And now I work at......!

via

(note: I am a contract employee via Adecco)

To me, Google is the Disneyland of employment.

Consistently ranked the #1 place to work...free (amazing) food...happy, hard-working people...colorful bicycles...interesting decor all over the place (including a slide and a dinosaur)...conference rooms named after YouTube videos...nap pods...gyms...did I mention all the free meals...seriously, it is the ultimate dream. Like the magical unicorn of jobs. The energy on a Google campus feels like walking down the Main Street of Disneyland. And it's been *my* dream to find a way in, ever since I moved here and actually met people who work there, and discovered that no one from the inside had anything bad to say about it. IT REALLY IS AS MAGICAL AS THEY SAY.

So you can imagine my more-than-a-little-totally-over-the-moon excitement when I officially accepted a Google (contract via Adecco) job offer today!

I kid you not, I think I was prancercising down the streets of San Francisco when the phone call came. My role is in the People Operations (aka HR) arena, and it's a temporary gig for the next few months. (A HUGE thank you to my friends Brian and Anna for referring me and then pep-talking me through the interview process.)

I've had mooorrreee than my fill of temporary/contract gigs over the last year, so I've mostly avoided them like the plague as my Ralph Lauren gig drew to a close and I began looking for the next thing. But I always said that Google would be the one place I'd make an exception for on the contract/temporary front, just to get my foot in that magical unicorn door. (Let's be real, they probably have a door somewhere with a unicorn painted on it. I wouldn't be even slightly surprised.)

So, there you have it! I feel so grateful...and relieved! Oh my little heart, so relieved. The last year of my career life with all its ups and downs and hopes and rejections has seriously worn me emotionally thin....like thinner than thin. Like pancakes are thin, but then there's crepes. Like that kind of emotional thinness. (Look, Google didn't hire me for my analogy skills...just go with it.) I've been wanting/needing/hoping for a "win" for some time now. Win, indeed! Time to refatten my soul. (This analogy is getting weird, but...they do say the "Google 15" is a thing with all that free food. Can I apply it emotionally?)

I've had a few different potential job opportunities over the last month, and as I've navigated the interview processes I've really been praying and trying to focus on my gut feeling. And when a couple sort-of-OK job offers came, I considered each of them....but my overwhelming, clear feeling was "Just keep waiting." And I was like "I'm hella tired of waiting, but gosh, OK." And when the chance to interview with Google came, I was a little afraid. Because, I went through 6 rounds of interviews with them last year only to get turned down -- and it kind of crushed my job-hunting soul at the time. But that little voice said, "This one is right," so I trusted that (and also threatened to throttle that little voice if it was lying to me) and went for it. And what do you know? Sometimes when life seems to shove you off a cliff, there is that safety net waiting after all :)

And now I will celebrate by getting crunk on apple juice, whatever that means...