In this video, I break down the biggest lessons I took away from working at Google as a software engineer—stuff I wish more people knew before they chase “big tech” on a resume. First, imposter syndrome is very real, even at Google. When I joined, I genuinely felt like I didn’t know anything because everyone around me seemed faster, more familiar with internal systems, and just… ahead. If you’re early in your career, don’t interpret that discomfort as a sign you don’t belong—continuous learning, getting hands-on, and learning from stronger engineers is literally the path forward. I also talk about the gap between learning computer science / LeetCode and doing real software engineering work. Interviews don’t always match day-to-day reality, so you often have to fill that gap yourself through code reviews, reading, and asking your tech lead for guidance. Then I get into what really makes Google engineering feel “different”: the internal tooling and infrastructure. It makes you insanely productive—but it can also trap you, because those tools don’t translate 1:1 outside. Finally, I share how much of the job is writing design docs, not code—thinking through edge cases, requirements, tradeoffs, and using that to prevent issues and build a promotion case.