Recruiters and enthusiastic long-time Googlers should stop claiming that it's easy to transfer teams, then. I was specifically told that it would be easy to leave the "starter project" if I didn't like it, and that all I would have to do would be to find another team willing to take me; in fact, I wouldn't even have to get my starting manager's approval to move, just the approval of the destination team's manager. When I tried to actually do this, it.... didn't work that way.