10 lessons from my 10 years at Google

On May 2, 2011, I walked into a Google office for the first time. 

I would have never believed that my journey would involve moving from Paris to London to San Francisco to New York. That I would get to build tools to help people have access to electoral information, train governments on how to use the internet to engage with their citizens, fund hundreds of social entrepreneurs, lead Google’s response to the refugee crisis and launch a program to train one million Americans with digital skills. 

I could have never imagined meeting the brightest, kindest, most inspiring people and get to call them family. 

And I certainly wouldn’t have believed I’d end up at a reception talking about tequila with George Clooney and his father. But that story is for another time. 

For now, here are 10 lessons I’ve learned in the last 10 years. 

1) Embrace ambiguity. 

Deploying 25,000 Chromebooks in refugee camps. Designing a system to measure the social impact of grant funding. Building the capacity of a network of more than 100 organizations to train people for digital careers. These are some examples of challenges I’ve had to take on. 

They all have one thing in common: there is an infinite number of ways you can tackle them. 

It’s incredibly daunting at first. But embracing ambiguity has been one of the most important things I’ve learned at Google. 

You have to let go of your desire for clarity. Build the confidence to fly blind, at least for a few miles.  

2) Invest in lateral growth. 

There is one metaphor that consistently fails to fire me up: referring to a career as a ladder. I prefer to see my career as a spider web where moving sideways is as important as moving up. 

Sometimes it meant building new knowledge moving from government relations to marketing and then to venture philanthropy. Sometimes it meant gaining a new perspective by moving across countries. Short-term, that may have meant trading off a faster promotion for a steeper learning curve. 

But in the long run, no job title replaces the fulfillment of understanding the world through multiple lenses.   

3) Treat your career like college. 

When you’re in college, you sign up for as many classes as possible. You let your curiosity run wild beyond your core area of study. I’ve continued to apply that approach in my work life. 

I didn’t complete online certificates about psychology, urban design and experimental evaluation because they would boost my career prospects. I did it for the pure joy of learning something new and interesting.  

If you only learn about topics you think will serve your career, you’re failing to honor your inner college student. 

4) Stay curious. 

When I joined Google, I thought having an opinion was the only way to contribute to a conversation. If I didn’t have one then the natural thing to do would be to keep quiet. I was wrong. 

Questions that challenge assumptions or help clarify ambiguity are just as precious as opinions to move a conversation forward.  

5) Learn how to learn. 

I’ve spent a lot of time having to learn about topics I knew very little about. I made my way through economic development, refugee crisis response, education, access to capital for small businesses and artificial intelligence. The first reflex is always to read everything you can possibly get your hands on. 

But the fastest way to go from 0 to 1 on any topic is to spend most of your time talking to people who know about it. Interrogate them relentlessly until you understand it so well you can teach it to somebody else.  

6) Doing things > strategic plans.

As the co-founder of Southwest Airlines once put it, “We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things”.  

Spending too much time on strategy can delay the process of trying out new tactics. That time is often better spent learning about what works and what to scrap. 

7) Speak up. 

It’s intimidating to work at a company where everyone is incredibly smart. In meetings, the little voice in my head would wonder “Should I say it? Is it smart enough? Maybe I should just let it go, I’ll have something better next time”. I’ve realized this little voice lives in everybody’s head. 

Think about it in a different way: when you decide not to share, you’re depriving your team of your perspective. Make it your duty to offer it.  

8) Win fear with fun. 

Twice I’ve had to speak in front of the entire company. That’s thousands of some of the smartest brains in the world scrutinizing what you say and half the company’s executives right behind the podium. It was scary. 

The best advice I ever got to conquer the nervousness before getting on stage was as simple as it was powerful: don’t forget to have fun. 

9) Embrace discomfort. 

During a session at a team offsite a coach asked me in front of my entire team, “When was the first time you realized you were White?”. I didn’t know how to answer that. Because of my position of privilege, I never had to think about it. That was probably one of the most uncomfortable moments in my life but it taught me a lesson I carry with me ever since: embracing discomfort is necessary to advance self-reflection. 

There is no path towards equity and justice without embracing discomfort.

10) Always be exploring.

When I look back on the last 10 years, I realize that opportunity came as a result of treating my career as an adventure rather than a straight line. It always started with a question: what could I be exploring? Sometimes it meant taking a detour from a well charted path and sometimes it meant embracing the uncertainty of whether this was going to work out. 

Approach your career like an adventurer and it will never feel like work.  

*Special thanks to Amanda, Roxine, Erin, Jonathan and Micah for their feedback*