
Ask HN: Would you rather work at Google or Apple? - cynosurelabs
A friend of mine applied for Google and Apple job as a data scientist. Luckily, he was accepted in both and passed both Interviews. Trouble is he can&#x27;t make a choice on where to work. Please help.
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dontJudge
Compare:

pay + benefits - cost-of-living

Even if your biases about each company are generally accurate, they may not be
accurate for the wing of the company you will work in. I'd give priority to
your personal wealth.

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cynosurelabs
Strong point there. I'll have to do a little research to make a good decision.

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Bahamut
This is really only answerable by the person, but from what I have heard about
Apple and Google living halfway between both HQs in the Valley, I would lean
towards Google. They generally pay better from what I can tell, and seem to
have more respect for software. Apple also is not as friendly towards
supporting employee efforts in open source from what I understand as well. I
have heard some talk about unhealthy work-life balance at Apple as well,
although that appears to be a mixed bag (true for some, not others) - from
what I know about my friends at both employers, it feels like more work longer
at Apple than Google.

YMMV may vary of course, and these anecdotes may not necessarily even apply to
your friend.

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tedyoung
At most companies of the G or A size, it all depends on the team and manager,
as they'll define the day-to-day culture and work. Note that Apple is much,
much more siloed due to its secretive culture, and if talking about and open-
sourcing what one does is important, G is the much better choice. But mostly,
team and manager should be the deciding factor.

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akhalr
Overall they are both great companies and home to some very happy engineers.
What matters more is the team you'd be joining. My advice it to talk to the
hiring managers from each company and see who you think is better aligned to
your style of work. If you could visit them and meet the teams in person, that
would be even better, and chances are, you'd find this becoming a much simpler
decision.

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bitshepherd
I've been recruited by both and learned they both pay below market unless
you're in the top 1% and have a messianic-like following. My choice would be
neither, and find somewhere that pays more.

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bsvalley
What do you mean by top %1? If you worked at both you should have been in the
%1 category at some point right?

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bitshepherd
The last time I was recruited by a Google or an Apple, the offer was nearly
$30k below what I'm being paid now, and I'm not overpaid by any stretch. I'll
never be able to afford to buy a house or even think about starting a family
at these rates. For reference, I live in the Bay Area.

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bsvalley
You would make more money working at a bank in SF downtown rather than at
apple or google in south bay. Though, these two should give you a lot of RSU's
on the side. Which at the end of the year will put you up high.

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qns37
You must choose Google. They are "Too Big To Fail" and they are investing in
important future technologies, most importantly AI and robotics. Meanwhile
Apple is basically in the retail business.

Thousands of companies worldwide have built there SaaS products on Google
services and APIs. Nothing can touch Google.

Who cares if you make a couple of thousand dollars less from the median salary
if you work at Google? If you work at Google for five years you can write your
own ticket after that.

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dragonlord
I also love Google because they are supportive for their open source oriented
employees. Apple is a bit secretive.

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qns37
You go for the company that has the biggest growth potential, of course.

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bsvalley
Bad products VS products full of bugs... which one is which?

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richardfrenzy
Apple is one of the most expensive brands worldwide. I'd rather work for such
a brand. They've got iPhones, iPods and many other devices. Join me on team
Apple.

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cynosurelabs
I'd go with Google. No good reason at all, just gut instinct. Or maybe it's
because I'm an android programmer.What about you?

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dragonlord
I would also work for Google. I've always been mesmerized by their search
engine. Time to learn how it works.

~~~
adamnemecek
TL;DR square matrix exponentiation of a huuuuge matrix

