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Ask HN: Why would you turn down an offer from Google?

by tpinto on 12/21/10, 8:32 PM with 13 comments

• by samdk on 12/21/10, 9:31 PM

  Google might be a very nice place to work, but there are plenty of reasons one might not want to work there.

  Google might be a lot more dev-friendly than most big companies, but it's still a big company. Even at Google, that means you have to deal with bureaucracy, corporate politics, etc. It also means that the things you're doing might be shut down by management or just neglected. There's not nearly as much choice in terms of technologies you're using. Google also doesn't pay amazingly well either from what I've heard.

  And if you've managed to get an offer from Google, you probably have other options, too. Picking Google just because they're Google seems a bit short-sighted to me. There are very possibly other opportunities that are a better fit for you or that you might like more.

• by nostrademons on 12/21/10, 9:14 PM

  Why would you bash someone for turning down a job offer?

  The decision about where to work is very personal, and it includes a lot of factors that are hard enough to sort through when it's your own life and you have full information. Not everyone's going to be drawn to the most lucrative or most prestigious position.

• by cd34 on 12/21/10, 8:53 PM

  Why would you bash someone that doesn't share your desires?

  Some people may not want to be a minor influence on a large machine. Perhaps he didn't think his position there would have any measurable (or notable) impact and that wasn't what he wanted.

  Alternatively, ask him. He's the only one that knows the answer.

• by theBobMcCormick on 12/21/10, 8:52 PM

  Why would you automatically assume it's a mistake for him to turn down a job at Google (or Microsoft, or Apple, etc)?

  A job with Google, Microsoft, etc probably looks better than average on your resume when you're job hunting again in the future, but other than that I'm not sure why you'd evaluate it any differently than you would an offer from any other company.

• by bartonfink on 12/21/10, 9:12 PM

  Regardless of why he turned down the job, why would you bash or judge him at all? Especially since you aren't 100% sure that he doesn't have a good reason for turning the offer down, it doesn't seem productive at all to say anything bad about the guy.

• by byoung2 on 12/21/10, 8:41 PM

  It sounds glamorous going to work for Google and it definitely looks sexy on a resume, but if it's not a good fit for him, then the right thing to do is pass on it.

• by kd0amg on 12/21/10, 8:42 PM

  If it's for work I'm not interested in, in a place I'm not fond of, the name of the company making the offer likely isn't enough to hold my interest.

• by madhouse on 12/21/10, 9:28 PM

  Maybe you should ask this question from him.

  I could think of a million reasons not to want to work at Google, or any other major player, ranging from having to relocate through having a problem justifying working for a multi-national, huge company, to simply not liking the name.

  Or all of the above.

  Personally, I'd shake his hands for having the strength to say no.

• by pelf on 12/21/10, 8:45 PM

  I have no idea if any of the following applies in your friend's case, but there could be a number of factors influencing such decision:

    * family / friends / girlfriend
    * leaving his home country
    * having a nicer job
    * not being tempted by the challenge
    * not being tempted by the money
    * being scared of the big jump
  

  etc...

• by nRike on 12/22/10, 12:32 PM

  A student friend of mine was contacted to work in summer for Facebook, and she declined the offer for Microsoft internship program instead. I've asked why and she told me that Microsoft was their exact company where she wanted to work. She also worked in last summer in Redmond so she really enjoyed developing there.

  Also i've heard from the same girl that Google sucks hiring cool people, like a friend of she applied for Google and they contacted him 6 months later that he moved to SF to work for another company, from a 1 year of interviews. 4 years they called him again just to give feedback of the process.

• by booduh on 12/22/10, 12:52 AM

  I wish I did. But I fixed that problem. It isn't always as you read in the paper. Sometimes, for certain personalities or expectations, the place works overtime to make you a datapoint-- then to kiss you goodbye.

  Or, maybe they didn't pay enough.

• by RexRollman on 12/22/10, 11:52 AM

  It seems to me that life is more than just who you work for.

• by Rupeal on 12/21/10, 10:08 PM

  Not enough money.