Scoring a job at Google is considered the ultimate feat. But for one longtime engineer, working at the tech giant is no longer worth the hype.
In a 5000-word blog post, former senior software engineer Steve Yegge, who previously worked at Amazon, says that his decision to leave the company came as a surprise even to him.
"I always thought I would die at Google — maybe choking to death on one of their free chocolate brownies," he writes. But after 13 years at the company, says Yegge, Google is no longer the innovative tech haven it once was.
CNBC has reached out to Google for comment.
Here are the five reasons he decided to leave the tech giant, according to Yegge's post:
1. 'They're conservative'
Yegge says that Google is extremely focused on protecting their technology and ideas. This has led to a fear of risk-taking, Yegge writes, which is essential to "real innovation."
"Gatekeeping and risk aversion at Google," he writes, "are the norm rather the exception."
2. 'They are mired in politics'
Yegge admits that company politics is pretty much unavoidable at any large corporation. Plus, he writes, it's better than its alternative: a dictatorship.
But even though politics within a company isn't all bad, according to Yegge, it does create a "cumbersome process."
"It slows you down and leads to execution problems," he writes.
3. 'Google is arrogant'
For the most part, Google employs humble individuals, writes Yegge, but the company as a whole is arrogant.
Yegge says that the tech giant's rapid rise to success has turned the organization into one that feels invincible.
So although the individual employees are extremely intelligent and "badass," he writes, the overall company suffers from "complacency, not-invented-here syndrome, loss of touch with customers [and] poor strategic decision-making."
4. 'Their attempts at innovation have been confusing'
Yegge says that anyone who's been following the tech giant has witnessed their many failed innovation attempts over the years.
"Google does all sorts of things these days that leave everyone scratching their heads," he writes.
He points to the company trying to force products on consumers, launching products that receive heavy criticism and getting rid of popular services.
The company's employees aren't blind to this conundrum either, according to the engineer. "Googlers know this is happening and are as frustrated by it as you are," writes Yegge, "but their leadership is failing them."
5. 'Google has become 100% competitor-focused'
Google's worst sin, says Yegge, is that they've shifted from focusing on the customer to focusing on the competition.
Yegge writes that Google has made a "weak attempt" to re-shift its focus back to the consumer with their new slogan: "Focus on the customer and all else will follow."
However, he writes that the company is all talk and no action because Google continues to incentivize a focus on what its competitors are doing.
"In short, Google just isn't a very inspiring place to work anymore," writes Yegge. "I love being fired up by my work, but Google had gradually beaten it out of me."
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See also:
Top Google recruiter: The most important skill you should have to score a position at the company
Top Amazon recruiter reveals how you can score a job at the company
Microsoft HR exec: These are the 3 skills you should have to score a job at the company
