What would you do with three weeks left to being laid off (on the assumption a team match is made)?
I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm in a weird position where I'm getting let go on April 9th (the three month timer on the layoff has arrived) and have a bunch of interviews scheduled for Meta, Amazon, etc. in mid-April. If I got a team match before then, I'm in a place where my path to promotion has totally reset, and it's incredibly frustrating given how long I've been in the position (L3 EE S [promo], L4, EE SEE SEE SEE [promo denied] SEE SI M). On the other hand, it's Google, and it's a great place to work, all complaints aside. In the interview loop, I'd be targeting L5, so there's that. The most self-serving strategy is to get a team match and then renege if something better comes along. However, this feels awful, and not something I'd want to do, both for the team and my own reputation. There's also the downside of losing the severance payment. Alternatively, it's taking the team match and sticking to it regardless. And finally, getting severance and taking a chance on the interview loops.
Whats up with the string of SEE but still no promo. Seems like your management chain wants you gone.
I had a really strong trajectory and then went for promo with a bunch of impact, launches, had interns and L3 mentorship, but got denied because I didn't demonstrate enough project ownership. What happened is that most of my work was concentrated in a certain part of the stack and in experiment and logging analysis work (including discovering and fixing some serious horizontal bugs), and that wasn't considered comprehensive enough. On one hand, I agree I didn't do as much end-to-end project work. On the other hand, almost none of these products would have launched without my work, as my team was giving up on pretty much everything it tried because there weren't immediate changes in vital metrics. I was the expert in that area and was the goto for a number of teams in the org. Sorry for the essay, it was cathartic to get that out. As for resetting the promo process, that's all my fault with the SI and the M. I had just lost all my drive.
It's not your fault. I heard a manager say something along the lines of some guy being burned out. So management is going to leverage that fact to further burn him out and gather evidence of lack of sustained leadership and not meeting certain role attributes. This was in a team event. I couldn't believe it.
Dude, they laid you off once and you’re afraid of reneging an offer because it’s self-serving? Fucking self-serve.
That's a really good point. I’m mostly concerned about derailing the hiring manager who is innocent in all this.
Hiring managers are fine with it. Don't worry about them they will be fine.
I'd choose stability over severance. With the market right now, I wouldn't risk taking 3 months pay to basically re-do what you're doing now by month 2 or 3. In any case, I'm sorry you're going through this. If Google doesn't see your value, then hopefully the new company you join will. At the end of the day, it's a business. No shame in hopping to different places if it's a better opportunity for you; gets you new logos and you'll likely never talk with the people you left again... you probably won't even be there long enough to forge a meaningful relationship with the new company if you kept hopping until you settle down anyway.
The best thing Google offers employees these days is severance.
Getting laid off last year at Google was both financially and career wise the best thing that’s happened