In this video, I break down the real reasons I left Google as a software engineer—especially because people assume you only leave a place like Google if something went wrong. Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about my time there. It was my first full-time job out of college, the compensation was amazing (six figures), and the perks were great—401K, healthcare, and yes, the free food. But the biggest value for me was the learning curve: I realized really quickly that a lot of what we grind in school (and even interview-style DSA) doesn’t translate 1:1 to day-to-day work. I also talk about what made Google special from a growth perspective: smart teammates, strong code review culture, and the kind of external-facing impact where your work can touch billions of users. At the same time, after being on the same team long enough to see a product go from 0→1 to maintenance—and after onboarding others and becoming one of the most tenured people—I started asking myself what’s next. I wanted work I felt more passionate about, I didn’t want to get too comfortable, and I knew “there is no growth in comfort.” I looked internally first, then externally, and ultimately took an opportunity that aligned better with where I want my career to go.