Could be great for many people - wasn't for me - Senior Account Manager Google Employee Review

3.0
Jan 23, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great pay and benefits. Office full to the brim with amenities. Despite tracking badge swipes to enforce hybrid work policies, my manager and team was very flexible. Work/life balance was some of the best I've experienced in ad tech. If you get your work done, no one cares very much where you are.

Cons

I can only speak to the Google Ads/DV360 side, but I felt extremely isolated. Virtually everyone that I worked directly with was distributed across the country, which felt at odds with the hybrid, 3 days a week in-office schedule. The people I sat alongside who were in my same role (or adjacent roles) were nice, but it didn't outweigh the fact that I was commuting just to send emails to colleagues and clients in other time zones. If I'm going to be in an office, I value community, and instead I felt totally anonymous. Nobody cared when I came and left which, while beneficial for doctor's appointments and the like, got old really quickly. I might as well have not been there. Additionally, I felt the culture prioritized and rewarded tenure above all. Granted, I recognize I was in a difficult position as the first new hire for my team in a few years. They had gone through rounds of layoffs in years prior. The next newest person on my team after me had at least 3-4 years of Google experience, and most on my team were nearing 7-10+ years. In my experience, the greater the tenure, the more people felt like they could talk down to you--never explicitly, but implicitly. I regularly had Account Executives on my team dictating emails for me to send to clients, completely overhauling decks I spend multiple days on, not looping me into important conversations, etc. It was as though I had no work experience prior to Google, like I just walked through those doors having never done any client-facing work. As if Google is some particularly special place--it didn't feel that special to me. I'm sure many people would enjoy this type of environment, but I did not.

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5.0
Jul 16, 2026
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Good pay and good benefits

Cons

Can be a stressful time during layoffs

4.0
Jun 21, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1) Food, food, food. 15+ cafes on main campus (MTV) alone. Mini-kitchens, snacks, drinks, free breakfast/lunch/dinner, all day, errr'day. 2) Benefits/perks. Free 24:7 gym access (on MTV campus). Free (self service) laundry (washer/dryer) available. Bowling alley. Volley ball pit. Custom-built and exclusive employee use only outdoor sport park (MTV). Free health/fitness assessments. Dog-friendly. Etc. etc. etc. 3) Compensation. In ~2010 or 2011, Google updated its compensation packages so that they were more competitive. 4) For the size of the organization (30K+), it has remained relatively innovative, nimble, and fast-paced and open with communication but, that is definitely changing (for the worse). 5) With so many departments, focus areas, and products, *in theory*, you should have plenty of opportunity to grow your career (horizontally or vertically). In practice, not true. 6) You get to work with some of the brightest, most innovative and hard-working/diligent minds in the industry. There's a "con" to that, too (see below).

Cons

1) Work/life balance. What balance? All those perks and benefits are an illusion. They keep you at work and they help you to be more productive. I've never met anybody at Google who actually time off on weekends or on vacations. You may not hear management say, "You have to work on weekends/vacations" but, they set the culture by doing so - and it inevitably trickles down. I don't know if Google inadvertently hires the work-a-holics or if they create work-a-holics in us. Regardless, I have seen way too many of the following: marriages fall apart, colleagues choosing work and projects over family, colleagues getting physically sick and ill because of stress, colleagues crying while at work because of the stress, colleagues shooting out emails at midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am. It is absolutely ridiculous and something needs to change. 2) Poor management. I think the issue is that, a majority of people love Google because they get to work on interesting technical problems - and these are the people that see little value in learning how to develop emotional intelligence. Perhaps they enjoy technical problems because people are too "difficult." People are promoted into management positions - not because they actually know how to lead/manage, but because they happen to be smart or because there is no other path to grow into. So there is a layer of intelligent individuals who are horrible managers and leaders. Yet, there is no value system to actually do anything about that because "emotional intelligence" or "adaptive leadership" are not taken seriously. 3) Jerks. Sure, there are a lot of brilliant people - but, sadly, there are also a lot of jerks (and, many times, they are one and the same). Years ago, that wasn't the case. I don't know if the pool of candidates is getting smaller, or maybe all the folks with great personalities cashed out and left, or maybe people are getting burned out and it's wearing on their personality and patience. I've heard stories of managers straight-up cussing out their employees and intimidating/scaring their employees into compliance. 4) It's a giant company now and, inevitably, it has become slower moving and is now layered with process and bureaucracy. So many political battles, empire building, territory grabbing. Google says, "Don't be evil." But, that practice doesn't seem to be put into place when it comes to internal practices. :(

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