"achieving really cool things in the [..] Ads [..] divisions"?
Come on, no need to fool anyone now that you are free.. There's nothing cool to be achieved in ads, unless you were working to dismantle the entire industry from the inside.
In terms of challenge and complexity? Sure!
It's the same thing as working in military tech. You shouldn't be a huge fan of blowing people to bits but the challenges and solutions are incredible.
Please stop demonizing the very thing you enjoy using. If not you then probably your parents, etc. Google became so valuable because it gives people a lot of value.
Yeah ok.
Look, there may have been a very brief time when Google was not part of the evil ad empire (maybe before the acquired Gator/Doubleclick/etc) and was in the business of relatively innocuous ad targeting.
NOT ANYMORE.