games. Video games have completely different rental behaviors and industry players. That's probably why it's hard to find an online service that does both. You'd basically be running two different businesses. Stores can do both because of right-of-first-sale. It's not like a Blockbuster store has 100 copies of a video game.

Anyway, all my posts are not official Netflix statements.

[Chrisbee]

The difference between Google and most other companies is that Google actually seems to believe in their employment strategies and so do their employees. It is a relationship based on a nod and a wink that all clearly understand. You produce and we'll pamper you because we can easily afford to.

Other companies just pay creative people to spread empty propaganda that their workers are happy. Then they wonder why they struggle to achieve success with a constantly high turnover of employees. The best workers quickly recognise the symptoms and move rapidly on to better things. The worst employees just hang around like millstones. They multiply into a dull, dumbed-down workforce which only produces when constantly nagged and supervised at every turn.

The whole system is now geared to drag back the company's performance as it staggers towards exporting production to Asia or Eastern Europe. Where the management makes exactly the same mistakes all over again.

You can fool some of the people some of the time...