YK Sugi left Google to become a full-time YouTuber.YouTube/CS Dojo
- Google is a dream job for many workers in the tech industry.
- We spoke to former Google employees to find out why they decided to leave the company.
- Their answers ranged from frustration with company politics to the desire to take the next step in their career, whether that’s learning new skills, building a new company, or becoming a social media influencer.
Google is routinely rated as one of the best places to work in the US.
With a median salary over $160,000, generous benefits packages, and perks like free gourmet food, massages, and music lessons, it’s no surprise why so many employees consider working at Google their dream job.
So why would anyone ever want to leave?
We spoke to several ex-Googlers to find out why they left the company, and compiled their responses along with those of other former employees who have spoken publicly.
Their reasons include everything from frustration with company politics to simply wanting to feel more freedom at a smaller company. One former Googler even quit to become a social media influencer.
Read on to see the reasons 15 former Googlers gave for leaving the company.
Liz Wessel — Cofounder and CEO of WayUp
Former position at Google: Product Marketing Manager
Why she left: Wessel told Business Insider that she knew it was time to leave Google when she couldn’t stop thinking about her next career move.
“If you can’t do a good job at your job anymore because you’re spending all of your time thinking about another job opportunity, that’s probably a good sign,” she said.
Tyler Breisacher — Software engineer at Hustle
Greg Sandoval/Business Insider
Former position at Google: Software developer
Why he left: Breisacher was one of about a dozen Googlers who left the company in April to protest Google’s controversial collaboration with the US Department of Defense, in which it provides the department with artificial intelligence technology.
Google announced it would cease work on the project next year after thousands of employees signed a petition against it.
“This is obviously a big deal and it’s very encouraging, but this only happened after months and months of people signing petitions and (internal debate) and people quitting,” Breisacher told Business Insider.
Breisacher said his decision to leave was also influenced by Google’s sponsorship of a conservative political conference and the company’s failure to act decisively after YouTube videos with LGBT content were flagged as inappropriate on the site.
“When I started, Google had a reputation as a pro-gay, pro-trans company,” Breisacher, who is gay, told Business Insider. “I guess I’m disillusioned. I know that Google is a for-profit company and you shouldn’t expect it to do things purely for the good of the world. But in the past, we would expect leaders to listen to the employees and to think carefully about issues and not to cross certain lines.
“Things have changed at Google.”
Daren Makuck — Software engineer at Qwil
Former position at Google: Software engineer
Why he left: Daren Makuck left a high-paying engineering gig at Google and took a 50% pay cut to work at Qwil, a startup that facilitates payments between freelance workers and the companies that hire them.
His previous company, Toro, had been acquired by Google one year earlier, and Makuck said he wanted to work at a smaller company again to feel more ownership of his work. Although he initially didn’t expect Qwil to be a long-term job, a conversation he had with CEO Johnny Reinsch changed his mind.
“He replied, ‘If we can’t keep you happy enough to stay for more than a year, that’s on us,'” Makuck told Business Insider. “This was the first time I had ever felt like a company — not just the people in it — would share the responsibility of my employment, and it’s something I didn’t even realize I needed.”
Libby Leffler — Vice president, SoFi
Former position at Google: Account strategist
Why she left: Libby Leffler left Google in 2008 to work at Facebook, and in seven years, worked her way up from a client partner to strategic partnerships manager.
But she initially turned down the Facebook job offer, only to realize a few weeks later that it was the right move for her.
“It became very clear that there was a lot to learn in this new role at Facebook,” she told Business Insider.
She said her chief concern in accepting the client partner job was her lack of formal sales training.
“This was a great opportunity for me to dive in and see what I could do,” Leffler said. “My instinct at that time was very clear to look for and move into new opportunities where I could learn skills that I wasn’t familiar with.”
Michael Lynch — Self-employed software developer
Former position at Google: Software engineer
Why he left: Michael Lynch explained in a blog post that he left Google because of the company’s frustrating internal politics and the difficulty he experienced trying to get a promotion.
“My career was being dictated by a shifting, anonymous committee who thought about me for an hour of their lives. Management decisions that I had no input into were erasing months of my career progress,” Lynch wrote in February.
“Worst of all, I wasn’t proud of my work. Instead of asking myself, ‘How can I solve this challenging problem?’ I was asking, ‘How can I make this problem look challenging for promotion?’ I hated that.”
Jose Llorens — Head of brand and communications at Drivy
Former position at Google: Creative lead at “The Zoo,” Google’s creative think tank for global brands
Why he left: Jose Llorens left Google in 2016 to write a novel, leaving a job with stable income for one of uncertainty. He wrote and published “Time on Earth” in 2016, and now works for Drivy, a European car-sharing platform.
Llorens called leaving Google “the biggest decision of my career” and said he was motivated in part because he realized he might never have another chance to follow his dream.
“I remember when I quit my job that some of my older colleagues felt happy for me, but at the same time jealous that they couldn’t do the same because they had families,” Llorens wrote for Business Insider.
“They’d rather be great parents and ensure a stable future to their kids than follow their crazy dreams, which I completely understand. It was now or wait until I retired.”
Ari Paparo — Cofounder and CEO of Beeswax
Former position at Google: Product director, advertising products
Why he left: Ari Paparo left Google in 2010 after two years as an ad executive. He served in leadership positions at Nielsen, AppNexus, and Bazaarvoice before leaving to start his own ad-tech company, Beeswax.
