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9 things I learned from 9 years at Google

Noor Ali-Hasan
UX Research Journal
8 min readDec 12, 2021
Collection of Android toys in front of a window.
My Android figurine collection at my desk — summer 2021. Photo by author.

This past Friday (December 10, 2021) marked my nine year Googleversary! Nobody makes a big deal out of nine year anniversaries but I have been all week! When I joined Google back in late 2012, I had a major case of imposter syndrome and felt that I needed to constantly prove myself. For a long time, I wasn’t sure if I was good enough to be a Googler. So being at Google for nine years makes me feel like I’ve persevered and accomplished something really important. More than anything, I’m proud of the work I’ve done and feel blessed to have been part of some amazing launches (the first version of Chromecast and the first Pixel phone being two of my favorites). I’m grateful to so many people who’ve mentored me and helped me find my place.

There are so many things I wish I had known when I was applying for a job at Google and during my first few years. Since I’m feeling nostalgic (and want to make a big deal out of the nine years), here are nine things I’ve learned either about myself, Google, or work in general in my nine years at Google:

1.It gets better.
It may seem odd to start off a celebratory list telling you that whatever suck you’re going through right now, it will get better. But things always do. Starting a new job is really hard … being a Noogler (a Googler who’s been at Google less than a year) is insurmountably hard. It’s really hard to…

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UX Research Journal
UX Research Journal

Published in UX Research Journal

Writings on starting a career in UX research from Noor Ali-Hasan, a UX research lead at Google with more than 15 years of experience in the field.

Noor Ali-Hasan
Noor Ali-Hasan

Written by Noor Ali-Hasan

I’m a UX research lead at Google, where I help teams design and build desirable and easy to use products. Outside of work, I love art, Peloton, and Lego.

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