Biggest Challenges Faced By A Software Engineer And Tech Lead At Google
Jay's biggest challenge as a Tech Lead at Google working on the established Google Ads product is the lack of "long-hanging fruit," requiring significantly more effort for incremental progress. This has led Jay to consider contributing to other projects within Google where their efforts might yield greater returns.
Overcoming Challenges, Workplace Challenges, Industry Realities, Problem-Solving, Achieving Goals
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Jay Zelenkov
Software Engineer; Tech Lead
Munich University of Applied Sciences, 2012
N/A
Computer Science
Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
International Student, Honors Student, Took Out Loans, Immigrant, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Working in an established company like Google presents the challenge of diminishing returns; most low-hanging fruit has already been addressed, requiring significantly more effort for incremental progress.
2. A key challenge is maximizing impact, which may involve identifying and contributing to projects where one's effort yields greater results compared to the current role.
3. Exploring opportunities within the company to find projects that better leverage one's skills and experience is crucial for career growth and impact.
Transcript
What was your biggest challenge in your current role?
In my current role, it matters where you work. I'm in a very established, mature company and work on the Google Ads product, which is also very established.
There are pros and cons that come with that. The good things are that it's mature and stable; it never breaks and it works. It's a top product you can dream of working on, so it's really great.
The challenge is the flip side of what I just described. A lot of problems have been solved, and there's no long-hanging fruit left. We have to work much, much harder and put in a lot more effort to get comparable results or a return on our time investment.
It's because gains start to diminish. You put in more effort to make smaller and smaller incremental progress. I think those are some of the biggest challenges because many people are looking at how to make it better, and it's not very obvious.
Sometimes, the challenge for the role and the place where I am right now might be to look around and see if there are other projects in your company or space where you could contribute more. This way, one hour of your contribution will yield more progress for that project.