Google’s engineering culture

In this episode of The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast, Gergely Orosz and Elin Nilsson delve into Google's engineering culture, tech stack, and work environment. They discuss Google's massive scale, custom-built infrastructure (Borg, Piper, Critique), and unique approach to hiring and on-call responsibilities. The conversation covers Google's perks, compensation, performance reviews, and the "promotion-driven development" phenomenon. They also touch on Google's open-source contributions, internal mobility, and the shift in its culture, including the emphasis on profitability and the challenges of maintaining innovation at scale. The episode explores what makes Google special, who would be a good fit for its engineering roles, and the trade-offs of working at such a large, influential company.