Day 10: The Gaggle at Google
Today we went to Google. And that took the whole day.
Starting off... poorly
Actually, aside from me not being able to remember what day it is, nothing went poorly today. Started off with hotel breakfast and a slightly early departure out to Google's campus in Mountain View. On the way we were arguing the merits of Harrison Ford's acting career, and I was defending the best line from The Last Crusade ("He chose... poorly"), so I guess that stuck in my head.
Morning meetings
Once we got to Google, we were met by former Luther College professor Craig Cornelius, as well as Luther grad Ellen Widerski ('16), who escorted us around the campus for the day. We got to do a little sightseeing on our way to our meeting room, checking out the climbing wall in one of the buildings, the bike storage, and the micro-kitchens that are present all over (each one stocked with a variety of coffee, tea, energy drinks, sodas, sparkling water, regular water, and snacks, both healthy and otherwise). Everything seemed to be in various combinations of red, blue, yellow, and green to constantly remind us exactly where we were. Once we got to the conference room, we got to meet with another Luther alum, Charles Banta ('13). Charles joined us through video conferencing from the San Francisco office, and talked a little bit about what he does at Google and how he got to where he was. One of the topics he brought up was Google's policy of dogfooding, or doing significant demo work in house, rather than more public beta forms. Google works to ensure that everyone can use the products they are making, not just the engineers who have significant experience in the tech world. This naturally led into a discussion on scrapping projects. According to Charles, projects get scrapped all the time, for a myriad of reasons. However, project failure is accepted at Google, provided you can still take away a lesson from the experience. That definitely seems to be one of the big repeated points of the trip: don't be afraid to fail, only be afraid to get nothing from your failure.
Unfortunately, working at Google tends to make for a busy day, so we only got a little bit of time to talk with each person. Once Charles had to go, Anurag Batra, a project manager, came in to talk to us. Project managers, from what I understand, bridge the gap from the engineers to the public. They work to discover what the public wants and what they need, and how best to give that to them in a given product. Anurag put it as, "bringing the view of the customer into the product," which I think is a good way to explain it. Engineers aren't always (read: are almost never) the best people to make design decisions. Of course there are exceptions to this, but in general, engineers build products for engineers. It helps to have a watchful eye guiding you to make a more user-friendly product. Anurag's advice was for all of us to keep the user in mind as we work, even if we don't end up being project managers. Something for me to keep in mind as I start working full time this summer.
Next we got to talk to Vladimir Weinstein, an engineering manager who hired Craig almost ten years ago. He talked to us for a bit about the hiring process at Google, as well as giving us a couple of tips for technical interviews. Namely, practice technical problems on a timer beforehand, and talk through what you're doing. There's nothing worse that you can do in a technical interview than to freeze up and say nothing. We also met with Kim Roberts and Antoine Picard, both of Vladimir's team, who gave us more career advice. I can't remember who brought it up, but they both agreed that you should find a manager that you like and follow them, because they will build a team in their image. It's as much who you work with as it is what you work on that determines your enjoyment of a team.
There's no such thing as a free lunch... Except at Google
We learned a lot about the perks of being a Google employee today. One of which is that there is free food everywhere. An employee could eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner all on Google's dime during the work week. Luckily for us, this policy extends to guests as well, so for the first time all trip, we were treated to a company lunch. We stopped at Big Table, one of the many cafes available around the campus. I ended up having bar-b-que chicken, quinoa, sauteed kale, and sweet potato gnocchi, as well as a bowl of pho. The food was surprisingly good for the mass scale it was produced on, and we all left feeling pretty stuffed. Once we were done with lunch, Craig led us on a more extensive tour around the Googleplex - Google's main buildings in Mountain View.
There is no shortage of amenities around, including current pools, which allow users to swim in place (kind of like a treadmill for swimming), several gyms around the facilities, nearly infinite dining options, juice bars, and a few novelty items.
Starting off... poorly
If you don't count the weekend it's day 8...
