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It's been 12 years since Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook out of his Harvard dorm room, and the company has come a long way since then.
For the past four years, Facebook has overtaken Google as the best place to work in the US on Business Insider's annual list. Google currently sits at No. 2

While both tech giants are considered to be great companies to work for, Facebook edges out Google in a number of head-to-head comparisons.

1. Facebook employee are happier

Employees from both tech companies are pretty happy to be there, but Facebook has the edge over Google with a satisfaction rating of 93% compared to Google's rating of 84%, according to employees who completed PayScale's survey.

2. They get more freedom

There are a lot of contributing factors to this high level of happiness, but one important reason stands out: Facebook trusts its people.

Don Faul, a former Facebook executive, recently 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."

3. They make more money

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.

On average an experienced employee at Facebook makes $135,000 compared to $133,000 at Google. And the social-media company typically pays 17% above market rates for its employees, while Google pays 10% above market.

Taking a closer look, according to data gathered by Glassdoor, an intern at Facebook makes almost $7,400 a month on average, while a Google intern makes closer to $7,200 a month.

4. They're less stressed

If you're in the market for a stress-free job, you'd be better off avoiding the tech industry altogether. But while it's unlikely for many techies to consider their jobs relaxing, more Facebook employees report low job-stress levels than any other tech company, including Google.

Despite stressors like product launches and "on-call duty," a two-week period a few times a year when engineers are responsible for keeping Facebook's service up and running around the clock, 11% of Facebook employees consider their jobs low-stress. Meanwhile, 9% of Google employees feel the same way.

5. They consider their work more meaningful

"Does your work make the world a better place?" That's what PayScale asked Facebook and Google employees, and 81% of Facebook employees answered with a resounding yes. At Google, on the other hand, 67% of employees 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.

6. The hiring process is less difficult

The hiring process is less difficult.Hiring at Google takes an average of six weeks, and job candidates consistently rate on Glassdoor 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.

7. A smaller team means more room for growth

Another former Google employee says that Google is too big for most of the company's 53,000 employees to have a real impact. Facebook, however, employs a much smaller team of about 10,000.

"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.

8. They love the generous benefits, especially for parents

Facebook and Google have great perks — free food, a vibrant office environment, easy transportation to and from work — but Facebook trumps Google 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 four-months-paid-leave policy available to women and men, whereas Google offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave but 12 weeks of paternity leave.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg cemented Facebook's status as a compelling case study for how to make parental-leave policies work last year when he took two months off to be with his newborn. Experts agree that taking parental leave from the top is key to seeing it trickle down.

And 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.