Alana Karen ’95 Shares Career Insights from 23 Years at Google

Alana Karen ’95 returned to campus this month to speak with students and members of the Rutgers Prep community about women in tech and navigating a career in the industry.

During more than two decades at Google, Karen led teams across Search, Ads, and Fiber and helped shape products used by billions. A history major who taught herself HTML in college, she spoke about the leaps that defined her career and the skills that helped her grow as a leader.

In sessions with students from the Women in Business Club during the day and an audience of alumni, trustees, parents, and faculty in the evening, Karen shared lessons from the recently released second edition of her book “The Adventures of Women in Tech.” In it, she introduces five important tools for success: building resilience, learning how to market yourself, asking for what you need, finding support networks, and “owning your awesome,” which means recognizing your value before others do.

She left attendees with a message about the importance of knowing who you are, even when the path ahead is unclear. “You are your own true north,” she said. “It’s not necessarily that you’ll know exactly your future goals or plans. It's more that you’ll know that you know the person who is taking you there: you. And you trust them, their values, and their choices to take you there.”

Karen was kind enough to give each of the students a copy of her book and spent time connecting with many of them one-on-one after her talk concluded.

Thank you to Alana Karen for the visit and sharing her career journey with us.