My Story - Chapter 6: Google and my personal Golden Gate Bridge

People often ask me how I ended up at Google. In recent years, the tech giant has grown exponentially and has always been the desired destination for many professionals. In most cases, people enter through internship programs, referrals from friends and by having the appropriate skills and experience that matches the job description, in addition to being aligned with the company's values and culture. In my case, some of these things helped a lot, but the way how I got in had an extra dash of emotion.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Google was one of the clients of the agency I worked for and I had the opportunity to work as an account planner for some Google B2C and B2B projects. After a while, I was relocated to work with Bradesco's 'Next' digital bank, but ended up returning to support strategy for two more Google projects. I would say that both opportunities were key in order to get me there eventually in the future. One of these projects was YouTube Insights, a physical book with several insights about the platform, built on the basis of quantitative and qualitative research on how people consumed the platform within 5 categories: Music, Food, Gaming, Beauty and Soccer. I collaborated by building a framework on how to transform the data collected into valuable insights for brands and advertisers. Another remarkable project was Brandcast: an annual event hosted by YouTube to show the marketers how the platform is changing behavior and culture. For this project, I went to work at the Google office and I showed my interest in working there, eventually getting an opportunity through a temporary marketing contract.

I attribute my entry to Google not only to the projects I worked on, but I believe that the experience that I got from my career were extremely important to build a solid foundation, so that when the opportunity came I could take it .

So, why do I use to say that joining Google had a dash of emotion?

I remember that two things made me think twice when making the decision: 1) my wife was pregnant with our first child and although the salary was better, that was a temporary contract of 9 months, with no guarantee of hiring after it ended. 2) I was facing the agency vs client dilemma. I worked my whole life in the agency side and built a solid career in the area, even being able to get a better job at another agency, however, the work hours were insane and I didn't want to be absent from my family because of that. On the other hand, working on the client side would be a new experience for me and, despite having strategy skills, I had never done anything on the marketing field, becoming unsure if I would adapt well. Fortunately, I decided to take a leap of faith into the challenge, trusting my instinct and potential. 6 months and a few interviews later I was hired as an Associate Product Marketing Manager at Google Brazil. :)

As I had predicted, I had to go through the learning curve on how to do marketing. The good thing is that this learning curve turned out to be quite fast and in a few months I was already able to keep up with the pace. Things like managing budgets, developing briefings, aligning with other stakeholders of the company, creating a channel strategy, evaluating creatives and other tasks have become more and more natural over time. I worked for 1 year and a half in B2B marketing, creating events, content and campaigns for large agencies and advertisers. After that, I migrated to the Brand & Reputation area where I worked on projects such as Google for Brazil (an annual event where Google shows the contributions they have made to the country in addition to announcing new products, features and services) and the Elections project, one of the jobs I am most proud of. Together with the team, we created a series of activations to help Brazilians make an informed decision when voting. Activations ranged from a presidential debate broadcast via YouTube with live Google Trends analysis to a website where we helped users find more information about candidates, as well as other activations to combat fake news and promote conscious voting. In troubled political times, I was happy to contribute in some way to such an important project.

Since the beginning of my professional career I always had the desire to have an international experience where I could go abroad and get to know a new culture, a new work style and develop my English skills. When I joined Google I was able to be participate in two experiences that I consider incredible: the APMM Trip and the rotation. After a year and a half at the company, I was able to embark with a group of APMMs (Associate Product Marketing Managers) from all over the world on a 10-day trip to Japan and Philippines with the goal of learning more about the country's culture and work that Google has done locally. It was unforgettable. I never forget when I had the opportunity to sit at a table with people from 5 different countries and share knowledge.

The second experience was the rotation: after 2 years of working in my home country, I was able to apply to work in another country.. When the right time came, I talked to my family and we decided to apply for the rotation. After doing some research, chatting with managers from abroad and almost dying of anxiety, my destination was finally defined: I would be joining Google's branding team in San Francisco as part of the brand storytelling team. I was extremely happy (and a little bit nervous). We made all the preparations and moved to California in late 2018.

The first couple of months were thrilling. New city, new home, new life, new furniture, new team. Over time, responsibilities at work have increased and homesickness as well. I had the privilege of being part of a wonderful team that always supported me from the beginning, and together with my family we also met wonderful people who made us feel more welcomed in the United States.

In my new role as Brand Marketing Manager at Google San Francisco, I was responsible for working with the production and promotion of brand stories. Basically, stories of people around the world who use Google’s day-to-day technologies to make an impact on society and do amazing things. These stories are documented through video and/or text, and made available on the brand's About site. One of the parts that I like the most about this work is being able to see the incredible things that people are able to create with technology and being able to share that with the world so we can inspire people to do the same.

I was super excited about my new role in the company, and I usually say that this was my biggest professional challenge so far, and one of the reasons that contributed to this was the English language.

Going back a couple of years ago, when I visited San Francisco for the first time in February 2017, I was delighted by the view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was amazed to see how big, beautiful and strong the bridge was. For me, English was my Golden Gate Bridge: something wonderful, but too scary.

