I’m happier after quitting my job at Google after 10 years

After leaving Google, I joined a small startup of 40 people.

goodbye google

A few months ago, I resigned from Google, where I worked for 10 years, to join a startup (Replit) with only 40 people.

At the time, I found it difficult to articulate why this change was made, even though I knew for sure. I’m writing this article to help myself sort this out.

I left because I needed to address work-life balance.

I joined Google in early 2011. At the time, Larry Page was just beginning his second term as CEO. Everyone was talking about a secret project called Emerald Sea (a few months later, it had a public name: Google+).

At the time, it was my dream job. In my opinion, Google is too good to be true. I have some incredible teammates and role models. My family’s financial situation has changed forever. I got fairly steady promotions, and my work schedule allowed me to keep improving.

But why am I not happy?

Someone once said to me that balance is like three buckets full of water. The first is career, the second is health, and the third is social and family life. At any one time a bucket may run out of water. But as long as the overall water level is high enough, everything will be fine.

Important: Water represents your satisfaction, not the time you spend.

It also explains how I got involved in the so-called Great Resignation Wave.

In 2020, the pandemic “destroyed” barrel 3 for most people. We are no exception. Friends in our hometown in Canada couldn’t come to visit us. Even meeting local friends has become difficult. In January 2021, I tore my Achilles while playing basketball. I also had a problem with barrel 2.

I didn’t realize until then that the water level in bucket 1 had also been low for a while.

“I’m so tired”

I’m tired until mid-2021.

I know it’s not just me, because it’s Google meme (we have an internal social network where “I’m so tired” becomes a dark joke).

It wasn’t until now that I realized what was wrong: I lost the satisfaction of building things and finishing projects.

At Google, getting a job done can be difficult. Projects require multiple teams to work together to succeed, so you have to do a lot of work up front to get everyone working together. But it also makes the project fragile. When any of these teams change direction, or simply go a little too far in their initial commitment, the project slows down or fails. (Alex Komoroske has a great explanation of this )

The incidence of this is on the rise for a number of reasons. Arguments between teams over project scope. Executives are not aligned in direction, but middle managers are smart, and they express it in OKR terms, so that both middle and senior managers think they got what they wanted. And the re-appointment and departure of middle managers means that the management chain for most people changes several times a year. In this way, the big resignation wave is like a flywheel.

For most of 2021, I’ve devoted my energy to protecting my team from the chaos. I hope they can complete the project we are looking forward to. Every day I guard against project adjustments or cancellations that may be caused by changes in the management of the surrounding teams.

In September, there was another wave of organizational adjustments. Even though I work less hours than before, I still feel exhausted. I decided that the best solution was to work in a small place so that none of these kinds of problems could exist.

After leaving, I joined a small company

In mid-2021, I discovered Replit through a few HackerNews posts and a tweet from Paul Graham (Godfather of Silicon Valley startups). I immediately understood the potential of this product.

Some of my initial visions for this type of product started appearing as actual features in their product. The CEO shares his views very openly on Twitter, and I find most of them I agree with.

When realizing I was leaving Google, I immediately contacted them.

I haven’t been coding regularly for about 5 years. But thankfully their interviews were practical. To be able to pass the interview, I used evenings and weekends to restore my skills.

When talking about offers, there are only three things I really care about:

• A role that interests me very much (it’s worth noting that for me a role is not the same as a title. I forgot to check the official title of the position, and when people asked me initially, I couldn’t answer (it was an “engineer” Position)).

• Enough salary to pay my bills (It sounds simple, but for a family of three living in the Bay Area, it’s no joke. When I was working at Google, that was about 85% of my salary.).

• Enough equity, if I’m right about what kind of business Replit could be, would give me an advantage over staying at Google. When I said “yes” to the offer, a sense of relief and excitement instantly enveloped me. I usually advise others to follow their intuition when making tough decisions. I am so happy that my inner voice is so clear.

Am I happier?

Am I happier? No doubt, yes.

I work longer hours. Now, the likelihood of me working nights or weekends has also increased. However, I can see the difference in what I’ve done. Progress feels 10 times faster.

Most surprisingly, I have more energy. I’m more motivated to go to the gym. I also have more energy to participate in social situations.

When a bucket is full, it overflows.

View the original English text: https://www.scottkennedy.us/balance.html

The text and pictures in this article are from InfoQ