- Aaron Neyer joined Google in 2021 as an engineer after several years of self-discovery and nomadic living.
- In January 2023, he was one of more than 12,000 employees laid off. He felt a sense of relief and openness.
- Neyer now runs a nonprofit, is involved with local government and is pursuing a second master’s degree.
This essay as told is based on a conversation with Aaron Neyer, executive director of the nonprofit organization. Woven canvas and former Developer Relations Engineer at Google based in Boulder, Colorado. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I studied computer science in college and interned at Google after my freshman year. I received an offer to return full-timebut I wanted to travel and felt like going the startup route would give me a lot more flexibility.
My father died around the time I graduated. I moved to San Francisco for work, but a few months later I realized I didn’t want to lock down full time and quit.
I spent the next four years being fundamentally nomadic – doing the free-spirited hippie thing. During this time, I lived off savings from my work in the tech industry, from the life insurance I received when my father passed away, and from some smart crypto investments I made.
I have attended many different gatherings such as music festivals, dance retreats, and meditation retreats, connecting with all kinds of people. It was a time of self-discovery as well as a time of healing from the grief of losing both my parents, as my mother had passed away when I was younger.
I wanted to participate more effectively in the world
After a while, I decided that I wanted to start participating in the world again in a way that felt more effective. I earned a master’s degree in ecopsychology from Naropa University to ground my philosophy on how change can happen and how we can create more connections in the world.
I missed the intellectual rigor, creativity, and financial stability of the tech world. applied to join Google and started working there in May 2021 as a developer relations engineer. My job was 60% coding and 40% community relations.
At Google, we have all been able to use our “20% of the time” work on something outside of our core roles, and I dedicated mine to work related to connecting people and climate. I was part of a local climate community within Google called Anthropocene, which was working on how we could focus more on climate solutions inside Google. I also worked on a small project called Project Nature, trying to introduce ideas from ecopsychology into Google’s processes and products, as well as on Flourish, a project of Google’s startup incubator, Area 120, aimed at helping people stay connected to each other.
After Flourish was removed from Area 120, I tried to find a way to get staffed and work on it full time as an internal project, but it became clear to me that the budget crunch and Google’s structures were not going to be enough. support this.
Just two weeks later, in January 2023, I was fired. I felt almost a relief and a sense of openness. I suddenly had the blessing of a healthy allowance to use to create what I wanted outside of Google.
I worked to build community and strengthen connections
From March to May, I job searched on and off and almost joined an early stage startup, but nothing really came to fruition. I wanted to do something meaningful and satisfying. I also traveled the United States a bit, read and wrote a lot, and participated in many community engagements. I have a thriving community here in Boulder and love being in nature, learning and growing.
I became Executive Director of a non-profit organization that I joined in 2022 called Consciousness Hacking Colorado and led its relaunch as Woven Web. We are an organization that aims to facilitate harmony between technology, society, consciousness and nature, and we place great importance on helping people communicate and collaborate more effectively.
I also began exploring political involvement and ran for Boulder City Council. Even though I didn’t win my race, the city council appointed me to the Human Relations Commission. It’s going very well. I have started conversations about how we resolve tensions in our community, particularly regarding the conflict in the Middle East, and we are starting to make proposals for how we can bring better dialogue into our city.
I am also pursuing a second master’s degree, this time in creative technology and design at the Atlas Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. It’s been really fun to develop my technical skills again in a creative way, with coding and generative art.
In October, Woven Web coordinated a 10-day event to connect people from different communities and ultimately create more cohesion in Boulder. It also served as a starting point for us to raise serious philanthropic funds and grants so that I could pay myself to be a full-time executive director.
The path I’m on is beautiful
I don’t have too many regrets in life. There are so many paths, but the one I’m on is truly beautiful. I feel like I’ve lived a full life since my layoff. I was really excited to have a lot of space away from my main work environment, and now I’m really happy to have a lot of structure again in terms of woven web and school.
I will return to some form of full-time work at some point, but I’m not rushing to make any decisions. For now, I feel stable enough to continue prioritizing learning and building community, leveraging many of the gifts I received at Google.
I pass by the Google office here in Boulder a lot and often feel tenderness in my heart. I even had tears in my eyes already. For all the company’s faults, it does many things well, like the great community of people who work there. I have so much love for so many people.
If you followed an unconventional career path before or after Big Tech and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang at janezhang@businessinsider.com.