Why this Google engineer says he had ‘no choice’ but to quit

Arpit Bhayani, who had two stints at the technology major, said he was forced to depart due to issues linked to his educational content creation activities. Alongside his role at Google, Bhayani creates online courses and YouTube content focused on software engineering and computer science concepts.

Announcing his exit on social media platform X, Bhayani said his departure was not voluntary.

“Yesterday was my last day at Google. It is not bittersweet, but a purely bitter moment. I had no plans of leaving, but I had no choice left,” he wrote.

“I had to leave because of a conflict with my outside work (courses and YouTube), and once legal gets involved, there is not much you can do,” he added.

Bhayani expressed disappointment at leaving behind work he was deeply invested in, particularly in the field of in-memory databases.

“I am bummed about leaving a domain that I dearly love. I was working with some exceptionally good engineers and genuinely good people, and there was so much good stuff left to build,” he said.

Despite the circumstances, Bhayani said he remained grateful to the company for the opportunities it provided.

“I will forever be grateful to Google for giving me two stints. Both were extremely fulfilling and made me a better engineer and operator,” he wrote.

His post drew mixed reactions online, with some expressing sympathy and others criticising big technology companies for discouraging side projects.

“Sorry to hear about it, Arpit. Best of luck, and let us know if we can help in any way,” one user wrote.

Another commented, “It’s wild that big tech still treats side projects as a bug and not a feature.”