Best Place to Work in Canada is Google Canada

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According to www.greatplacetowork.ca, the best place to work in Canada is with Google Canada. Google began life as a search engine and quickly built up a strong market share by delivering superior results. The company leveraged this into an online ad business and eventually had the funds to tackle other ventures, including the Android mobile operating system. The company has also expanded its website offerings dramatically as well. Google is a relatively young company, having been founded in 1997.

Google is a highly successful company in general. Its most recent financial figures show that the company earned net income of $9.7 billion on revenues of $37.9 billion in fiscal year 2011 (2011 Google Form 10-K). The company has on its balance sheet over $44 billion in cash and equivalents, compared with just under $3 billion in long-term debt. Google has exceptional financial strength. The company's stock price currently sits at $596.33, giving the company a price/earnings ratio of 20 times, indicating only moderate growth prospects for the firm, according to the market (MSN MoneyCentral, 2012).

Google is headquartered in Mountain View, California, which is in the Silicon Valley. The company has over 32,000 employees worldwide (MSN MoneyCentral, 2012), of which only 150 work in Canada. The company's current products are primarily its website, its advertising business and Android. The latter two are the biggest income sources for the company. Google's advertising business is relatively stable, while Android is a young product that is rapidly growing by gaining share in an already hot market. The CEO of Google is co-founder Larry Page. Other key officers are Patrick Pichette, CFO; Sergey Brin, co-founder and director; and Ben Fried, CIO.

The company usually gets in the news for its successes, but from time to time it faces controversy, for example in its dealings in China, where the company has faced difficulty with the local authorities (Efrati & Chao, 2012). This was a rare example of controversy for Google, but it is also a rare example of a corporation putting its values -- at least temporarily -- ahead of profit. That is also something that appeals to me.

Overall, Google would be a good employment choice for me. The company has generous benefits, but more importantly this is the right environment for me to work in. There are near limitless opportunities in Google for those who are willing to generate great ideas and see them through. The entrepreneurial culture of the firm and its commitment to openness of information are two attributes that I believe are a good fit for me. Additionally, I believe that the work hard/play hard ethic at Google fits with my lifestyle.

It is not a given that Google Canada would be the best place however. The Canadian subsidiary is small, with three offices, but the majority of the opportunities at the company lie in the U.S. This is somewhat unfortunate, but overall the company remains a good one to work for because of the fact that there are a lot of opportunities and Google is one of the strongest companies in the business world today. The future of the company is strong, given its financial strength and track record of dominating every industry in which it has operated. This is the kind of organization that shares my mindset and I feel that is something that is very important to me.