Google exec: Here's the No. 1 piece of advice I want young people to learn from me

The idea of a career ladder is great, in theory — steadily progressing up the ranks from intern to CEO — but most people's jobs don't work that way. You might change industries, switch departments or even get laid off.

That's why Google Chief Marketing Officer Lorraine Twohill wants young people to "enjoy the journey" instead of trying to meticulously plan their entire careers, she told LinkedIn's "This Is Working" podcast, in an episode that aired earlier this month.

"Learn as much as you can. I feel like life and companies like Google are more like a jungle gym than a career ladder," said Twohill, who manages a team of more than 4,000 employees. "Try different roles, try different things out for size. Work in different teams, different areas, acquire as many skills as you can. And be informed."

In her early career, Twohill — who's originally from Ireland — did marketing for European travel companies. She never planned to work for a startup, let alone a tech startup on a different continent. At one of those jobs, she worked with Google, and the company invited her to a meeting.

That visit turned into Twohill being questioned during casual chats on beanbag chairs and while in line for barbecue, she said. "I thought I was going as a VIP client," she said. "But it turned out, 22 interviews later, that I was being interviewed for one of their first roles in Europe."

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Twohill became one of the company's first non-U.S. marketing hires in 2003, and moved to the U.S. — another unplanned development, she said — six years later to become Google's head of global marketing.

More recently, her career took a different kind of turn: She was diagnosed with