I have no idea whether I could study hard enough to work at Google. What I do know is that I don’t like large companies and I have no desire to move to the west coast.
> What I do know is that I don’t like large companies
I think this is a key thing to learn about oneself. Very large companies often have a lot of cachet and can provide opportunities that small companies cannot (scale is scale, after all).
But small companies (not even start-ups, just companies with < 100 employees) can provide a different kind of opportunities:
* Interaction with different parts of the business
* Opportunity to wear multiple hats
* Less likely to be in the Bay area
* Nowhere to hide incompetence
Of course this isn't every small company, but I have worked in a few that were like this.
It is all of that and while after 20+ years developing professionally and developing as a hobbyist since middle school, I’ve never felt burnt out from continuously learning. But,I was burned out by big company politics and bureaucracy after only three when I was worked at a large Fortune 10 (non tech) company.
