I experienced this from the other direction, joining Google and assuming the work would be stimulating because it's The Best Smart-Person Job (at least at the t

I experienced this from the other direction, joining Google and assuming the work would be stimulating because it's The Best Smart-Person Job (at least at the time). I didn't have a lot of good mentorship, so it took me years of wrong turns until I found myself where I am today, finally feeling like my career doing Applied CS Research is a good fit for me.