Dating, FOMO, Perfectionism: 100K Q&A
About this video
In a 100K subscriber Q&A covering career, personal, YouTube journey, productivity, and motivation, Jeff says he loves working at Google mainly for psychological safety — being comfortable admitting mistakes to his team and manager knowing they will support rather than judge — and sees himself there for the next five to ten years if they will have him. His post-graduation advice is unpopular by his own admission: work hard and develop a skill set for the first one or two years and do not expect a large impact or to immediately work on something you love, because fresh graduates lack the credibility to get senior leadership and cross-functional support. His hardest experience was his first three months at Google, joining from management consulting into sales with no sales experience; after shadowing senior sellers, making mistakes, and doing homework outside work hours, he felt comfortable after six months. For job search beyond social media, he recommends college alumni databases, saying networking matters much more than a perfect resume, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile. He has no near-term plan to start a company and would probably be a professor if money were no concern. He recommends ‘Never Split the Difference’ by Chris Voss ‘Contagious’ by Jonah Berger for marketers, and the John Rain fiction series by Barry Eisler. He started YouTube after making embarrassing mistakes in his own college job search, including being laughed out of an investment banking interview, to help younger professionals avoid the same mistakes, and says his content will keep revolving around career, productivity, and personal pillars rather than optimizing for a subscriber count. On productivity he argues tools do not really matter, the free version of Todoist is enough for him, and books cannot be substituted by videos or podcasts because good books go far more in-depth. He addresses FOMO by cutting distractions and replacing them with meaningful work, perfectionism and failure with a ‘distraction plus time’ method before returning to analyze what went wrong, and habit-building by focusing on one new habit for a month, recommending James Clear’s ‘Atomic Habits’.
Key takeaways
- He loves working at Google chiefly for psychological safety and sees himself there for the next five to ten years if they will have him
- For the first one or two years after graduating, work hard and develop a leverageable skill set instead of expecting immediate impact or work you love
- His first three months at Google were extremely difficult — joining sales from management consulting with no sales experience — and he felt comfortable after six months
- Use college alumni databases for networking; he says networking is much more important than a perfect resume, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile
- For perfectionism and failure he uses ‘distraction plus time’ — step away until it hurts less, then return to analyze and plan how to improve
Episode details: published August 31, 2021 · 18:50 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Jeff Su’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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