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Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

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Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#41

Post by swimorsinka »

Yikes, you're giving me déjà vu. I did exactly what you're thinking of doing when I turned 25. Google was my first job out of school, and I worked there for 3 years. I also had a mentor at the time who was encouraging me to stick around.

I went off and did my own startup for 2.5 years, and then wound up crawling back to corporate America.

I believed in 'following my passion' when I left, and I definitely wasn't finding that at Google. After all, my last project there was building automated tools to serve legal requests for Google+ - not exactly what you have in mind when you join.

A couple of things I wish I had known when I left:

- Following your passion is bunk. Most people don't understand themselves well enough to know what they're passionate about. There are always going to be parts of jobs that you don't like, even when you're working on your own stuff. I actually found the percentage of dislike to increase when I was doing my own stuff - I had to do sales and marketing for my own company. I never had to worry about that at Google.

- A lot of people try to find some larger meaning for what they're working on. I always wanted to work on 'something really important', and I wasn't finding that at Google. Problem is there just aren't that many 'really important' things. Even if you work on phenomenally successful products like the iphone, you could argue that product did not make the world much better in any meaningful way. What's worse, 80% of software developers spend their careers making glorified CRUD apps, or worse.

But this problem goes away if you just drop your need for doing something important. Nowadays, I don't care about the larger meaning of what I'm doing. I don't get hung up on that mental argument. I just take immense pleasure in the craft of producing software. Writing code is wonderful - you get to solve puzzles all day and learn new things. If that code changes the world, then great, but I don't 'need' it anymore.

- Pay - quitting Google cost me 1/2 a million dollars. I didn't make squat in my startup over the next 2.5 years. When I went looking for a job (I'm in Colorado), I realized that Google pays in the 90th percentile, and it was hard to find companies who would match my former salary.

So in retrospect, I probably would have stayed and just worked on side projects to satisfy my curiosity while I continued to make bank at my day job.

There are many, many wonderful things about Google - the people are all super smart and competent, the internal systems rock, HR 'just works', things like expense reports aren't a pain in the ass, and you can go off and explore awesome internal technologies.

Yes, you might spend some time working on 'boring' stuff, but that's going to be true at any job.

Anyway, that's just me, and I have a ton of perspective. I never would have found that perspective if I hadn't quit, so everyone has to follow their own journey.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#42

Post by falsedan »

Re: starting your own company

Is there a problem which you see that no one is addressing? Please put aside software problems when considering this, since a start-up solving those sorts of problems is most likely to be acquired by a place like Google in 4-5 years, putting you in the same situation as you are now (perhaps with more money than if you stayed).

Have you worked at a small company? Are you excited to learn the skill necessary for running the day-to-day operations of a business?

Is there some subject that's always on your mind?

Do you have an idea who you want to help with your startup? Do you know anyone who matches your intended market? Can you think of a role or position that you could perform where you would meet more of your intended market (before starting your intended startup)?

Who in your professional network could you reach out to invite to work with you?

What's your goal? How much money? What will you do with your free time once you achieve it?

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#44

Post by goog_throwaway »

throwaway-1209 wrote: post #30
ksikka wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC Google is very open to internal transfers and theyou also have a 6 month grace period for you to return if you decide to leave.

There's no grace period as far as I know. That'd be stupid on their part: every keyboard jockey would immediately threaten to leave in hopes of getting a counter. Why not, if there's a "grace period"?Once you leave, there's no guarantee whatsoever that they'll want you back, even if you were doing well before you left. And that's by design.

When I left Google I was told I could come back within a year and not have to go through the full interview process. Just a few rounds of calls with recruiters a hiring manager. They apparently do this for anyone who goes out with high performance ratings on their last perf (Exceeds Expectations or greater).

Not a grace period per se, but pretty nice.

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#45

Post by tomerbd »

animex wrote: post #33

My question is: Have you stopped learning/growing at Google? Staying at Google is probably the safe path. But you're stuck at the Mothership; And as guilded the cage is, it's still a cage. I left my company and now enjoy my days visiting friends, family, biking, dog-walking etc. and work at nights (on the nights I want). My capacity to learn has increased 10-fold now that I'm not slogged down in a 9to5 job (I should…

may i ask which business pays your bill? could you share a link? how did you get to find paying customers?

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#46

Post by twelvenmonkeys »

animex wrote: post #33

My question is: Have you stopped learning/growing at Google? Staying at Google is probably the safe path. But you're stuck at the Mothership; And as guilded the cage is, it's still a cage. I left my company and now enjoy my days visiting friends, family, biking, dog-walking etc. and work at nights (on the nights I want). My capacity to learn has increased 10-fold now that I'm not slogged down in a 9to5 job (I should…

I'm curious as to what businesses you started? :) (email me! :D its in my profile)

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#48

Post by pizzadonut »

Worked for small software company for 4 years. wasn't interesting work but company was in Hawaii, so could surf every day. Travelled 8 months in SE Asia. Stayed home a while and 3 months in central American. I had some of the best times of my life. Not only fun, the culture is so different and amazing. Opens your mind in so many ways. The freedom of doing what you feel like without worrying of having to be at a job in a few weeks or months is priceless. 2 years after leaving my job, needing to find a job I feel like a have a huge gap in my CV. But it was totally worth it for me, maybe I didn't have prestigious job like yours but if you have worked for Google, you won't have any problem finding work if they don't want you back.

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#49

Post by falsedan »

throwaway-1209 wrote: post #34
jalayir wrote: post #2

> My mentor suggested to stay at Google until I find an interesting startup idea to work on. This is a sound piece of advice. However, it looks like you're very keen on traveling. Maybe you can take a 3-month unpaid sabbatical from Google, and see what it feels like?

Junior SWEs don't get a sabbatical, unpaid or otherwise.

How about plain-old unpaided leave?

Re: Ask HN: Why shouldn't I leave Google?

#50

Post by yongjik »

"Leaving Google because feeling unfulfilled" is one thing. "Starting one's own company" is another. "Spending 6 months in SE Asia" is yet another. They don't necessarily work together toward a common goal: you have to decide what is the most important to you.

If you decide to leave Google because you don't like it, then obviously that's up to you, but if you truly want to start your own company, you have a much better chance of coming up with a good idea (and skills/networks to make it happen) if you work at Google than if you're traveling the world. Honestly I'm not sure how the travel and doing startup is even related.

That said, you're young and if you're good you can always get back to Google (or another similar company). So there's no big harm in trying something different and seeing if it works.

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