As someone who has both looked for engineering jobs and also staffed engineers on my team in silicon valley, I'd suggest people to be a little less shallow about their employers.
Yes, you can work somewhere with free lunches/perks/nerf gun wars. However, you should always ask yourself 'Will working here make me a better person?'.
This could mean providing more financial stability or a huge boost to your resume via gaining expertise in a sought-after area. I hate the argument that 'If I work at Google, I'll be more marketable to future employers'. No...as someone who's hiring, I don't care if you were some guy/girl at google. If you worked on BigTable, awesome you're probably well-qualified for any job in that area and will be paid as much as you want. If you're employee number 70,001 and worked on designing icons for 'Google Trends', you shouldn't expect a huge payout at your next job for being 'Ex-Googler'
Working at a big-name tech company definitely makes you more marketable. It won't help you much, if at all, in the interview, but it will absolutely help you get your foot in the door. "If Google hired him, he's worth an interview" is a fairly rational thing to say, and a lot of employers say it.
So if your resume is lacking, that's not a bad reason to take a job. If your resume is already getting you interviews regularly, a job at Google might not help you much in your next job search.
I call bullshit on this one. Having a big-tech company on my resume has done nothing but send an endless stream of recruiters knocking on my door. Doesn't make getting a final offer any easier, but it has definitely improved my chances of getting the interview I want vs. just any old interview.
I always hear "Well if Google/Apple/FB are willing to hire you..."
"Having a big-tech company on my resume has done nothing but send an endless stream of recruiters knocking on my door"
I know plenty of people who didn't work at a Google/Apple/Facebook with an endless stream of recruiters chasing them. Maybe you have the type of background they're being paid to chase after.
"I always hear 'Well if Google/Apple/FB are willing to hire you...'"
If I hired the wrong person, 'well they worked at google' is a poor explanation for the hiring mistake. I'm sure working at Google can play to your advantage for higher level career goals and some people have done amazing things at Google. I just think people are over-estimating it.
Yes, you can work somewhere with free lunches/perks/nerf gun wars. However, you should always ask yourself 'Will working here make me a better person?'.
This could mean providing more financial stability or a huge boost to your resume via gaining expertise in a sought-after area. I hate the argument that 'If I work at Google, I'll be more marketable to future employers'. No...as someone who's hiring, I don't care if you were some guy/girl at google. If you worked on BigTable, awesome you're probably well-qualified for any job in that area and will be paid as much as you want. If you're employee number 70,001 and worked on designing icons for 'Google Trends', you shouldn't expect a huge payout at your next job for being 'Ex-Googler'