I was rejected from my first promotion at Google. Here's how I took control of my career and landed 3 promotions.

• Irina Stanescu landed a job as a software engineer at Google in 2011.
• She told Business Insider she was rejected for her first promotion but tried again a year later.
• Stanescu said she learned to solve problems independently and ask for more responsibility.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Irina Stanescu, a former Google software engineer based in California. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I never thought I'd end up working for Google. I was born and raised in Romania. I went to college there to study computer engineering.