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Diary of a Summer Intern - Erika
September 8, 2011
ただいま！
A couple of weeks ago I got a taste of life working at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Throughout the summer, I have been working with product managers (PM) and engineers from across the Pacific, so as my internship progressed, it made sense for me to take a visit to Mountain View. I was excited to finally meet my overseas team members face-to-face and to also experience the culture at the famous Googleplex.
I took an international flight out of Narita airport and ten hours later, I touched ground in the U.S. for the first time in three months. I was immediately greeted by the cool weather of the Bay Area, which was a welcome change compared to the 90 degree hot and humid summer of Japan. Although we left Japan Monday evening, we arrived before noon on Monday, six hours earlier than when we had taken off—talk about
time difference
! My team and I headed straight to the
Mountain View campus
to begin our work week. Upon arrival, I was stunned by the size of the Google campus. In the Tokyo office, meetings for PMs and engineers are held primarily in conference rooms spread across a single floor, but in Mountain View, I now had to schedule 10 minutes to commute between meetings by bike! Google’s campus is scattered with awesome communal, Google-themed bicycles. You can simply grab a nearby unoccupied bike, cycle to your destination and leave the bike for another cross-campus commuter. Speaking of commuting, I also had a chance to ride a
Google Bus
to and from work. The Google Buses are a fleet of buses that run between Google headquarters and nearby cities to make the morning and evening commutes a lot smoother for employees. The bus is equipped with wifi, so my two-hour round trip commute between the office and San Francisco allowed me to get in extra hours of work instead of worrying about driving or taking public transportation.
One of the things I especially enjoyed during my week in Mountain View was the tight-knit associate product manager (APM) and APM intern community. The APMs have established a close relationship by being a network of support for each other and are always willing to help each other and give advice. Throughout the summer I have worked with several APMs from other teams related to my project in Tokyo and it was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone both in and out of the office. Throughout the week we had APM lunches together, attended tech talks and explored the hidden secrets of the Googleplex (including an awesome two story indoor slide). We also got a chance to enjoy evening entertainment on a cruise around the San Francisco Bay with the other interns and their mentors.
The rest of my week in Mountain View was comprised mostly of meetings with various teams, meeting my HR recruiter in person for the first time and getting to know the other APMs and interns. Although I was only in Mountain View for a week, I felt very welcomed on the huge campus and quickly made close friendships with Googlers. Overall, the week was very productive and helped me push forward my projects, meet people from the geo team and spend time with awesome Googlers.
Erika and fellow APM and engineering interns during their ATV trip at Pismo Beach, Calif.
As my week in California came to a close, a few of the APM and engineering interns decided to celebrate the end of the week with an
ATV trip
through the sand dunes of
Pismo Beach
. It was my first ATV experience and I had a fantastic time, although, I have to admit there were moments of utter terror when my ATV would launch off an unexpected drop. I had a great time, but I think I’ve had my ATV fix for the next few months...
またね！
エリカ
Fun Google Fact: Google’s Mountain View campus has a
purikura machine
, a photobooth very popular in Japan that allows you to take, edit, and print photo stickers within minutes.
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
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