software engineer

operations associate

senior software engineer

system engineer

hardware engineer

Waymo

Your day-to-day tasks are typically easy, and you'll find that if you're familiar with the rules of the road, you'll rarely be intellectually engaged in your work. This means that if you're susceptible to boredom, you may struggle to stay awake during the day.

All employees in this position are contractors. By default, your contract will only last for 1 year, with the possibility of extending to an additional year. However, the criteria for what qualifies an employee for this extension are not clear. There are two different staffing agencies, which while they both have the same pay and similar benefits, have slightly different policies between them. This can make it difficult for coworkers to be on the same page, and can make getting answers to employment-related questions difficult, as you may often find that Waymo managers will refer you to your staffing agency, and your staffing agency will refer you back to Waymo managers. Also, because you are a contractor, there are certain benefits you will never see, such as any form of paid time off.

Scheduling is fairly flexible when you start your position. There are a lot of different shift options available. However, once you pick a shift, you may find that you're locked-in with this particular schedule for the remainder of your contract period. For some people, this can mean security in a comfortable work schedule, but for others this can be difficult if circumstances in your life require a long-term change in your schedule.

You're given a lot of freedom in this role, which can be a great relief to those coming from previous jobs with heavy-handed micromanagement. You're expected to perform your own performance evaluations regularly, and you aren't expected to restrict yourself to a normal, two fifteen-minute break schedule. You're allowed to take breaks whenever, as needed, and typically managers won't be concerned about this unless you are clearly taking advantage of that freedom.

There are also no hard-and-fast metrics that you're expected to meet. Managers will compare your performance among a team average and will offer you advice for areas of improvement, however because much of this project is still in very early development phases, it's impossible to set hard "goals" on these metrics, so you typically won't be penalized in any way in relation to your performance, as long as you're doing your job.

One thing the management has done well is hiring an amazing group of people. There is a lot of talent in this company, and a lot of wonderful personalities. Most of your coworkers are going to be great people who you'll definitely want to spend time with after work.

While most of the managers you'll interact with take a more laid-back, hands-off approach to their management style, you'll find that there is a lot of micromanagement in specific areas. It's not uncommon for some managers to sneak up behind you and watch what you're doing at your desk, and this contrast to the other, more birds-eye-view management styles, can be uncomfortable at times.

I have currently worked as a direct hire for about three years, I worked as a TVC before that (temp, vendor, contractor). The people are decent, I have not worked with or for anyone who is overly difficult. I like the work, there is a lot of it and the work is very challenging. The pace is fast and most of the time I am trying to juggle several issues at once, I multitask here more than any other job I've had, and I've had a lot of them, working mostly as a contractor over the course of my career, not necessarily by choice mind you. There are opportunities to advance if someone high up really likes you or if you're a Stanford, MIT, or similar grad. Or, if you have a PhD in something they really need, you can get hired on at a very high level. As for me, I have worked my tail off for years but I was "rewarded" by being put into a lower job classification than I deserve. While I am aware of a lot of people being promoted, some multiple times, that is not the case for me. To be fair, my education does not perfecly align with the job I am doing but I still completed three university degrees, which no one at my company cares about whatsoever. So, to summarize, if you have a GREAT undergraduate education, an ABET type or Computer Science degree, from a top university, you could get hired and most likely will be appreciated. If you do not have a top school education or if your degree does not completely align with the role you are trying for, you won't get into the company at all. I was only hired due to ideal timing. After working 18 months as a contractor I received a better job offer and gave my manager my notice of resignation, more time than is usually given. He responded that if he could get me a direct job there, would I be interested. I told him yes and I was hired on. I mentioned "ideal timing". We were at a very heavy workload at the time I gave notice, if I had left it might have delayed the parts I was working on, so they hired me. If not for the tight schedule and them needing me at that time, I do not believe they would have ever hired me. Waymo rarely hires anyone who works for them as a TVC. I was hoping I could land a direct job after proving myself as a contractor, that wasn't it. I was only hired because of potential schedule slips. It's a great place to work for most people. It was for me before I was demoted. Also, to be fair, a new company structure shuffled people into new roles and I was unfortunate enough to have someone, or some team, put me into a role that is incorrect. Even more unfortunate, that change is almost impossible to change back, so their new corporate role structure system is flawed, at least it is in my case.

