Jenny Cheng has been in talks for years with Google to join the multinational’s team. However, there was never the right place at the right time.

After four years as an executive at Paypal, and after planning to take a year off from work because she was exhausted from working during the pandemic, Cheng got a call from Google, who offered her the role of vice president and general manager. in Google Wallet, as reported by CNBC.

Before taking the job, Cheng asked herself two questions to make sure the position aligned with her values ​​and goals: “Do I have a passion for this job?” and “Am I excited to work with this team?”

The secret to building a “happier, more successful career,” Cheng discovered, can be boiled down to two rules: Find work you’re passionate about and people you enjoy working with.

“How do you define success?”

The first step in planning your dream career is to define what success and happiness means to you, Cheng explains: “You have to start there and get specific.”

It’s easy to fall into the trap of measuring your success by your job title or by hitting a goal, like getting promoted within a year or earning a bonus, “but when it comes to defining of success, titles and money, shouldn’t affect us,” says Cheng.

“At the end of the day, it’s about finding work that you’re passionate about, something that you’ll really enjoy doing for hours on end,” he says.

“Find an environment where you can be your whole self”
The most underrated component of a successful, fulfilling career is the people one works with, Cheng argues.
“Throughout my career, there have been many times where I’ve been told, ‘Oh, you’re not a typical executive,’ because I’m probably a little laid back,” she says. “But I think we’re moving into this more authentic culture where you can bring your whole self to work and you don’t have to fit a certain behavioral mold.”

Finding a supportive environment where work-life boundaries are respected and people are kind, Cheng adds, is “really, really important.”

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