New work at Google

This monumental moment in my life deserves a blog post. Not the moment I got an interview, not the moment I received my offer letter, not my last day at Havas, but just the night (actually morning) before my first day at work at Google. As much as I will hate to appear and give off the vibe that I am a starry-eyed, fresh face newbie at Google, because it just diminishes all the wisdom and experience I've accumulated before I got here, I have a feeling it will be hard to hide my newbie enthusiasm once I'm in the office, making connections with all the (potential) bright minds around me. In retrospect, this may not be a bad thing at all, since newbie enthusiasm does create things that a jaded old bird will not be able to do so.

Which brings me to the most important points I want to make in this post, as an eternal reminder to myself for as long as I'm employed in Google.

1) Remember your purpose here
- This role will be my stepping stone towards product marketing, which gives me opportunity to create or shape products within the technology space. Hence, always keep this in mind and even if I would be stuck doing things that I may not enjoy in the current role, know that as long as I excel in this role, there is a higher chance of moving towards my goal of product marketing.
- Remember why this job have been so perfect for me, not only because I had always worked towards Google or any technology giant firms, but also that finally I will be able to achieve a work-life balance. I truly believe work-life balance is as vague and relative as someone defines it. To me, there's really no 9-6 work time and the rest is non-work. Work is so integrated into our lives (or mine) that it makes more sense to think about work-life balance as - 9 to 6 committed to daily operational work that requires working with people, after 6 to have freed up time where there is a choice between taking time off to rest and invest in my own life, or simply to work on non-operational, bigger picture work that solves bigger problems.

2) Do not forget your past
- What had I struggled with when I was running digital campaigns for clients when I was in Havas? Number 1 comes to mind has always been the justification of digital campaign performances and weak showcasing and benchmarking done. Number 2 enemy will be weak reporting format and data warehouse dashboarding for clients.

3) Always be connected and plugged into the bigger advertising world
- With digital always fast-moving, will digital budget on Google actually starts shifting towards social media, which currently is unfavourable to Google? Other than keeping any eye on the obvious upcoming platforms like Instagram, or Snapchat, Meerkat, Periscope etc., I will also need to understand all the fundamental reasons for campaigns budget not being on Google (Search if you may) and help to derive any sort of technical insights that may help push for enhancement and even new advertising products in Google. I may find this difficult while I'm in DS team as my attention and focus needs to be achieving sales target for DS only, but remembering my bigger goal at Google (Point 1) will help me to stay on track for this one. Otherwise, all my experience and technical insights from my days in Havas will be down the drain.

It's 2am, will write more if there're any more wisdoms I need to impart to my future self.

Good luck to me for tomorrow!