Now here comes the big question of despite having so many perks why the employees quit? During our analysis and research we actually went to a lot of Internet search and blogs that talked about working at Google and to our surprise we saw that no other company has dedicated blogs or sites which said not to work there other than Google eg ‘no2google.wordpress.com’developed and managed by ex-Googlers.
To our surprise Google was everywhere compared with Microsoft and people said they were happy working for MS and one more fact was revelaed that a lot of people have worked with both of them, either they started with MS then switched to Google or vice versa.
Still what we found that MS was more positive in terms of reviews now we know we are challenging the Workplace of the Year choosen by Forbes but that’s what we found during our research.
Now the reasons behind the finding were:
1. Not keeping promises: We found that Google did not keep the promises it made hugely popular. The perks recieved were not as per the standards. Only the office infrastructure was the actual USP and that too not for all.
Here’s a statement we found to support it:
‘I was hired to work in Google’s Singapore office. I found out very
quickly that Google International is not the same as Google-US. The
offered pay was way too low to survive in Singapore, so I left after I
got another job offer that I felt was better for me. I really do
believe that Google is doing some important work with humanitarian
mapping projects and digitizing libraries. But for me, I felt that
Google’s popular image did not match its actions in the work place,
and that some of the things they did were not very “Googly.”’
2. 20% is your benefit and your responsibility : One of the most popular 20% time of Googlers for their personal project is a different reality altogether. Here’s the statement supporting it.
‘In other words, it’s your job to carve out 20% of your work week for a project. If you don’t carve out the time, you don’t get it. Your project needs to be tacitly approved by your manager. Whatever it is, is owned by Google. If you’re organized, you can “save up” your 20% and use it all at once. It’s not unheard of for people to have months and months of “20% time” saved up.’
3. No privacy: The Googleplex which boosts about its colourful lava lamps and ambience actually bugs a lot of people when it comes to their privacy issues and comfort to work. Although we agree it’s a breakthrough décor of the Googleplex but for techies its kinda too much disruptive as they require a lot more attention and precision to work with. The not so organized structure bugs some of them .
‘Google believes that developers are, with few exceptions, interchangeable parts. This philosophy shows through in their office arrangements which in Mountain View are all over the map. There are glass-walled offices, there are open-space areas, there are cubicles, there are people who’s desks are literally in hallways because there’s no room anywhere else. There are even buildings that experiment with no pre-defined workspaces or workstations – cogs (err, people?) just take one of the available machines and desks when they get to work.
In terms of employees per square-foot, every Microsoft Building 9-sized office is a triple at Google. Google doesn’t seem to think that private offices are valuable for technical staff. They’re wrong.’
4. Low Payscale: It was found that actually Google is not a paymaster. It only looked as if it payed well but after some research we found that the payscale was only good for freshers and some Top Execs but not for Middle Level Managers and Techies. The only thing they did were to provide a nicely crafted titles for employees that sounded good and different to pump in some pride in employees.
‘It took two months(lesser than others I guess) for my hiring process
to complete, and I made it clear that I had an offer from IBM in hand
which was paying me good … but I was offered the same salary as my
previous employer … which always kept me de-motivated throughout my
tenure. I joined the job due to company’s name and reputation as well
as I had the option to work in day shifts.’
5. Too much pressure on Employees: Google employees says that there to much pressure on them to be innovative and creative all the time and they say that Managers feel that all individuals should be equal in their competency and innovation without respecting their individual capability in consideration,
‘There was no proper mentoring for 6 months and within 9 months of my
tenure my manager was not happy with my performance, and mgmt always
stressed on “Putting some Extra Effort” - in other words “Spending
some extra hours” … this may not be the case at Google-MV but this
is what it is in India.
If you don’t put extra hours then you won’t get promoted, no promotion
means no salary hike.
I feel sad about my decision on choosing Google over IBM … Small
pay, No work, No Team spirit, No Hike in 12 months, No balance between
Family Life and work are few things which motivated my move out. I am
still jobless after 5 moths of leaving Google, but I am happy with my
decision(I feel like it is better be jobless than work for google as a
Field Tech).’
6. Too much informal culture: The ex googlers feels that the culture is only suited for Freshman and is too much casual which actually bugs people with Work Experience. Actually we found that all thius is because of the perks provided to the employees that actually make them stay at Googleplex for longer than required . Freshman kinda like it as they can lay on couches and surf net for free and have 3 meals a day. It all discourages them to go back home and they develop a habit to stay at the office unnecessarily which is not a good culture to promote.
