Last summer, Bushra Amiwala faced a career-defining choice: stay at Google or quit to run for Congress.
In May, Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who represents Illinois 9th District, announced she would not seek reelection. With the seat open, Amiwala said she began weighing a run, speaking with more than 100 district residents in and around Skokie, where she lives.
As she weighed the decision, Amiwala, 28, said she applied for a six-month unpaid leave of absence from Google. When her request was denied, she said she was left with two options.
“Do I run for this seat and quit my job, or do I stay at Google and never try?” she said. In June, Amiwala announced her candidacy, and on August 30, she resigned from Google to run her campaign full-time.
Over the past year, I’ve interviewed more than a dozen people — many from Big Tech companies — who quit their jobs without having another role lined up. They’ve become outliers in an economy where people are quitting at near-decade lows — a trend fueled by a hiring slowdown across tech and other sectors that has left many holding tightly to their jobs.
After leaving their jobs, some took relatively safe paths, eventually joining other companies in similar roles. Others made riskier bets, launching startups or pursuing entirely new careers. Amiwala took a different kind of leap: leaving Google to run for Congress, part of a small but growing wave of younger Americans entering politics.
“The idea of solving problems for people to make their lives easier has always inspired me,” Amiwala said.
She asked herself 2 questions before quitting Google
This isn’t Amiwala’s first time running for office. In 2018, she lost a bid for Cook County commissioner. But a year later, while enrolled at DePaul University, she ran for the Skokie Board of Education and won. At 21, she became one of the first members of Gen Z elected to public office in the US. She balanced this part-time role with a sales associate job at Google based in Chicago, which she started after graduating in 2020.
The financial implications of leaving Google were a “huge consideration” for Amiwala. She said one reason she didn’t pursue public service full-time sooner was that she wanted to provide financial support for her immigrant parents — and saw tech as a more stable path.
Despite these concerns, Amiwala said two questions helped her get comfortable with leaving Google. The first was, “Are you all talk and no action?”
“I was always talking about how I’d love to be able to make an impact in Congress,” she said. “So it’s like, are you all talk? Are you actually going to do it?”
The second question was whether, five or 10 years from now, she would regret the decision.
“For me, it was a no-brainer,” she said. “I knew I’d regret not doing it, and that matrix of decision-making made it really easy for me.”
Since resigning, she said she’s taken some comfort from the savings and equity she’d accumulated over the years. She decided not to pay herself a salary from her campaign funds but has occasionally received small speaking stipends, which have helped cover some expenses. To cut costs, she said she’s “deflated” her lifestyle, cutting back on dinners with friends and personal training appointments.
“I think there was a lot of lifestyle inflation that happens when working at a tech role that just isn’t as necessary,” she said.
Advice for young professionals — and aspiring politicians
Fifteen Democrats, including Amiwala, and four Republicans are running for the congressional seat in the March 17 primary. Recent polling points to three leading Democratic candidates: Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, Internet content creator Kat Abughazaleh, and Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine.
Amiwala said she’s focused on her campaign and hasn’t yet thought seriously about what would come next if she loses the election. But she’s navigated challenges before in her career.
The summer after her junior year at DePaul, where she studied management information systems, she interned at a large consulting firm — but did not receive a return offer. That fall, during her senior year, she applied for a role at Google without a referral and, after a few interviews, received an offer.
Amiwala’s advice for young professionals: It’s unrealistic to expect your career to fulfill the financial, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your life that matter most. So you might have to look outside your job for these things.
For anyone considering leaving their jobs to run for office, she recommends speaking with community leaders who can provide insight into the issues constituents care about. She said that running for office isn’t the only way to get involved politically, but that if you’re considering it, it could be a sign you’re well-suited for it.
“It’s a very specific type of person who thinks about running for office,” she said. “The average person does not think like that. So if that is something that interests you and you feel uniquely equipped to do it successfully, you absolutely should.”
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