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Why this Google data engineer quit the ‘dream job’ to pursue a PhD: ‘Crazy, scary’

Joslyn Orgill walked away from what many consider a dream role, a well-paid data engineering position at Google’s Austin office.

3 min readNew DelhiJan 19, 2026 04:56 PM IST

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A former Google data engineer quit her six-figure salary and job security in big tech for a PhD classroom, believing that a more meaningful career is worth the financial uncertainty.

According to Business Insider, Joslyn Orgill walked away from what many consider a dream role, a well-paid data engineering position at Google’s Austin office, earlier this year.

The 30-year-old had seen Google as her breakthrough in a tech career, after interning at ExxonMobil and Adobe and completing an integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree in information systems from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2021.

Despite owning a home in Austin with her husband and enjoying the stability that came with a six-figure income, Orgill said she increasingly felt disconnected from her work. Her contributions, she told Business Insider, often went ‘unseen,” and the role did not feel like the right long-term fit.

The report stated that her doubts intensified amid broader instability in the tech industry. Just six months into her job, Google announced plans in January 2023 to lay off about 12,000 employees, a moment Orgill described as ‘crazy’ and ‘scary.’

Watching friends struggle to find jobs during the hiring slowdown further shook her confidence that switching to another tech company would bring greater satisfaction or security. While she explored internal and external opportunities, Orgill found few roles that excited her, reinforcing her concerns about stagnation and long-term fulfilment in big tech, the report added.

What ultimately pulled her away from Google, however, was a long-standing passion for teaching. While at BYU, she worked as an adjunct professor, teaching two sections of an introductory programming and analytics course.

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Initially, Orgill had imagined staying in the industry for years before returning to academia later in life. Over time, she began questioning that plan, worrying she would always ask herself, “What if I had?” pursued teaching earlier.

In August, Orgill resigned from Google and enrolled in a computer science PhD programme focused on education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Her broader goal, she told Business Insider, is to help expand participation in the tech industry, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds, and to make them feel confident they can “do something with technology.”