Side Quests That Supercharged A Tech Executive’s Career

How 20% projects, community contributions and hobbies accelerated an ex-Google director's career growth

Intro

Today’s article is a guest post by Chaitali Narla, Eng Lead at Stripe, ex-Google Director, and a fellow author at ChaiTime (subscribe if you haven’t!).

When I first reached out to Chaitali, I was curious how she leveled up so quickly at Google. She went from an intern to a director within ten years. That sort of growth is amazing and should be recognized.

Chaitali shared a secret with me that she’ll also share with you in this article: Side Quests. Without further ado, here’s Chaitali’s story.