I found it difficult to attend meetings, write emails, interact socially and keep up with the pace of work. I knew how to read, write and speak English before starting the new job. I already have had several interactions in English before this experience, but there was something about being in person and working actively in another country and another language that made it even more challenging. An email that I would take 3 minutes to write in Brazil, would take twice the time in the US. The speed to process information was almost instantaneous in Brazil, but it would take a few extra seconds in the US (not to mention the times it gave a full blue error screen). I was literally the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave. Headache at the end of the day, tiredness and that feeling of daily frustration, often turning into hidden tears inside meeting rooms. Talking to other colleagues who also made the transition to another country, I found that all of this was extremely normal and was part of the process perfecting the language and progressing. That made me feel better.

I knew I needed to improve my English to keep up with the pace of my coworkers, and I made some decisions. I started arriving at 8:00am every day and studying English until 9:00am, I hired a tutor to help me with grammar and pronunciation, I started reading things aloud, listening to more podcasts, writing more and putting myself in more social situations to improve conversation. All of these things were extremely valuable, but it wasn't the only solution. I knew that there was another factor that was weighing heavily on my ability to speak the language even better: the mental / emotional part.

A few months after I arrived in the US I felt that nothing had changed. I felt sad, frustrated and behind. At that moment, my mental health started to decline, because I was constantly tense, worried and anxious. I found strength in my family and meditation, but I also decided to seek professional help. Through referrals from friends, I started therapy sessions with a very good professional, who guided me through various processes of self discovery and made me see things that I was not seeing clearly. It made me understand the importance of vulnerability and that my value was not in my performance, but in who I was. This was transformative and has helped me every day not only with English, but with my life as a whole.

Now, after 2 years living and working in the US, I look back and see that this journey, although extremely challenging, was super rewarding. My English has evolved a lot, the headaches have almost ceased, meetings are still happening and I am still in the process of improving my English. Although I have not yet mastered it completely, I feel good and I accept that progress happens little by little, and that the journey is as important as the final goal.

---

During the almost 4 years that I've been at Google, I had the opportunity to live incredible experiences and learn many things. I've put together a summary of some key points, but certainly other posts will follow with a deeper look at some topics that were (and still are) super valuable to me.

• The importance of building a good reputation: I have learned more and more the importance of doing a good job wherever you go and leaving a positive legacy. This positive legacy was key for me to have a chance to join one of the most desired companies in the world and also served as a support when I was facing difficulties with the English. After a couple of months in the US, when I was feeling tired and frustrated, I posted about it on Instagram / Facebook and I was surprised with the number of people who showed their support through inspiring comments. People I worked with during all my career and who admired me and were rooting for me. I am grateful to have had a positive impact on their lives and they all certainly have had on mine.

• Seek an international experience: Whether remotely, for a short, medium or long term. There are several ways to do this. You can connect with people from other countries and exchange experiences with them. If you work for a multinational company, you can get involved in projects from other countries. You can study abroad, chat with people or try to dig a job opportunity in another country. For me, an international experience, however small or big, is always valuable and will impact your life forever.

• Extend your knowledge whenever possible: Despite having worked my entire life as an account planner, I sought to expand my knowledge when I decided to study Design and work with Marketing at Google. All of them are related and complementary areas. Within your area of expertise, try to identify those things that are related and can complement your work as you grow. Remember: knowledge is the compound interest of curiosity.

• Focus on the journey, not the destination: A few months after arriving in the US I felt that I wasn't reaching my goal which was to master English. I was still struggling a lot and felt that nothing had changed. I was wrong in thinking that way. The journey is the most important thing and, with every challenge I face, something is built, although sometimes this building process seems to be invisible. When we stop running to reach the final goal and pay attention to the road (identifying ways to make it more pleasurable) eventually the final goal will end up happening as a result of the way you walked in the path.

• Yes, mental health is important: Since I was little child I created something in my head that in order to have value I needed to perform. To be valued, I needed to reach people's high expectations. When I came across one of the biggest professional challenges of my career, that thought almost led me to deep frustration. When I discovered that I have value in being who I am, when I discovered that being vulnerable is a good thing, along with healthy habits of meditation and mindfulness, those negative thoughts started to get out of my head, and I managed to focus on the things that really matter. I feel that this process of self-discovery and mental health care is something that everyone needs to experience.

What now?

This post concludes the 6-chapter series telling about my professional career history. I hope you have learned something new and have the desire to apply some of that knowledge to your own life. Each person has a different story and all stories are valuable and incredible. I know that you are also learning many things on your journey and please feel free to share them with me if you wish. I also want to learn from you!

My professional future is still uncertain, but I have some ideas of paths I would like to take for the future. For now, I keep learning and growing in my current role at Google San Francisco.

If you enjoyed learning more about my history, I invite you to continue following the blog and future posts, which will delve a little more into some topics about the lessons I learned in addition to interviews with some super interesting people who were part of my professional career. .

So, what are the chapters of your professional history? Are you ready to tell your story?

Special thanks to: Leonardo Pinto, Susana Ayarza, Rodrigo Alarcon, Maria Helena Marinho, Juliana Simão, Renato Kaufmann, Valdir Leme, Jimena Tomás, Luiz Guilherme Brandão, Kika Oncken, Marcella Campos, Cristiano Fonseca, Rodrigo Maceira, Esteban Walther, Nicolas Nespatti, Cecelia Cox, Kelly Littleton, Marina Agapakis, Nelly Kennedy, Rachelle Lacroix and Carol Morotti.