Wow, that year went quickly! I started a new job in a new company and worked a whole twelve months without ever being in person on campus, with my teammates or my customers. I feel like I should say that again. I started a new job in a new company without ever being in person on campus, with my teammates or my customers for over twelve months. I would be remiss if I did not mention my family. For me, a big part of my career brand has been being transparent about how I juggle both a career and family. This year I also dropped my daughter off to Purdue for her second year in Engineering and my son just started his second year of high school. It is so good to see them return to in person learning. I am in a new phase when it comes to my children and the words that resonate with me more than ever are “Don’t blink”.

As far as work goes, I have absolutely loved my first year experience here at Google. Change can be so good for the soul and it really has been a great learning experience. Personally as with many this year, it was harder than most. With the pandemic, getting covid and losing my father this year, there were more personal roadblocks to success than ever but it also made it more rewarding. Par for the course, I’d like to share with you my thoughts and insights after one whole year of this experience.

  1. Innovation as a culture: When innovation is so core to the company culture, every problem is a hard problem but my goodness it is so invigorating to think about problems with no rules, no boundaries, and worry later how you can make it happen. You can’t just say you are innovative, you need to live it, breathe it and create space for it to grow.  
  2. Too much or too little process: Too much process stifles innovation, not enough causes rework and wastes time. Going from a company with lots of process and red tape to one with very little was a learning curve for me. It gives me a new appreciation for the happy medium of needing process but showed me a whole side of nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it and can make it happen.
  3. Never compromise work for your family: When my father got sick, I was still relatively new to the company. Guilt creeps up and that little voice inside your head creates doubt. That voice enters thoughts like… you can’t take all this time you need to get back to work. I am so grateful for a boss and coworkers who literally said “Don’t worry we got this”. I left one day thinking I will check in the next day. It literally took me 24 hours to get in my head, wait a minute, a family member is dying, listen to everyone and forget about work. And that is exactly what I did. We have to change the narrative in our heads. Listen to those around you and never compromise your time with your family, in some cases you will never get that time back.
  4. Healthcare is still my passion: I get to groom and feed my passion for health and life sciences here at Google. One of my first projects here was focused on a collaboration of pharma companies who were looking to transform the ways new drugs are brought to market. This allowed me to use my personal experience working at Merck in pharma and my business development skills in new ways. It reminded me why I love doing what I do. Making an impact is important to me and I am feeding that passion here daily.
  5. Dream bigger dreams: I see so much opportunity here at Google and beyond. I look at future roles and strategies and think without hesitation, I can do that. I am not afraid to try new things, using the muscle of making a significant change, getting uncomfortable and learning new skills has given me more confidence than ever to try new things and dream bigger dreams.

This is just the beginning for me. Hopefully this big world begins to open up more. Vaccinated and ready to see our family and friends, we made our first post pandemic family trip to Ireland. It was so therapeutic to spend quality time with our family and create new memories with our kids. As far as work goes, I am on track to meet my goals if not exceed them for the first year and I am excited for next year. The noogler hat is off and I am ready! As they say at Google, let’s get solving!  Here’s to many more Googleversaries! #msh #1yeardown #googlecloud #solving