By Tess Martinelli
Publication Date: 2025-12-29 19:06:00
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Gregor Konzett, a 27-year-old former Google employee based in London. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
When I got relocated to work out of Google’s Mountain View headquarters in 2024, it was a dream come true.
I was raised in a small village in Austria, but I always dreamed of living in Silicon Valley. As a child who was excited about tech, I wanted to be where innovation happened.
My team was based in California, but I was working from London. Not even a year into my job, I was asking if I could be transferred.
Two years after getting hired as a software engineer, Google transferred me to Silicon Valley. Then, a year after that, I quit. I packed up my bags and moved back to London in just two weeks to participate in a startup accelerator program. It was worth the risk, even in this difficult job market.