He said his decision to leave Google was based on finding the right company culture that would allow him to succeed.
“I saw myself as more of a businessperson than a technologist,” he told Business Insider. “And Google is very much an engineering culture, so there’s a limit to what you can get done as a businessperson.”
Ram Rengaswamy — Cofounder and chief technical officer at Beeswax
Former position at Google: Tech lead and software engineer
Why he left: Rengaswamy left Google in 2014 to start the ad-tech company Beeswax with two other former Googlers.
For Rengaswamy, ending his seven-year stint came down to his desire to build projects from the ground up.
“I kind of knew that I wasn’t growing much at Google,” he told Business Insider. “I mean, yes, there were challenging problems to solve, but there are so many smart people there who’ve done all the heavy lifting that honestly, what I felt like I was doing was taking the Lego bricks and just building stuff on top. So someone had already had done the hard work and for me I was just putting things together.”
It was a matter of “I’m inquisitive, I’m curious, and I’m not learning enough on my job,” he said.
Shamim Samadi — Cofounder and chief product officer at Beeswax
Former position at Google: Product manager
Why he left: Shamim also left Google to cofound the startup Beeswax. He said when he was approached with the idea for Beeswax’s new ad technology, he realized he would have to leave Google if he wanted to help develop it.
“I’d been feeling it in my current role and felt very much that the incumbents would have a hard time pulling it off, and for structural and infrastructure and philosophical reasons just didn’t see it as a real opportunity,” he told Business Insider. “I got really excited about the idea and then more importantly, about the team to do it with.”
Michael Peggs — Founder and chief content creator of Marccx Media
Courtesy of Michael Peggs
Former position at Google: New business development executive
Why he left: Peggs announced he was leaving Google, his home for four years, in 2014, and posted a memorable YouTube video to share the news.
He told Business Insider he left Google because found himself too comfortable and needing “space to create.”
“Have you ever packed into a subway train during rush hour?” he said. “You walk into the center thinking you’re in the clear, but you’re actually getting pushed and pulled from both sides. You get the better sense to sit down but you’re packed in so tight that you stand back up. The decision to occupy the door becomes the obvious one, but people hit you on the way out and step over you on the way in. At that moment, the best thing you can do is get off and wait for a less crowded car.”
“That train is your career, and what we all need is room to re-evaluate. Renew. Breathe. Stretch. Strengthen. To come back and supply the world with our authentic art.”
Christopher Johnson — Lead designer at Devbridge Group
LinkedIn/Christopher Johnson
Former position at Google: Google Meet design lead manager and YouTube Red staff design lead manager
Why he left: Christopher Johnson left Google earlier this year after working there for seven years. Although he called Google a “dream job,” he said having children with his wife made him realize he wanted leave California to live closer to their families in the Midwest.
“We’ve missed birthdays, holidays, and reunions. It’s hard to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with your grandparents over video chat,” Johnson wrote in a Medium post in May.
“It finally came down to a question of our priorities as a family. How important was this job? Was it so important that we would sacrifice the family relationships for the money, security, and benefits? Did I believe that I would never be able to find a fulfilling job outside of Google?
“The answers to these questions are incredibly personal and they will vary greatly for different people. But for my wife and I, 10 years in California was enough and we wanted to come back home. So we did.”
Falon Fatemi — Founder and CEO at Node
Former position at Google: Strategic partnerships developer
Why she left: Falon Fatemi said she left Google because she had felt like she was settling for a comfortable job that hindered her growth.
“Just a couple of years in, I realized something was wrong: I wasn’t learning anymore,” she wrote for Forbes in 2016. “I had plateaued. As Google grew and roles became more specialized, I found myself doing the same tasks every day. I knew objectively that I was still making an impact, but it was one that I couldn’t really feel.
“I thought, ‘Is this the best it gets? Have I hit my peak already?'”
Alex Feinberg — Director of business development at OKCoin
Former position at Google: Strategic partner development manager
Why he left: Alex Feinberg left his six-year job at Google behind in June to work in a development role at OKCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange.
He wrote in a blog post that he realized that his desire to get promoted at Google conflicted with his desire to grow professionally.
“I came to believe that I had ascended to a point in my Google career where I could no longer expect to get promoted if my main priority was learning and personal development,” Feinberg wrote.
“I observed that unlike my most commercially successful friends, the most rewarded Google business employees seemed to have personality traits that tilted strongly towards absorbing the fears of their superiors. Having experienced significant anxiety as a professional athlete who worried how he would be evaluated by management, I believed this to be a maladaptive trait for me to enhance — one that would limit my chances of achieving something truly spectacular in life.”
YK Sugi — YouTuber
Former position at Google: Software developer
Why he left: YK Sugi left his six-figure job at Google in 2017 to make educational programming videos for his YouTube channel.
Sugi wrote in a Medium post that when he first started making videos, “being able to help so many people and getting positive feedback from them just felt awesome.”
It was then that he decided to transition into a full time YouTube career.
“I’m making a lot less money now, but it’s just amazing to be able to directly see the impact that I’m making on people’s lives,” he wrote.
“This was actually something that was sort of lacking in my engineering job, even though working at Google was amazing.”
