A former Google employee, who spent three years at the company, has revealed how he got a major bonus amount in just 8 months of joining. He transitioned from feeling “weird” about having little work to leading a team within two months. Notably, he also received a promotion and a $95,000 (around Rs 80 lakh) bonus.

San Francisco-based Jerry Lee, 29-year-old, joined Google as a strategist. He was the youngest member in his team. He described his first two months as “weird”. He wrote on Threads, “I was told to ‘take it easy,’ eat the free food, explore campus, you know, the works. Part of me felt like they thought I was just some kid who couldn’t contribute much, especially since I was the youngest on a team with folks who were 6+ years out of school. I think they saw me as a potential ‘negative’ for the first few months.”

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After a couple of months, he grew bored of not having much to do and felt the need to contribute meaningfully. He began asking around for projects and was eventually tasked with a market landscape analysis. While diving into the task, he discovered a significant product loophole that had gone unnoticed by the team, which proved to be a crucial finding.

This discovery quickly escalated into him leading a major project, managing a team that included two project managers, six engineers, five analysts, and members from operations and legal departments. The success of the project earned him a promotion and a 30% raise, resulting in a bonus of around Rs 80 lakh just eight months after joining Google.

He wrote, “Suddenly, I was leading a project with two PMs, six engineers, five other analysts, & folks in operations and legal. It was a huge deal. And that project? It led to a promotion within my first eight months & a ~30% raise”.

He shared on LinkedIn that he was overwhelmed with emotion upon receiving the news, as it meant he could pay off his student loans faster and treat his parents to a well-deserved vacation. He encouraged professionals to take initiative and create their own opportunities instead of waiting for them.

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