Millennial leaves 6-figure Google job for meaningful career pursuit

Joslyn Orgill faced a pivotal career decision: remain at her well-paying data engineer role at Google — or leave it behind in search of a path that promised greater happiness in the future.

There were plenty of reasons to stay. To start with, Orgill had long considered Google as the ultimate goal for aspiring technical engineers — earning her spot there was no small feat. 

She spent two summers interning at ExxonMobil and Adobe, and by 2021, she had earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in information systems from Brigham Young University through a combined program.

Financially, things were going well — and Orgill and her husband had made the decision to purchase a home in Austin less than two years prior, making staying at Google seem like the logical choice.

Nevertheless, the reasons to leave gradually increased — she worried about job security in tech careers, felt somewhat unnoticed at a large corporation, and increasingly wanted to pursue work she truly cared about.

"Google is a wonderful place, but the role just didn't suit me," said the 30-year-old.

Orgill's choice was partly shaped by her time at BYU, where she taught two introductory programming and analytics classes as an adjunct professor. She found it incredibly fulfilling and believed she excelled at it.

In November 2021, Orgill received a job offer for a full-time role as a cloud technical resident at Google, situated in Austin, thanks to a referral from her sister-in-law. 

After touring a Google office with her, Orgill was particularly keen to join the company.

"I just loved the vibe," she said. "I was thrilled at the thought of working at Google."

She eventually moved into a full-time data engineer role, but gradually, she started feeling "unseen" — and she often felt that her work wasn't creating much impact.