Was a new grad when I joined G 4 years ago, so I've never had to look for a job while still working full-time. I'd like to take some time off and think about what I want to do next, do some hobby projects with open source tech, etc, before I jump immediately into interviewing for a new gig. Is this a bad idea? I don't feel confident with my LC skills (4 years since I did any prep), and most of the tech I learned at Google is not open source (or not widely adopted). So I think it'd need some time off work to actually do my best in an interview and not embarrass myself. And to not be totally useless for my first few weeks/months while ramping up at a new job that uses open source. I've saved up enough that I'm not worried about living expenses for a while, but I am worried I'd become unemployable (or much less employable) if I let a gap grow more than a few months. This is probably irrational; I guess I just want reassurance since my friends/family think I'm crazy for leaving G at all. I know the conventional wisdom is that you should always have a new job lined up before leaving your current one. Is that still true?
Tc / gtfo
It's true. Not a great idea to leave a job without a clear next job or degree lined up. It's unlikely to lead to a disaster, but you may have to take a pay cut when you look for your next gig.
I think I could live with that. Leaving G anyway partly due to TC cliff, though I guess I'd lose my chance to use my G TC to leverage a higher offer.
I think 4 years at G would at least get you some phone screens, then just prep and LC
Yeah I guess so. I think if I applied now and tried to do screens/onsites with just say, a week of prep (just evenings), I'd get destroyed. LC seems to have made high quality interview practice much more accessible. Probably need to invest some heavy studying before I'd stand a chance. But hey G took me before I ever knew LC was a thing. Maybe I should just try and see what happens. My fear is I'll get rejected everywhere and then need to wait 1yr+ to reapply, just due to lack of prep.
Interviews have changed in the past 4 years. You can try doing LC and if you’re solving mediums in 30mins w/o looking at solutions then you’re fine. Otherwise your fears are valid and you should spend a couple months prepping.
Unemployability won't kick in until around much later (6 mos at least). I took a long hiatus from work and did an indie gig and everyone was still happy to interview me. Fact is, everyone needs more engineers. Being from Google, you'll be desirable even if u take a year off. So go ahead and do what you need to do. Respond to recruiters when they reach out and tell them to try you again at a certain time. They will be happy to do so and appreciate you responding.
That's what I'm hoping. I consider myself a weak SWE so I think it would do me good anyway to not try to "ride" my resume to a job with inflated TC where I probably won't succeed long-term. I appreciate the answer.
My friend at Google NY did a similar thing. He moved to LA to pursue film creation. After 6 month he did not like LA and went back to Google again, in a different team. It seems Google is pretty chill about former employees to join back. In terms of learning, you would definitely learn more on your own or in a smaller company in my experience. So I would say go for it. YOLO.
I would hope so. I do think I'll learn a lot more externally. But I think since I'm an underperforming L3 I'll probably not be welcome back via that process. I'm okay with that if that's the case though. If anything, it means leaving was the right choice rather than wearing out my welcome.
I still doubt that you at Google. How can you be so doubtful? Getting into Google shouldn't be that easy correct? And working there must be adding to what you know from swe perspective, so why you aren't so confident?
I would say stay as long as you can. Initially leetcoding might move slowly for you (it does for most people), so you might get discouraged or depressed. If you don’t care about staying then PIP shouldn’t be a huge deal if it happens. AFAIK employers can’t share whether you were fired or not... They usually only share dates of employment and title. If that’s not the case and future employers can check whether you’re eligible for rehire at Google, then leave on your own terms. I think that should be the only deciding factor. Things you can do: 1) Ask Google HR what information they are allowed to share with future employers/HireRight 2) Check if your state has a law against employment gap discrimination Stay strong. ✊🏻 Better times will come.
Yeah I guess I could drag myself through a PIP but that just seems like a horrible situation for everyone to go through. Seems like I'd be less likely to burn bridges if I leave gracefully now.
Guys what's PIP and AFAIK
Take maybe a week off and enjoy a littlr get away then plan your next step. Economy is not that stable right now. But if you have 12 months worth of savings sure go ahead and quit now.
i’m pretty young too and neither of us have gone through a recession. I hear that it makes things more difficult for the unemployed during a recession. Idk what’s going on today and tomorrow, but it doesn’t sound good.. something to consider.. maybe you can front load your retirement savings, lock in the Google matching, get your sweet bonus and then call it quits. so this would mean staying till mid Jan or Feb.
(OP here.) Yeah, that's definitely a concern. I don't want to buy a home anytime soon for fear of a crash. Do you think I should de-risk my portfolio (e.g. reduce % of stocks, hold more cash/bonds) while unemployed? I have plenty of emergency fund but it would be nice to still keep my portfolio intact even if the market crashed 50%.
you know, I’m trying to figure out the same thing. I’m reading advice by financial samurai and ramit sethi. I don’t want to give any advice because I am not qualified.
Make this a poll.
Done. Can't edit after posting :/ Obviously it's better to accept another offer ahead of time but rushing into interviews without solid prep could also just blow my chances. I've blown a lot of interviews in the past; I'm still not sure how/why G hired me. I also really don't think I have enough experience with open-source tech to be of much use at most companies, without a lot of ramp up time. I'm pretty crappy as far as Googlers go.