My last day at Google

Today is my last day at Google after six and a half years. I have my work laptop, work laptop and my badge and let's go do it. It took me three tries to get into Google. I remember the first time I applied and I got a rejection email. I was honestly so devastated, so devastated. But one thing about me is that when I'm determined to do something, like I don't give up. So I applied again and the second time I got rejected again and it was heartbreaking, honestly, because working at Google was my dream job and I don't want to give up. So I tried the third time and third time I actually got in. Third time was the charm and I was over the moon. Honestly, I was so excited. It was the dream job that I worked really, really hard for and I got it. And I remember my first day at Google, I got introduced to some teammates and I was talking to them and at the back of my mind, I had this huge imposter syndrome because first, it took me three tries to get into Google. Do I even deserve to be here? Second, I'm the first female in my family to graduate university and to be working in a corporate. So I already come with a lot of baggage imposter syndrome wise. And then I have a six year gap between my high school and my university and my high school dropout. So everything combined, I just felt like, do I even deserve to be here? Do I even belong here? But after talking to my coworkers, I actually realized that some of them also didn't make it on their first try. Actually, a lot of people didn't make it on their first try. And that made me realize these are people just like you and me. Yes, there are some really smart people, but we're also smart. I think we tend to, especially if you have an imposter syndrome, you tend to undermine your own smartness, your own capability more than the other person in front of you. Yes, Google was my dream job. And after six and a half years of working there, I have decided to leave that dream. I know, it just sounds crazy. That's something that I worked really, really hard for. I'm choosing to leave it. And honestly, this was a really tough decision for me. As an immigrant who didn't speak English, who is the first grad in her family to be working in corporate environment and working at these big, major companies, worse than Amazon than at Google and making solid money and having the financial stability, the health insurance, and especially with kids, mortgage, health insurance and everything, college tuition. It was just really tough to leave a stable income. But to be honest, I've been thinking about it for the last two years. Here are my three reasons why I decided to leave. Number one is obviously I love what I do here. The community that I have in all of you, I love creating content. I know this is going to sound really cliche. Literally, every YouTuber that quits says that. But I genuinely, genuinely love sharing what my knowledge and talking to all of you. And whenever you guys send me messages saying like you learned something new watching my content, it brings me so much joy. And sometimes I get messages that are like very deep. For example, the other day, I got a message on LinkedIn from this PhD student who moved from Brazil to U.S. to pursue his PhD. And he felt like he just keeps hitting roadblocks like every step of the way. And reading my story actually made him realize that he's going to get there. He is just going to take time and he's going to get there. And stories like that generally make me so happy and so grateful that I even have this platform to make that impact and continue doing what I'm doing. I'm still pretty raw because my last day was two days ago. And yesterday, I literally spent all day in bed because I'm still going through stages. I'm still trying to figure out if this was the right decision or not. But honestly, this is the right decision for me. And I know it deep down in my heart. I've been thinking about it for the last two years, and it just took a long time to get here. Because yes, it's very difficult to leave a stable income, especially when you have a family, when you have a mortgage, when you have health insurance, when you have upcoming college wishes. Believe me, this was one of the most difficult decisions that decisions that I've taken. But I know this is the right one for me. The second reason why I left is I was literally working a lot. I was doing content. I was working 40 hours a week on my job. And I just knew I just knew that it's not sustainable. And I had to pick one. And this is going to be 30 in a row where I'm actually going to be making more for my content from my actual job. So number wise, it was actually a no brainer to do the thing that is like right for my family and for the lifestyle that I want to provide for them. So that was my number two reason. And my number three reason is a little bit more of a personal one. Two years ago, my daughter moved out to go to college, she moved out and I realized that I wanted to spend more time with her. I mean, she comes back and after that, like whenever she comes back, for her like break, I take time off like I would take I took time I would take like a whole week off just to stay home and spend time with her. And this year 2026 my younger one, my son is actually moving up because he's also going to college and I'm going to become an empty nester. I know like I don't talk about my family a lot on my social media because if I like keeping it private, but I think these are like the big life moments that are upcoming for me and I think you guys should know. So this year, my husband and I were going to become empty nesters. So big changes are coming. But I basically have three or four months left. And I wanted to spend time with my son as much as I can. Because you never know where life takes them after they graduate college, wherever they will get job will move there. Anyways, that was like my third personal reasons I wanted to have full freedom of my day of my hour. I didn't want to go to office anymore. I was also getting a little tired of corporate politics. And it's not specific to Google. But in general, like as you move up in your level, there are more politics. And I just did not enjoy that aspect of the job anymore. And especially when I have so much going on in my life. I want to focus on things that actually matter. But one of the things that has been true in my career is like whenever I found something that I'm really passionate about, I make a pivot, for example. But I found out that I want to become a data engineer, I took whatever courses I could, and I became a data engineer. Well, after doing data engineering for two years, I realized I want to do data science, because I did a project and I loved it. I transitioned to the data scientist role. And I realized I wanted to get this job at Google, like it took me three tries, but I got it. And similarly, in my current career path, like I am realizing that this is what I want to do. This is what I'm passionate about. Yes, this decision was one of the hardest because leaving a stable income is not easy. But I know this is the right decision. And I'm actually really, really excited. I'm also really excited and looking forward to sharing a lot more unbiased opinions. Yes, when you work at a job, there are specific things that you can or cannot say. So I'm excited to have like no strings attached. I don't have to owe an answer to anybody. Oh, I can totally be myself and honest. And I can talk about interview prep, which I couldn't talk about I can talk about like, hiding, I can talk about like resumes, like all of these things that I wasn't able to talk about before. This is just day two. But honestly, just the thought of it is just so freeing. And I'm really excited to like be more active and share a lot more content with you on YouTube and Instagram on really pump out my newsletter. This is something that I've been wanting to do. So a lot more is coming there. And I know I'll go through like stages anytime there's a big life change. Okay, so one of my friends who also quit Google last year, I was talking to her this morning, and she actually sent me this something called five stages of five stages you move through emotionally when changing behavior. And she was saying she wished somebody had shared that with her earlier. So I'm definitely going to go through like a lot of I'm going to link that in the in the in the description below in case you want to read it. But basically, there's an emotional cycle of change. So you start off with like a lot of uninformed optimism, then you go through like, down, you feel pessimistic, then you come back up. So like, there's like, there's going to be I know there's going to be a lot of like up and downs coming in emotionally for me, and I'm going to need all of you through this journey. And I just want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for being part of my community. And I'm excited for what's next. And I know it's going to be good. Alright, with that, I hope you're having a beautiful day. I will see you in one of my many next videos and have a good one. Basically everything that I picked up from my desk literally in a nasty bag. That is not much. Let me show you this nameplate that I wanted to keep at my home desk. And this plushie that was technically an award. And this from my Amazon time that I collected. It's been with me for like 12 years. And this, like the stress, I broke the hell out of it, but I'm just obsessed with it. So I keep it. There are like multiple pieces to it. This stress reliever. It's like, looks like a brain. And then the last one is this Android thingy. So I'm gonna put it on my home desk. And that's pretty much it. Here's to the new chapter. Let's go.