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Google's Latest Hiring Perk

A few months ago I wrote a post about a news article saying Google was looking to hire. In my fantasy world, I considered how much fun it would be to relocate to San Francisco and never have to write another brief. Then I checked the job offers at Google, and concluded there was not a single one I was even remotely qualified for.

Now the New York Times reports on Google's latest perk: Shuttles to work. Turns out, this is becoming Google's biggest draw as an employer. Forget the Grateful Dead chef, the real perk is the free ride to work.

So who is qualified for these jobs? I love what I do but there are some days I can't help but wonder what it would be like to have a job that had set start and stop times - where when you leave for the day, you're done until the next one. Law is never like that. You get home and still work. You go to sleep worrying about if someone is going to get off or get five years or twenty years. It never stops.

Alas, there is still nothing I can find in Google's job database that I am qualified for. What a shame. I'd so be there in a minute. At least I would on a day like today when I spent 8 hours writing and submitting a brief the outcome of which will either get my client five or twenty years. It's midnight on a Friday night and I'm still worrying.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Not a nine-to-five job (5.00 / 2) (#2)
    by RSA on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 07:55:36 AM EST
    I can't help but wonder what it would be like to have a job that had set start and stop times - where when you leave for the day, you're done until the next one. Law is never like that. You get home and still work.

    Consider the kinds of researchers and engineers that Google is most attractive to--dedicated, creative people who thrive under the pressure of understanding and solving hard problems. They're not nine-to-fivers by nature.  While I can't imagine that Google requires people to work long hours, they've created an environment in which employees are perfectly happy to do so.  Think of it this way: The work habits you established in law school, including the long hours spent reading and thinking, have probably served you well in your career.  Grad school in computer science at a top university (i.e., where Google's founders came from) is not much different in this respect, and my impression is that that's where Google is getting its best people.

    Hardly 9 to 5 (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by jarober on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 09:54:48 AM EST
    In outfits like Google, the software developers are not 9 to 5 types - they tend to put in very, very long hours.  I work in the software industry, and I'd estimate that I put in between 50 and 70 hours a week. I expect that many people at the GooglePlex put in more than that.

    I checked that list too (none / 0) (#1)
    by Maggie Mae on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 01:48:20 AM EST
    Nothing for me either.  I'd give anything to love my job.  Right now, I just love when I'm finished at the end of the week and I have set start and stop times!  The dream is nice, though. ;)

    Props respect.... (none / 0) (#3)
    by kdog on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 09:13:17 AM EST
    I must admit I have great respect for the pressure defense lawyers must work under.  

    When I make a mistake at my job, a construction project or necessary repairs in a commercial space might get delayed.  No big deal, not the end of the world.

    But if a defense lawyer makes a mistake, somebody goes to jail.  Or my sister the nurse, she makes a mistake somebody might die.  That's pressure I'm glad I don't have to deal with.  

    Though on the flip...I will never experience the joy of my job preserving a life, or preserving someones freedom.  That's gotta feel good.

    TL - Enjoy it while you can (none / 0) (#4)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 09:20:33 AM EST
    you will miss it very much when it is gone.

    I didn't to make light of Engineer's jobs (none / 0) (#6)
    by Jeralyn on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 10:10:05 AM EST
    I wasn't even thinking of those since I don't have that kind of background. I was thinking more of surfing the internet, fact checking, checking what the competition is doing, coming up with ideas for new products and services -- not implementing them.

    Stay a lawyer. (none / 0) (#7)
    by Cassius Chaerea on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 12:09:27 PM EST
    These Google employees, who are the elite of their profession, make less than first-year law firm associates, work just as hard, and risk losing their profession altogether to outsourced labor. Anyone in college today would be insane to choose technology over law - even if you wanted to work for Google, which has and will still have the need for lawyers long after the current group of engineers are gone.

    Boring (none / 0) (#8)
    by chemoelectric on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 03:04:56 PM EST
    Though there is, ironically, a guy with the same name as me who blogs about search engines, I would spend all day wishing I were doing something else, and certainly not overdosing on Mountain Dew like my colleagues.

    There's a reason for all the perks (none / 0) (#9)
    by s5 on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 03:41:54 PM EST
    I live in San Francisco and work in the tech industry, and there's a well-known reason why Google has so many fantastic perks: they don't want you to leave. Any of my friends who've worked at Google will go on and on about how great it is that they'll even do your dry cleaning and walk your dog and pick up your prescriptions, until they realize that the Google environment has been carefully engineered to replace your entire personal life. I'd say consider yourself lucky that you don't work there!

    oops (none / 0) (#10)
    by s5 on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 03:43:46 PM EST
    and by "they don't want you to leave" I mean "they don't want you to leave the office", not just leave the company.

    Parent
    But (none / 0) (#11)
    by squeaky on Sat Mar 10, 2007 at 03:46:19 PM EST
    aren't they simply meeting the need of many of their employees? My geek friends prefer working all the time. The things that bothers them the most are  details like cleaning clothes etc.

    Parent