My current manager, Jeff, whom I adore, invited me to a "catch up lunch" today.
We never have 1:1's with each other because he's as anti-meeting as possible. I kinda figured something was up when I saw the meeting invite pop up on my calendar somewhere in between 10am and 11am.
Well, Jeff focuses on recruiting for the product team at YouTube as well as general HR related tasks for the org. He never had a sales recruiting focus, which is where I lie. Original, he took me on as a reportee because the person who I would have reported to was in our European Offices. To have a new recruiter starting out who's never done the job before to report to someone who's half way around the world as well as not have sales recruiters around him, well, that's just kinda stupid. He fought to have me report to him instead of someone in the sales recruiting world. Technically, it was kind of a secret.
Well today, he sat me down at lunch and chit chatted about random stuff. I could then sense a slight uptick in the serious tone of the conversation, which is what I expected since we've never had a "calendar invited" lunch before. First, he said, "Well, you know, there is going to be someone taking over the org you recruit for. He's going to start being your direct manager sometime in the near future, probably September. It'll be good because he wants you to feel like you're part of a team and can get the support you need." Jeff and I shot the shit a bit more before he randomly inserted my performance review very informally... "Well, you did well... you were at <insert level/score> for the quarter. It was an improvement over the previous quarter." He gave me a quick suggestion in terms of what to focus on, but shaped in the form of a warning. "You weren't on top of this, whereas, I wouldn't care, but Brian (my new manager) will care about that more than I would." He also mentioned, "You'll be compared against people in the sales recruiting world now, not the people who report to me."
Jeff's always looking out for my best interest, which i totally appreciate. I can still come to him for guidance. I'm going to be honest, he's connected like Jesus internally. He knows everyone. He knows who to talk to get things done and go through hoops if needed. I'm going to miss having that, but Jeff said he'll still be there for me to break down barriers.
I'm sort of feeling torn right now. Jeff tried to ease the pain by letting me know that Brian actually took over for him in his last role and he's an awesome guy. I feel like Jeff has been an awesome mentor, whom I can still look for guidance in, but I won't report to anymore. Brian, will be in New York, so I won't have very much contact with him in person.
Jeff was quick to highlight, "I'm sure Brian's going to want you to visit New York more." He totally knew that would make me feel better. Travel on the company dime always does.
We ended the lunch talking about more random shit. The lunch was about an hour in length. I talked to him about some random movies I had watched over the weekend, including Long Time Companion and The Celluloid Closet. Both of which were fantastic LGBT focused films. He ended by showing me a photo of Kevin, his partner. I asked him to show me a photo because I've always heard his name, but never knew what he looked like.
We walked back to our desk and I asked Jeff, "So was that lunch to take the place of my performance review? Is it because you don't like formal meetings?" He was like "Yea, who needs 'em?"
And so I go back into the world of formality after a 5 month long escape from it. In the end there will be benefits to moving to a new manager. I'm sure I'll have clearer goals, more of a feeling of a being part of a "team," and well, a chance to possibly travel.
In my nearly 5 years at Google, I must now add Jeff to my long list of GOOG Managers:
- Dara - AdWords Temp Manager (Mountain View)
- Matt - AdWords Tier 3 Manager (Mountain View)
- Megan - AdWords Phone Team Manager (Mountain View)
- Tolu - AdWords Workflow Manager (Mountain View)
- Bethany - AdWords Quality/Workflow Manager (Ann Arbor)
- Maeve - AdWords Quality Team Manager (Mountain View)
- Tom - YouTube OSO Ads Manager/Director (San Bruno)
- Doug - YouTube OSO Ads Manager (San Bruno)
- Jeff - YouTube Recruiting Manager (San Bruno)
- Brian - YouTube/Google Sales Recruiting Manager (San Bruno, based out of NYC)
I think Jeff's support and guidance single handedly kept me working at the GOOG rather than quitting or taking a break. I hit my career quarter life crisis right before he was my manager. He reminded me of why it's such an amazing company to work for.
One thing I think Jeff could be better at is long term career guidance. I hope to get a little bit of that from Brian. I think it's because Jeff is used to working with fairly seasoned recruiters who know what they want and need. I'm still looking for that guidance and support. It's also my responsibility to bring it up. I've been pretty much living in the now, though.
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