Owning Your Career: Jenny Wood

Jenny Wood describes her career guidance as ‘common sense that’s rarely common practice.’ But through her creation and stewarding of the Own Your Career program at Google, she’s taught over 39,000 people and counting. And she’s now writing a highly anticipated book. So it’s safe to say that ‘common practice’ might not be that far away.

In her talk with Jesse, Jenny describes how 15 years at Google—where she grew from entry-level employee to operations executive—gave her the wisdom and experience to write a new playbook for any employee seeking to develop more confidence and chart their own journey to fulfillment. She touches on lessons she learned from resilient grandparents & industrious parents; her F-L-I-P method for knowing when it’s time to change roles; how to improve your approaches to networking and finding mentors; and ways to position yourself as a rockstar during organizational upheavals. No matter your industry or stage in life, Jenny’s advice is insightful, easy to remember and certain to transform how you think about your career. 

(2:59) Lessons from a hard-working family

(5:05) Seeking growth from within during 15 years at Google

(8:11) Knowing when to F-L-I-P your role

(11:23) About the Own Your Career program

(13:10) Gifts and hooks: How to land an awesome mentor + new ways to network

(23:24) The keys to thriving during a reorganization at work

(29:18) On writing for an ‘everybody audience’

Guest Bio

Jenny Wood has grown from entry-level to an executive role at Google over her 15 years with the company, and she leads a large operations team that helps drive tens of billions of revenue per year. In 2021, she started a passion project within Google called Own Your Career. Through the program she founded, she’s trained 39,000 people on: acing a job search, building relationships, personal branding, effective email writing, landing the right mentor, maximizing workplace influence, and most importantly, increasing confidence.

A former Harvard Business Publishing writer, Jenny is now writing a book about going above and beyond to unapologetically achieve your goals. Jenny is an FAA-licensed private pilot, a daily hiker, an improv student, a tap dancer, and a zucchini bread connoisseur. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her two young children and her husband, Jon. 

Helpful Links

Itsjennywood.com

Jenny’s articles for Entrepreneur

Referenced in the episode: Build for Tomorrow by Jason Feifer (avail Sep 2022)

Jenny and Jon’s story in the New York Times

Jenny on LinkedIn