‘College kids tend to like it because it’s just like college – all of their basic needs are taken care of. In fact, even most of your personal-life can get tied up in Google benefits. Google provides free or subsidized broadband to every employee. Google runs its own, private, bus lines in the Bay Area for employees. Google provides free or subsidized mobile phones. A college kid can literally join Google and, like they did as freshman at university, let Google take care of everything. Of course, if Google handles everything for you, it’s hard to think about leaving because of all the “stuff” you’ll need to transition and then manage for yourself.’
‘I think a lot of people
spent quite a bit of time either just before or just after dinner
hanging out and not really being all that productive, which is nice
for the mostly 20-something crowd, but I can sympathize with the
people who have families that didn’t fit in. I had my own reasons for
not wanting to hang out at work, so I never really got that far into
the Google social scene. And my experience was that the people who
spent all their time at Google were the ones that ended up on the
sexier projects or in charge of things. ’
7. Overqualified Employees: Now heres what this company always boosted about having quiet a qualified employee but in their perspective they were overqualified for the job they were doing. Now this always leaves a reason for them to quit.
‘There’s a huge
discrepancy between engineers and non-engineers. Most of the adwords
support people I talked to complained a lot about their situation.
Not only were they generally overqualified for the jobs (given what
the work actually was, but Google has always prided itself on having
people with extra education) but they could fairly easily have gotten
higher-paying jobs elsewhere. The usual reason for sticking around
that I heard was that after a few years at Google, their resume would
look a lot better on the job market.’
1.Kaboodle
2.MyItThings
3.Stylefeeder
4.Zebo
5.ProductWiki
6.ShopStyle
'Fashion is a factory that manufactures desires'
It would be foolish to underestimate the importance of fashion in a society. Clothes and accessories are expressions of how we feel, how we see ourselves- and how we wish to be treated by others. Fashion is too prevalent to be trivial. Even when you say you are not interested in fashion , you have been enforced to confront it. Fashion is everywhere. What you choose to wear or not to wear has become a political statement.
This identity is linked to brand values that have been communicated via marketing . Are you elegant, flighty, debonair, streetwise, intellectual, sexy ... or all above, depending on your mood? Dont worry Fashion has got everyone for you.
Over the last past decade or so, fashion has stolen into every corner of the urban landscape. Our mobile phones, our cars, our kitchens , our choice of media and places where we meet friends- these too have become subject to the vagaries of fashion. Its not enough to wear the clothes; you have to don that lifestyle too. Fashion brands have encouraged this development be adding their names to be a wide range of objects, fulfiling every imaginable function and selling them in stores that resemble theme parks.
People will go to any length to consume Fashion.
Michael Jackson’s final resting place will be a solid bronze, 14k Gold plated casket worth $25,000, featuring a plush blue velvet interior and a hand-polished, mirror finish. The casket, called Promethean was ordered last night from Batesville Casket Company and is quite similar to the one used to bury soul singer James Brown. Jackson’s funeral will be held at the Staples Center, the home of LA Lakers on the coming Tuesday.
If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.
There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.
Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open.
Chuck Norris can eat just one Lay's potato chip.
Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
Chuck Norris invented a language that incorporates karate and roundhouse kicks. So next time Chuck Norris is kicking your ass, don’t be offended or hurt, he may be just trying to tell you he likes your hat.
Most boots are made for walkin'. Chuck Norris' boots ain't that merciful.
Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because Chuck Norris only recognizes the element of surprise.
Q: How many Chuck Norris' does it take to change a light bulb? A: None, Chuck Norris prefers to kill in the dark.
Industrial logging isn't the cause of deforestation. Chuck Norris needs toothpicks.
Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
When Bruce Banner gets mad, he turns into the Hulk. When the Hulk gets mad, he turns into Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris once went skydiving, but promised never to do it again. One Grand Canyon is enough.
If you talk to someone who claims to work in Search or is an SEO expert ask them what you can Google to test their skills. What better test of search engine optimization than their name, in my case Eric Friedman.
Recently Google offered free cards promoting your Google Profile in conjunction with iPrint to produce the follow business cards:
Microsoft took the wraps off Bing, the rebranded and rebuilt search engine formerly code-named Kumo, designed to replace Live Search. It's a solid improvement over the previous search product, and it beats Google in important areas. It will help Microsoft gain share in the search business. It's surprisingly competitive with Google.
Superman has been the ultimate favourite with kids all over the world. He has become a household name over the ages. With spider-man and bat-man having done their jobs, its time for the super-cool superman to prove his mettle. ‘Superman returns’ will be releasing on June 30th. The costs by then will be reaching $300 million. Phew! I wonder how many supermen are returning with that much moolah invested. Originally it was $200m with first director McG before Bryan Singer took over. When Bryan took over they had to re-shoot. And now it's anywhere between $290m and $300m.Warner Brothers, the studio producing the film, claims the budget to actually be $204 million, but industry experts say that roughly $255 million has already been spent.
