Lessons learned, 10 years after moving to the US to join Google
It’s exactly 10 years since my first day at Google. What I’ve learnt:
3 min readJun 2, 2021
- In 2011 there was a career path for me, but I had to leave Chile to find it.
- There is a career path outside management: At Google I discovered that software engineers could keep moving forward without the need to become a manager.
- There are jobs that combine passions with skills: I wasn’t the best SWE at Google, but someone saw my passions and skills, and invited me to join Developer Relations.
- Know your strengths: Taking the Clifton StrengthsFinder test changed how I viewed myself. The results made sense, and gave me a way to communicate to others and myself who I was and what I could do.
- Know what you want to do: If I had to summarize the 3 things that have motivated me the most throughout life it’s Travel, Storytelling, and Analyzing Data. DevRel was the perfect fit for me.
- Choose a manager that values your strengths: You won’t always have a choice of who your next manager will be, but make sure to establish as early as possible what your strengths are and what you want to do.
- There is life outside Google: After almost 10 years at Google with 13 different managers, I finally had enough. I used all I had learned to find my new home at Snowflake, and it has proven to be the right choice.
- Making mistakes is ok: I’ve made people feel uncomfortable. I’ve missed deadlines. I should have replied to more emails and messages than I have. Hopefully my contributions have been bigger than my mistakes, and I’m grateful for everyone that has forgiven me.
- Learn from your own mistakes and shortcomings. Have empathy for those that are still learning from their own.
- Showing up and building relationships is more important than a plan: I never planned to move to the US, join Google, nor DevRel, nor Snowflake. All these happened thanks to friends that I made along the way. I’m grateful to them for opening doors and inviting me to join.
- Pay it forward. Open doors. Share what you learned. Understand that everyone has different strengths. Forgive.
