As all the publications say, Google is a fantastic company for whom to work. They have amazing R+D and projects happening all the time, because people dare to dream, pursue challenges, and are generally incentivized to be innovative. The perks are fantastic all around -- top notch free food, nice trips + events, car borrowing services, and of course the usual that we take for granted: good medical + dental insurance, 401k matching, etc... Lastly, everyone I've ever worked with at Google has been sharp as a tack. There is no doubt in my mind that Google is a great company with top notch people and a great work culture.
That said, however, many people wander into Google thinking it's entrepreneurial and a startup. This would be a mistake. As another review said, there is no way you can be a startup with 20k employees. There is no way with so many assets as a large public company you can not have bureaucracy and tons of processes. As a result, much of your time will be spent working through processes and bureaucracy, where at a much smaller company with fewer assets, you'd be able to accomplish more. Entrepreneurship by definition requires taking on risk for potential reward -- and, by trudging through so many processes, there really isn't that kind of risk at Google (or much reward).
While there's always a lot of cool R+D happening, most of the time the impact that one individual has is almost insignificant. It's hard to feel like you've really personally achieved something -- everyone is just a small piece of the pie. For those really itching to take on some risk for reward, Google is not the right place. But for those who want to work at a top notch company who builds great products and has a fantastic work environment, I can't think of any companies that beat Google.