In point of fact it surpasses movies like spider-man, King Kong and titanic where the budget is concerned. Hope this magnum opus venture turns out to be a huge sensation. In any case the ‘superman sensation’ prevails!
1) Air France l'Espace Premiere lounge, Pa
2) American Airlines Flagship Lounge, New York
3) British Airways Concorde Room, London
4) Cathay Pacific The Pier, Hong Kong
5) Emirates Airlines Lounge, New York
6) Lufthansa First-Class Lounge, Frankfurt
7) Qantas First-Class Lounge, Sydney
8) Qatar Airways Premium Terminal, Doha
9) South African Airways Cycad First Class Lounge, Johannesburg
10) Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, London
Jenna Jameson, the world's most famous porn star, has done a far better job of exploiting herself than any sleazy peddler could hope to do. Since 1993 the onetime blonde (now brunette)bombshell has starred in 50-odd adult movies, selling millions of copies worldwide. Today thousands of members pay $35 a month for access to her Web site, ClubJenna.com, where they can linger over nude pictures of her, download her racy movies and read her lurid diary. Her fans can rent her digital moan as the ringer on their cell phones and buy Jenna sex toys, action figures--and even a piece of herself, molded in soft plastic, anatomically accurate and priced to move at $200.
But here's the weird part:Jenna Jameson hasn't had sex on-camera with a male partner (other than her husband) in seven years; better yet, she hopes to build her thriving business even bigger without ever again having video sex with anyone--male, female or herself. "Ialways wanted to be a star," says Jameson, 31. "I've always embraced my hard-core roots, but becoming a household name was an important thing to me."
She has transcended the sex trade to become a bona fide celebrity, hounded by the tabloids and fervid fans. Her memoir, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list last year. She has appeared 30 times on Howard Stern's radio show, most recently to disclaim a rumor that she was sleeping with Britney Spears, and had a small role in his 1997 film, Private Parts. She shows up on such TV talk shows as The O'Reilly Factor. The A&E network is looking at the just-completed pilot for her hoped-for reality series, and she wants to do a film on her life story.
Her holding company, ClubJenna, will hit revenues of $30 million this year, up 30% in a year; the profits may approach half of that. She owns and operates ClubJenna with her husband, Jay G. Grdina, a producer or director of 900 adult films. "This has developed from an individual star into a porn conglomerate," he says. "Her brand has been developed with the reputation of being the best, and now we are capitalizing on that and monetizing the name." They hope to move into Jenna-branded strip clubs, cosmetics, an apparel line and bejeweled sex toys.
Jameson says she has shot enough new hard-core footage with her husband (who performs under the name "Justin Sterling") to let them release a couple of Jenna flicks each year for a decade. The typical adult release sells 3,000 copies in the first month; a Jenna Jameson sells 50,000 at a retail price of $50 each. Moreover, she has lined up a stable of five new actresses to make films under the ClubJenna label, boosting her production from three films last year to a projected three dozen in 2005. The first release, which debuted late last year and stars Krystal Steal, features Jameson beside her on the cover and includes a tryst between them--and sold 30,000 copies in the first month.
"Not doing my movies doesn't mean retirement," Jameson says in an interview at her plush home in Scottsdale, Ariz. "It means more work--and more money." She pays her new stars a base of $50,000 to $150,000 a year, plus a 3% cut of any sales over the 10,000-copy mark. It is a rare setup in a business that releases 11,500 films a year, racking up $4 billion of a total $15 billion in U.S. sales of sex-related goods. Had Jameson herself gotten a cut of sales of her early films, she now would bring in an extra $750,000 a year.
The duo formed ClubJenna as an Internet porn company in 2000; ClubJenna.com was one of the first adult sites to feature fare beyond explicit picture and video content. Jenna provided diaries, advice on relationships and plastic surgery, even stock tips. They were profitable in their third week, but "Dot-com became dot-bomb pretty quickly," says Grdina, "so we decided to diversify." They began running other porn stars' Web sites and still run them for 16 actors, including all 5 ClubJenna women and Vivid Entertainment starlets Tera Patrick and Briana Banks. Web site management and membership fees make up $12 million, or 40%, of ClubJenna's annual revenue.
Vivid, the world's largest adult film company, with $100million in sales in 2004, distributes and markets ClubJenna films for a 30% cut of sales. The raunchy movies, which often feature bondage and have Jenna canoodling mightily with myriad women, make up one-third of total revenue and are the most profitable part of the business, earning net margins well above 50%. Briana Loves Jenna, co-produced with Vivid, cost $280,000 to make in 2001. It grossed over $1 million in its first year and still sells more than 3,000 copies a month. This month ClubJenna releases Jenna Loves Pain.
