5 Lessons on Career Growth From a Google Exec
For the past 10 years, I have been on an accelerated career growth path. I went from Jr. Engineer to Engineering Director, navigated through 2 acquisitions, held over 1000s interviews, and built teams and engineering organizations.
From my own experience and from the experience of helping other people develop their careers, I wanted to share 5 lessons that I found very useful and that will hopefully help you in your pursuit.
This article is based on my Medium Day talk that I held on the 12th of August.How to choose the right opportunities
Early in my career, I had to choose between staying at a well-paid engineering job with an internationally established company or joining a new risky hardware startup. Everybody was surprised I joined the startup given the fact that I am very risk-averse. But in my mind, it all made sense, as I found an asymmetric opportunity that had a good risk/reward ratio. Let me explain.
My desire at that point was to learn more about startups, so when the opportunity presented I had to weigh the risk/reward balance.
The downside was that I would be getting a 35% pay cut and I would most likely be out of a job in 1.5 years because most startups are risky.
The upside was that I would learn 10x more and get exposed to various parts of the business and communities plus not ignoring the slim chance of getting rich.
At that point, I had an asymmetric opportunity on my hands that had a manageable downside and a potentially unlimited upside. In the end, my choice has put me on the path I am today and turned out to be a good choice.
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