Leaving Google to Become a Fitness Coach

In June 2025, I left Google - nearly 10 years into my software engineering career.

Not for another job. Not because I was burned out.

I worked at Google for 5+ years on the WearOS team. I became a Senior Software Engineer after about 2 years, and later a Tech Lead. Google had been my dream company since college. And I was grateful to work there - I learned a lot, met great people, and it was everything I thought I wanted.

But somewhere along the way, that changed.

This isn’t a “10 lessons that led me to leave Google” post. It’s just a candid account of what happened.

It Started With Fitness

In January 2024, I signed up with a fitness coach.

I wasn’t overweight or unhealthy. I just wanted visible abs at least once in my life - as cliche as that sounds, it was genuinely my goal. I also wanted to build real strength in calisthenics. I’d been stuck at 6-7 pull-ups for too long, and I wanted to progress across all bodyweight movements.

For the next 15 months, I trained with more structure than I’d ever done before. I tracked everything - workouts, food, sleep. I scheduled workouts in my calendar like they were important meetings.

I signed up for a fitness photoshoot in April 2025. The last 4 months leading up to it were intense. I was in a significant calorie deficit the whole time. Every meal was planned. I even carried my own lunch to the Google office - which is unusual at a company with multiple cafes and free food everywhere.

I was hungry a lot. My physical energy was low. But mentally, I felt sharper than I had in years.

I did the shoot at 9.2% body fat. It was hard. But it was also one of the most rewarding things I’ve done.

During this journey, I realized your body is one area where effort leads to guaranteed returns. No politics. No approvals needed. Just action and outcome. Seeing my body change because of my decisions was rewarding, and I wanted more of that.

Beyond My Own Transformation

The transformation had a big impact on me - physically, mentally, emotionally. I wanted to share what I’d learned and help others do the same.

This led to two things: I started a fitness blog in May 2025 to write about what it actually takes to transform your body - the process and mindset behind getting lean.

I had already signed up for a coaching certification with INFS in September 2024 - months before the shoot - for similar reasons. I completed it in August 2025.

Both felt meaningful in a way my day job didn’t.

Meanwhile, at Work

Let me be clear: Google is still one of the best technology companies out there. I’m grateful for the people I met. I learned a lot about software engineering.

But by 2024, I knew I didn’t want to work there anymore.

It wasn’t one specific thing. It was multiple small frustrations over time:

Everything was slow. Shipping even a small feature needed multiple approvals, coordination across teams, and some politics. I had to do a lot of work just to do the actual work. Meetings, alignment, bureaucracy - it took a lot of energy.

No skin in the game. Most people got their salary whether the project shipped or not. There wasn’t much urgency. Impact felt diluted. It felt like nothing in the world would change if I just stopped.

No growth. I wasn’t learning much anymore. I wasn’t getting that kick from my work. I also realized that working in a job would always have a ceiling. And I didn’t want that ceiling anymore.

The problems I was working on at Google didn’t appeal to me anymore. Problems in the fitness space did. I felt a strong urge to spend my time solving those instead.

Switching teams wasn’t going to help.

The Decision

By late 2024, it became clear: I didn’t want to work for Google. And I didn’t want to work for any other company either, at least not for a while.

I’d gotten a taste of this during a month-long unpaid leave in 2023 - no meetings, no deadlines, just complete control over my time. I wanted more of that.

The fitness journey showed me what I wanted to spend my time on. Not just my own fitness, but solving problems in the fitness space. Helping others transform like I did.

Nothing else appealed to me as much. It didn’t make sense to spend my time on other things.

On the financial side:

• My wife and I had good savings
• She had no plans of leaving, so we’d have one income
• I knew I could always go back to a software job if needed

The hardest part was figuring out what I’d actually do after leaving.

I still don’t have a complete answer. But I decided to work on two things:

1. Focus on fitness coaching
2. Build software in the fitness space - this is the first thing I’m working on

Letting go of all the unvested shares I’d been granted over the years was quite hard.

Convincing my family took effort. My family is much more comfortable with the idea of a stable job. Walking away from Google wasn’t an easy conversation.

My wife was supportive. We had a few discussions that helped me think things through more clearly. I’m grateful for that.

There were doubts. You always have doubts with a decision like this. But the doubts were always about how I’d achieve what I wanted - never about leaving itself.

My last day at Google was emotional. It had been my dream company since college. I’d made good friends there. It was hard knowing I wouldn’t see them every day anymore. But I was excited for what was next.

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In my next post, I’ll share what the 7 months since leaving have been like - coaching my first clients, building my own fitness product, and the hard parts.