You Are Not Your LDAP

Why Leaving Your Job Doesn’t Mean Losing Your Identity

hunter@google.com: From 2003-2013, it was a pretty powerful email address for me. I was the first “Hunter” to work at Google, so I got the six-letter name (the second Hunter went for retnuh@ — “hunter” backwards. Obviously he’s an engineer). And @google.com pretty much meant that any recipient would open the email whether they knew who I was or not — especially pleasurable since I joined Google from a lesser-known startup where you’re trying to convince the world you matter.

Often it wasn’t just an email address that drew attention. In the early Google years I had to be thoughtful about wearing logo gear outside of work. People would stop me on the street to tell me their Google search stories of triumph or failure, ask me about their website ranking, and, around the time of the IPO, make wild assumptions about my net worth.

When I started wearing YouTube clothing, the attention continued; it just shifted younger and to more aspiring rappers than webmasters. Everyone always had a favorite video to tell you about. And they assumed you knew it among the hundreds of millions of videos on the site.

The braggadocious email address and random interactions with strangers were cool, but the really sweet nectar came only as I started to take on more responsibility leading YouTube’s product team. The role connected me with notable technologists, investors, and media industry figures. YouTube founder Chad Hurley was…