Filter Google culture for me

August 17, 2010 5:05 PM

What are Google's People Programs people like?

It is easy to find information about what it's like to work for Google as an engineer or product developer, but what is it like to work on Google's advertising, sales, and marketing side or in their "People Programs and Talent Management" division? Are these traditional salespeople and adpeople or do they also partake of Google's much-vaunted geeky culture?

posted by bad grammar to Work & Money (5 answers total)

I'm reading Googled right now, and although the author doesn't cover those aspects osf the business in much detail, it does give the sense that there is a definite heirarchy in the organization (engineers/tech people at the top). That said, they're all on the same campus, so geekiness may be encouraged.
posted by jeoc at 5:28 PM on August 17, 2010

If you're talking about the main CA campus, of course.
posted by jeoc at 5:29 PM on August 17, 2010

It's just one company with one set of benefits that apply to all employees. Different departments have slightly different policies - like 20% times makes less sense for non-engineers - but it's still one company. Everyone eats the same fancy food, everyone uses the same massage chairs and developers and non-devs get issued roughly the same laptops although developers get desktop boxes as well.
posted by GuyZero at 6:29 PM on August 17, 2010

I know quite a few sales and marketing people at Google. For the most part, they're pretty traditional sales and marketing people - for Silicon Valley as a whole. They tend not to be "suits," but they're driven by the same things that drive sales and marketing people in general - quotas, etc. I don't think they, by and large, take advantage of 20% time.

More of them tend to still have Windows laptops, too.
posted by me & my monkey at 6:38 PM on August 17, 2010

If by stereotypically geeky you mean badly dressed hermits then no, the 'people program people' don't take part in Google's geeky culture.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:41 PM on August 17, 2010