The major tech companies in general down-level you on the way in. It's because the skills that lead to success within Google and success elsewhere are different skillsets that intersect on common engineering skillsets.
I tend to think of it this way: Google has tens of thousands of engineers. That's an ecosystem the size of a few thousand startups, except stuffed into one company. It has its way of doing things, and to move up in this ecosystem you don't just master your own startup, you master the ecosystem around you.
I tend to think of it this way: Google has tens of thousands of engineers. That's an ecosystem the size of a few thousand startups, except stuffed into one company. It has its way of doing things, and to move up in this ecosystem you don't just master your own startup, you master the ecosystem around you.
That and a noticeable amount of elitism.