It’s a pretty short story…96 days short.
Last fall when I turned down two CPO roles at London startups and said yes to Google, I knew it was risky. Risky to go back to big tech, have a smaller remit, and build at a slower pace. But the promise of massive scale and solving a problem I had faced as a merchant of Google was more than I could ignore.
I said yes on the promise of 3 things:
- A product focused on solving a real customer problem
- A growing and challenging scope
- A team where every person was treated with dignity and respect, and valued for their contributions
I walked into Google a mere 10 days after 12000 layoffs were announced. The environment was heavy. Anger, uncertainty, and fear were as readily available as the free food in the cafeterias.
Promises made 4 months earlier became easy to break in the “current economic environment”.
Said simply, it was a very bad fit…both from an assignment perspective and culturally. A bad enough fit that I resigned before my probation period was up. (We forget that the probation period is for both sides not just the employer!)
Life is short. Far too short to be miserable. All the money in the world will never be worth my joy or integrity…not even Google money. 😉
Thank you and best wishes to the handful of people I met and connected with. You know who you are and I wish you the old Google culture and excellent stock prices in abundance. 💙