Morning meetings
Once we got to Google, we were met by former Luther College professor Craig Cornelius, as well as Luther grad Ellen Widerski ('16), who escorted us around the campus for the day. We got to do a little sightseeing on our way to our meeting room, checking out the climbing wall in one of the buildings, the bike storage, and the micro-kitchens that are present all over (each one stocked with a variety of coffee, tea, energy drinks, sodas, sparkling water, regular water, and snacks, both healthy and otherwise). Everything seemed to be in various combinations of red, blue, yellow, and green to constantly remind us exactly where we were. Once we got to the conference room, we got to meet with another Luther alum, Charles Banta ('13). Charles joined us through video conferencing from the San Francisco office, and talked a little bit about what he does at Google and how he got to where he was. One of the topics he brought up was Google's policy of dogfooding, or doing significant demo work in house, rather than more public beta forms. Google works to ensure that everyone can use the products they are making, not just the engineers who have significant experience in the tech world. This naturally led into a discussion on scrapping projects. According to Charles, projects get scrapped all the time, for a myriad of reasons. However, project failure is accepted at Google, provided you can still take away a lesson from the experience. That definitely seems to be one of the big repeated points of the trip: don't be afraid to fail, only be afraid to get nothing from your failure.
Unfortunately, working at Google tends to make for a busy day, so we only got a little bit of time to talk with each person. Once Charles had to go, Anurag Batra, a project manager, came in to talk to us. Project managers, from what I understand, bridge the gap from the engineers to the public. They work to discover what the public wants and what they need, and how best to give that to them in a given product. Anurag put it as, "bringing the view of the customer into the product," which I think is a good way to explain it. Engineers aren't always (read: are almost never) the best people to make design decisions. Of course there are exceptions to this, but in general, engineers build products for engineers. It helps to have a watchful eye guiding you to make a more user-friendly product. Anurag's advice was for all of us to keep the user in mind as we work, even if we don't end up being project managers. Something for me to keep in mind as I start working full time this summer.
Next we got to talk to Vladimir Weinstein, an engineering manager who hired Craig almost ten years ago. He talked to us for a bit about the hiring process at Google, as well as giving us a couple of tips for technical interviews. Namely, practice technical problems on a timer beforehand, and talk through what you're doing. There's nothing worse that you can do in a technical interview than to freeze up and say nothing. We also met with Kim Roberts and Antoine Picard, both of Vladimir's team, who gave us more career advice. I can't remember who brought it up, but they both agreed that you should find a manager that you like and follow them, because they will build a team in their image. It's as much who you work with as it is what you work on that determines your enjoyment of a team.
There's no such thing as a free lunch... Except at Google
We learned a lot about the perks of being a Google employee today. One of which is that there is free food everywhere. An employee could eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner all on Google's dime during the work week. Luckily for us, this policy extends to guests as well, so for the first time all trip, we were treated to a company lunch. We stopped at Big Table, one of the many cafes available around the campus. I ended up having bar-b-que chicken, quinoa, sauteed kale, and sweet potato gnocchi, as well as a bowl of pho. The food was surprisingly good for the mass scale it was produced on, and we all left feeling pretty stuffed. Once we were done with lunch, Craig led us on a more extensive tour around the Googleplex - Google's main buildings in Mountain View.
Wait... that says elgooG!
Everybody say Googleplex!
It's a Google-coloured Tardis!
On the next episode of Lost in Space!
Ellen and Craig couldn't explain why these were around, but I'm not sorry we saw them. It's pretty fun to geek out in a place that thoroughly encourages geeking out.
Get it? Because the current Android release is Oreo
Group picture 2: Electric Googaloo
I'm quite honestly surprised that anyone gets any work done at Google. I'm sure you get used to it after a while, but it seems like you would be completely and utterly useless for at least your first three months. After walking around the campus, Craig and Ellen took us to the visitor centre, where we got to see an average office, a 180° view Google Earth machine, and, possibly most importantly, a ball pit.
It took me a solid minute to get out of there
As a final stop on our tour, we went to the Microsoft gift shop, where things were more reasonably priced than Apple, but still expensive, and the Android Sculpture Garden. That's where they put all the Android statues once the new version gets released.
You can trace the alphabet from C to M (Nougat hasn't gotten there yet)
Hello there
A missed report
By the time we all piled back into the van to head back to the hotel, we were all pretty exhausted. Kari was scheduled to give a book presentation today, but because we got back at 5:00 PM, Brad decided she'll present tomorrow. We all went to change and then a small group of us headed out to grab dinner at Round Table Pizza.
It's been a long day
The pizza was decent, but overpriced. Luckily they were running a special, and so we ordered two Pepperoni Parmesano (a pizza with pepperoni, sausage, parmesean cheese, and basil) for the price of one other pizza. After that, we headed back and nearly all fell asleep.
Getting linked
Tomorrow we're off to LinkedIn. I wonder if networking will come up at all...
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