As of today, I\u2019ve been employed by Google for fifteen years.<\/p>\r\n
As I\u2019ve written on past anniversaries, I had never previously stayed at any one company for more than five years. And when I started at Google, it wasn\u2019t a very good fit. (For example, at the time, I liked to refer to the company as \u201cthe largest collection of extrovert geeks in the known universe.\u201d I, an introvert, sometimes had a hard time dealing with that.) I almost quit at least twice in the first few months; in particular, the time that they told us we would have to share beds with co-workers on the mandatory companywide ski trip was very offputting. (I eventually got out of it by visiting my grandmother Helen for her birthday instead.)<\/p>\r\n
But over time, the company and I grew more compatible. It has made some deeply unfortunate missteps in recent years, and it still has a lot of work to do on (among other things) the employee-diversity front. But there\u2019s still a lot to like about it\u2014great people, amazing perks. Unless certain things get significantly worse, I expect to stick around for a while longer.<\/p>\r\n