Google Student Blog: Diary of a Summer Intern

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Google news and updates especially for students

Diary of a Summer Intern - 2011

May 26, 2011

Introduction: To kick off the second annual Diary of a Summer Intern series, we asked one of last summer's featured interns, Jerrica Jones, to tell us what she's been up to since graduation. Keep an eye out next week for an introduction of the new interns you'll be able to follow this summer!

Hey everyone,
I can't believe summer is here already! It's time for sunny days (hopefully) and the second annual “Diary of a Summer Intern” blog series to begin again. Though I’m no longer an intern, I do have some exciting news to share: I recently graduated in December, and after a few interviews and a bit of anxious waiting, I found out that I would be a full-time Googler. Since then, my life has changed completely so instead of blogging about what it's like to be a Google intern, I thought I would talk about my transition to being a full-time employee and what I’ve been working on so far. Then, I’ll pass on the torch to the new interns who you’ll be hearing from throughout the summer.

After graduating from the University of the Arizona, I moved to Mountain View, Calif. (scary!) where I participated in Google’s allocations process. I had previously filled out a preferences sheet stating which types of projects I was interested in and what skills I could offer. After reviewing my preferences, an allocations specialists called me up and we discussed a few teams that would be a good fit. Based on my interest in UI work and my background in Java, there were four teams that matched what I wanted to do, and in the weeks following I got to speak with the managers of each team and discuss how I might be a good fit. Once I was done speaking with the managers, I was able to give my preferences back to my allocations specialist, she circled back to them, and I had my team.

Before I knew it, my first day was upon me and I found myself shaking in my boots. I shouldn’t have worried—day one ended up being one of the best days of my life. All the “Nooglers” (Google’s term for new employees and interns) spent some time getting to know each other over breakfast at one of Google’s awesome cafes. We were also outfitted with our new laptops and I got to meet with an ergonomic specialist who helped me pick out the most comfortable chair and desk position.

We spent the rest of the day learning about what life is like at Google. I bonded with other Nooglers during a scavenger hunt in which we visited the Google slide, a really fun photo booth, the giant Android, and the seven-person conference bike. At the end of the day, we met our new mentors and teammates. I picked a newer project within the greater Google Ads team. It's called Google Boost and our job is to make it easy for small business owners to advertise online. We do this by enabling their ads to appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of Google.com and Google Maps search result pages without having to go through the extra work of maintaining an AdWords account. It's a really fun team and everyone is passionate about our project. In all, I feel extremely lucky to work with people who love what they do and always strive to give users the best product they can.

My teammates aren’t the only cool people I’ve met since I started at Google. I’ve met an incredibly diverse group of co-workers by attending tech talks, sweating it out in Google’s exercise classes, showing up for @GoogleTalks when celebrities come to visit and from simply bumping into folks in cafe lines. Each new person has something interesting to share, and I’m amazed by how much my world has grown since I came to Google. Every day has been an adventure, and every day it seems like the next day could never be better—yet somehow, it always is. I’ve never had so much fun in my life, and I am really looking forward to what my future at Google holds.

Hope you all are doing well,

Jerrica

Two Fun Google Facts: We recently got a bowling alley in one of our buildings, and teams can reserve lanes for team bonding time. In addition, instead of mowing the grass with regular lawn mowers, Google uses goats to help keep the grounds nice and be more eco-friendly.

Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator