'Awesome' is a word that's heard a whole lot at Google, a firm that has figured out that it takes more than peeled carrot sticks and massages to keep its 19,835 full-time employees worldwide happy - the last count as at the end of 2009.

Its total compensation package, rated coyly by Ms Robb as 'above industry average', includes stock options and medical benefits that, like large consulting firms, cover dental expenses and pay for a new set of contact lenses or spectacles.

(LEFT) The office is filled with Googlers seated side-by-side in low-partitioned cubicles.

Photo: Yen Meng Jin