What is the management structure like (hierarchy)?
There are front-line developers, and then their manager. My manager had over 100 direct reports and is the common case for managers at Google. Managers quasi-own products and their employees tend to work on their projects, but not always. It’s possible for a developer on your product to actually work for a manager in research (a completely different division). This makes it really interesting at review time. Oh and conflict resolution between team members is very complex – the product’s manager isn’t involved day-to-day, probably doesn’t actually manage all of the peers who are trying to resolve a conflict, and likely hasn’t spent any time with their employees anyway. The overall structure is: tons (a hundred or more) of individual contributors report to a middle manager who reports to a division v.p. who reports to the management team (Larry, Sergie, etc.) 5. Do they actually have plans for career development? Not really. There is no career development plan from individual contributor
