Recently, a product manager working at Meta, who had earlier worked at Google, said that while both firms were phenomenal technology companies where product managers can grow, it was Google that offered better work-life balance.
May 06, 2024 / 09:48 AM IST
Citing other differences between working at both companies, Daniel McKinnon felt that Meta was a more transparent organisation and added that the culture at Google was more reserved.
Any aspiring professional wishes to work for some of the best companies that offers competitive pay, work-life balance and overall stability.
Recently, a product manager working at Meta, who had earlier worked at Google, said that while both firms were ” phenomenal technology companies” where product managers can grow, it was Google that offered better work-life balance.
“Meta and Google are both phenomenal technology companies where great PMs can thrive. If you are looking for convexity and growth at the expense of stress and pressure, Meta is probably a better fit. If you would like to prioritize work-life balance, stability, and job security, Google could be a great place for you,” Daniel McKinnon, who worked at Meta between 2018 and 2022 and the moved to Google before returning to the former in February, wrote on his personal blog.
Citing other differences between working at both companies, McKinnon felt that Meta was a more transparent organisation and added that the culture at Google was more reserved.
“I think that transparency at both Google and Meta has declined, but Meta still feels like a flat, transparent organization. I regularly learn about other teams’ priorities through their Workplace posts and dashboards (and not infrequently contribute where I can) and have a good sense of what the company is up to. The expectation is that PMs lead frequent reviews up to the VP or C level and are held accountable for delivering on the conclusions.”
“Google culture is very reserved. Employees have often worked with each other for years and there is an expectation that impact will come over long periods of time if people avoid confrontation. Questioning priorities is generally not encouraged, which does tend to make for a more collegial work environment but can be frustrating for PMs who want to effect change,” he wrote in the blog.
Despite offering better work-life balance, McKinnon said it was harder to know the inside workings at Google as compared to Meta and added that Sundar Pichai did not provide answers in the same way as Mark Zuckerberg during Q&A sessions.
“It is much harder to find out what is going on inside of Google. Unlike Meta, where almost all important company information is posted to open Workplace groups, Google operates mostly via emails and chats, which aren’t particularly discoverable. At the top, I never felt like Sundar was able to candidly answer TGIF questions the way Mark does at Q&A.”
“And even within an org, it was never really clear to me how decisions were made or what work execs wanted out of their PM teams. In my 18 months at Google, I signed up for office hours with a VP a few times, but I rarely got any kind of leadership feedback on my work,” he wrote.
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