Very cool place to work, being surrounded by cutting-edge tech. My direct supervisor was awesome, but increasing size of middle management, while somewhat understandable, can make you feel like a small fish. Contract work was interesting for about a year, then it becomes unchallenging and repetitious. TVCs converted to FTEs have limited career growth opportunities from this position. Compensation was decent, but competitors offered more.

Typical day:
Arrive at work, have breakfast, do work, have lunch, more work, meetings, finish work and submit reports, have dinner, go home.
Depending on your schedule, you may have time to go visit other Alphabet cafes, work out at the onsite gym, play games with colleagues, etc.

The job itself was fine at the start, however they went on a massive hiring spree hiring basically anyone with a heart beat. Tons of incompetent people that clearly couldn't handle what a basic job it was. Management clearly had ZERO qualifications to manage...Zero knowledge of how to run a shift, and would only get offended if you tried to help guide them when you yourself may have management experience. The only way to advance in the company is if you can become besties with someone higher up, provided they're not just using you as a stepping stone to move themselves up and leave you behind. Personally knew of people that did their jobs perfectly and let out the door at the end of their 2 year contracts only to see some non-deserving workers advance just because they knew someone that knew someone. On top of this all, the job itself is extremely easy, yet dispatch and shift managers make the job unbearable.

This place is nothing short of your A-typical workplace you’d imagine. Management is sleeping with employees, those employees get special treatment and higher roles. You’re treated like nothing more than a small part of a large machine. Your sole purpose in to provide data for the business and that’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re sick, tired, a family member died, you’re pregnant, come in and work, and give us the data we need. This place will rob you of your work like balance. This is a great place to work if you’re in a worst case scenario and need cash to hold you over. If at all possible, avoid waymo at all costs. Don’t sell your soul for a few more dimes. They provide you free unhealthy snacks, candy and monster energy drinks to stay awake, shut up and do your job. Very unhappy place to be. 

As a site coordinator this job is terrible. We are understaffed, overworked and burnt out. They keep pushing new directives on us without any training and just expect to figure it out. I can understand a job being fluid but this goes beyond that. This position is the same as one they're trying to phase out but for 6$ less per hour and less predictably. They pile new tasks on us and we have to beg for the tools to accomplish them. At least the coworkers are supportive. We all live in the misery together. But my mental health has never been worse. I've begged for transfers for other departments but even then the problems are similar. I'm ready to claw my way out of here

We have an amazing product which brings top talent and strong employees. The compensation and benefits are competitive although not as high as other tech companies. Unfortunately there's a definite "in crowd" that's difficult to penetrate, constant reorganizations, and lots of complexity and overhead to do anything. You're expected to do innovative work but only measurable outcomes are accessed (number of cls, issues fixed, etc). People with a reputation of "difficult to work with" continue to get promoted and put in positions of leadership. Managers with known issues stay in management. The entire office culture has grown gloomy and dark. It's been downhill with employees churn and loss of talent ever since I started. 

Overall fun place to work, myself and my trainer who is my best friend often would play a round or two of ping pong and air hockey. 

We were mainly hired through HCL so we weren't full Google Employees. HCL management was really poor and the management wasn't really there and weren't able to answer the basic questions. That is why management and job security is so low from my view. We were switched to HCL as the agency we were working for and from getting switched to them it has been a real struggle from us not receiving enough for wages for cost of living in the area, as well as not getting any kind of warning and notice about us being replaced.

Okay first off this will probably be the most challenging position you have ever had. Not from a work or task stand point but from parking to just finding s seat in the work area is difficult.  Then the work itself is so boring a d unstimulating it is hardly tolerable. Very little human interaction.  If you are some sort of hermit or recluse you could possibly enjoy working at a place like this. I would certainly explore my options before going to this place. Use it as a last resort only!!! 

This job sounded like it would be cool, but the actual work is boring and management has no idea what it is doing. The pay is low for the safety critical work you are doing, and they offer no benefits that you don't have to pay full cost for. There is no paid time off, and schedules are strict and inflexible. You will be working with young 20 somethings who spend the entire day gossiping and cracking off-color jokes in chat rooms and ignoring their actual jobs. The amount of safety violations you will see on a daily basis is embarrassing. I'd never ride in one of Waymo's self driving cars after seeing how completely incompetent their safety staff is.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 7 salaries reported	$202,857 per year
Operations associate 8 salaries reported	$26.38 per hour
Senior software engineer 9 salaries reported	$216,778 per year
System engineer 3 salaries reported	$231,000 per year
Hardware engineer 3 salaries reported	$239,667 per year

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