Jameson also is in a six-year contract with sex-toy maker Doc Johnson, getting a flat licensing fee plus a cut of sales. Jameson takes an active role in the design and marketing of all her toys, says Ronald Braverman, Doc Johnson's chief executive, who dispels any notion that Grdina controls the business and Jenna is simply a pretty face. "Some people might think Jenna is some blonde bimbo because of her films, but they are wrong," he says. "When we sit down for business meetings, she never leaves the room."
Now she is taking on the ever-growing cell phone market (see FORBES, May 23). Y-Tell, ClubJenna's wireless company, sells Jenna "moan tones," pictures, chat services and games in 50-50 partnerships with 20 carriers around the world. Jenna content is available to 35 million people acrossthe globe, mostly in Europe and South America. Grdina says there have been at least 4 million Jenna-related downloads, though the U.S. market has yet to catch fire.
Now we can imagine why she is the wealthiest of the Porn Stars?
Geologists place the age of the Earth at around 4.5 billion years. Grand Canyon Facts reveal that the oldest rock in the Inner Gorge is nearly 2 billion years old! The limestone that caps the rim of the Grand Canyon is a young 270 million years. The oldest human artifacts date back 12,000 years.
Can you imagine the persistence of the Colorado River to cut a canyon that is 4,000 feet deep for 277 miles, and digs down to 6,000 feet at its deepest and 15 miles at its widest? That's some river! It's hard to imagine how the Grand Canyon was formed by flowing water.
The Grand Canyon Sky Walk opened in March 2007. According to Grand Canyon Facts, it is an amazing feat of architecture, allowing you the feeling of floating over the depths as you look down through the glass-bottomed loop.
# Over 1,500 plant, 355 bird, 89 mammalian, 47 reptile, 9 amphibian, and 17 fish species are found in the park.
I think they are a comfortable and a nice alternative to our regular wardrobe.
They are smart , trendy and comfortable plus Monochrome is in this year so what are you waiting for , go grab one right now............
All About Kat
29 Random Facts
You just can't get enough of Kat, the Queen of Portraits. Well, today is your lucky day, buddy. We sat down with her and collected all the info that hard-core fans would wanna know.
1. Kat Von D stands for Katherine Von Drachenberg (my father is of German descent).
2. I speak fluent Spanish. It is my first language.
3. I dropped out of school, but I do not want to glorify that at all. I faced many, many downfalls.
4. My favorite tattoo artist is Kore Flatmo, who is based in Cincinnati. He tattooed the eyeball on my hand.
5. I am obsessed with photos of downtown L.A.
6. I have a brother and sister. I am close to both of them, and I have tattooed them both.
7. I have a tattoo portrait of my sister on my left arm.
8. I came to America when I was 4. I was born in Mexico.
9. Both of my parents are Argentinean.
10. The first tattoo I ever did was on a 14-year-old friend. It was of a Misfits skull.
11. In 2005, I got a chance to tattoo the Misfits drummer.
12. I love platform heels from the ‘70s.
13. I go to the movies all the time.
14. Favorite movies: The Devil’s Rejects, Zoolander, anything with Will Ferrell, Immortal Beloved, The Last Unicorn, Spinal Tap and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures.
15. Music is a huge part of my life. It influences my dress, my work … everything! I like everything from the New York Dolls to Slayer.
16. I love steak.
17. I never wanna have babies.
18. My favorite band is Motley Crüe. Seriously. But my favorite songs are by Beethoven.
19. My favorite Motley Crüe song is "Starry Eyes"; it's why I have stars on my face.
20. I own three pianos. One is in Dallas and the other two are in Hollywood.
21. I wear hair extensions (my hair is about shoulder length).
22. I love heavy metal, everything from glam to power metal.
23. I’m obsessed with Scandinavia, especially Finland. (I love the bands from there. I tattooed a Finnish band named Him and another named Bam Margera.)
24. I love glitter.
25. I own two sphinx cats (the hairless cats). One is named Hollywood and the other is Lebowski (Holly and Leebo).
26. I own a house in Dallas. I go there about once a month to tattoo.
27. I live in Hollywood, right in the center of everything. I can see the Chinese Theater from my apartment. I love L.A. and can’t see myself living anywhere else.
28. I love skateboarding. I skateboard to work all the time.
29. I am obsessed with Beethoven, and I have been playing classical piano since the age of 7. I love that Beethoven was a hopeless romantic, that he left everything he owned to the mysterious immortal beloved.
