Facebookers especially love the generous benefits, like the industry-leading perks for parents
Facebook and Google have great perks — free food, a vibrant office environment, easy transportation to and from work — but Facebook trumps Google, especially in the parenthood department.
Facebook is one of the first companies to offer coverage of up to $20,000 for egg-freezing, it provides $4,000 in "Baby Cash" to employees with a newborn, and its employees love that they can enjoy parenthood on their terms, giving the tech company's maternity and paternity leave policies an almost perfect score on Glassdoor.
Current employees are particularly excited to report that Facebook makes its 17 weeks-paid-leave policy available to women and men, whereas Google offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave but between seven and 12 weeks of paternity leave.
Facebook offers a compelling case study for how companies can make parental-leave policies work.
Overall, Facebookers report on Glassdoor being happier with their benefits than Googlers.
"There is literally nothing bad about it — the perks and benefits are incredibly generous, and only get more so over time," writes a current employee in Menlo Park, California.
Smaller teams at Facebook means more room for growth
Another former Google employee says that Google is too big for most of the company's more than 60,000 employees to have a real impact. Facebook, however, employs a much smaller team of less than 24,000 people.
"Unless you are an amazingly talented engineer who gets to create something new, chances are you're simply a guy/girl with an oil can greasing the cogs of that machine," the former Google employee says.
And when it comes to moving up the ladder, Facebook employees report to Glassdoor that they have greater opportunities for growth. Compared to Googlers who feel satisfied in their ability to move up, Facebookers report that they are very satisfied with the career opportunities at Facebook.
The hiring process is less difficult at Facebook, which could be better for employees long-term
On Glassdoor, job candidates consistently rate Google's interview process as more difficult than Facebook's.
While it may seem counterintuitive that more competitive hiring practices could work against Google, an ex-employee explains that the tech giant has its pick of the best and brightest candidates and often hires them for lower-level jobs.
"There are students from top 10 colleges who are providing tech support for Google's ad products, or manually taking down flagged content from YouTube, or writing basic code to A|B test the color of a button on a site," the ex-employee says.
They consider their work more meaningful
"Does your work make the world a better place?" That's what PayScale asked Facebook and Google employees last year, and 81% of Facebook employees answered with a resounding yes. At Google, on the other hand, 67% of employees said they feel their work gives them meaning.
A former Googler cited one possible explanation on Quora: too many overqualified people.
"It can be tough to feel a sense of accomplishment about what you do, and that sense is actually quite important to the type of people who are ambitious enough to get over the Google hiring bar," they said.
They make more money than their Google counterparts
We know money isn't everything when it comes to job satisfaction — but it certainly helps.
In fact, while a higher salary won't necessarily boost your happiness, researchers from the University of British Columbia and Michigan State University found that people with higher incomes reported feeling less sad, something Facebook employees surely know well.
According to data gathered by Glassdoor, a software engineer at Facebook makes about $126,780 per year, while a software engineer at Google makes $126,733 per year.
On the lower end of the spectrum, a software engineering intern at Facebook makes about $7,080 a month, whereas a software engineering intern at Google makes $6,634.
Possibly because they get more freedom
Facebook trusts its people.
Don Faul, a former Facebook executive, told The Wall Street Journal that, compared to Google, which he says is more structured and places more importance on "manager" titles, Facebook employees are often placed in roles that cater to their strengths and are encouraged to question and criticize their managers.
And this kind of freedom is perhaps one of the best drivers for employee engagement.
"You get zero credit for your title," he said. "It's all about the quality of the work, the power of your conviction, and the ability to influence people."
Facebookers are happier to be there
Employees from both tech companies are pretty happy to be there, but Facebook has the edge over Google.
To find the companies with the most satisfied workers for its annual Employees' Choice Awards, Glassdoor scanned its massive database of company reviews and ratings from current and former employees.
Reviews include employees' opinions on some of the best reasons to work for their employer, any downsides, advice to management, and whether they'd recommend their employer to a friend, as well as ratings on how satisfied they are with their employer overall, their CEO, and key workplace attributes like career opportunities, compensation and benefits, culture, and values.
Based on employees' reviews, companies received overall ratings on a scale of one to five, with five representing the most satisfied employees.
Facebook scored 4.5 out of 5, while Google scored 4.4.
"Every morning when I go in, I feel like the luckiest guy on earth for ever landing a job here," writes a Facebook data scientist in Menlo Park, California, on Glassdoor.
"From its openness to its diversity, Facebook has truly surpassed all tech companies in terms of culture, perks, and employee lifestyle," a software engineer at Facebook in Menlo Park writes.
