When I retired early after a career leading engineering teams at Google and beyond, I knew I wasn’t done with the work that had become most rewarding to me: coaching. While I was still at Google, I started a coaching practice to help engineers and leaders navigate the unique pressures of high-growth tech. I saw firsthand how a single shift in strategy could help an engineer overcome imposter syndrome or turn a new manager into […]
Anxiety - Imposter Syndrome - Mental Health - Stress
Imposter Syndrome for Engineers: Lessons from a Google EM
I’ll start by staying I am not a therapist nor a mental health professional. I am a technologist and I’m sharing my own lived experience in this post. These are topics come up frequently in my coaching sessions. It can be in the context of interviews. The day-to-day grind of the tech industry. The uncertainty of the job market. General chaos. Constant curve balls from leads. AI. Everywhere. Anything. Everything. My Own Journey I’ve had […]
Career Planning - Mental Health
Debugging Your Career: What Makes You Tick?
In any high-functioning system, performance depends on the quality of inputs. In your career, those inputs are your motivators. Whether you are an Individual Contributor (IC) or a Manager, a lack of visibility into what actually matters leads to vague, unactionable career conversations. The Concept: Personalized Impact Over my 25-year career in tech—including 6.5 years at Google—I moved away from ‘one size fits all’ leadership style toward a framework I call Personalized Impact. I realized […]