Vantaggi
I have a lot of friends at Google, but I'm really glad I came here.
When I interviewed, I didn't really know what Magnetic does. As it turns out, ad tech -- as this industry is called -- is full of the kind of engineering challenges for which no really good solutions exist yet. It takes a huge amount of software and hardware to run the business. Small improvements in system performance wins new customers. This means unlimited opportunities to contribute and solve really hard problems.
The team is unusually diverse for software engineering: not just regionally/ethnically, but more importantly, with respect to gender and age. They have twenty-somethings, people with families, and senior staff with more than 30 years of engineering experience. This is a company with very strong technical leadership, but it's still small enough to reflect my contribution.
The atmosphere is professional, respectful, relaxed, and relatively free of politics. Refreshingly, the offices don't look like repurposed daycares. Egos are not encouraged. Tellingly, when people move on, they take them out to lunch or dinner to celebrate their career and contributions. This company has good bones.
Now that I've been there for 6 months, I feel comfortable saying: this is the best place I've ever worked. I am really glad I ended up here.
Svantaggi
For small company, it is really spread across timezones. (They have engineering offices in San Mateo, CA, Ann Arbor, MI, New York, and London.) This makes everyone heavily reliant on teleconferencing and the headaches it entails.