The world renowned philosopher William Leonard Roberts II, also known as RICK RO$$ or Ricky Rozay, once eloquently noted, “I’m runnin the city like a new pair of Js”. Rozay must have exhausted his normal morning jog route in Florida-- why else would he have showed up at the YouTube office last week? That’s right, last Wednesday I met THE Rick Ross and after exchanging a few caveman grunts with the boss, I snagged a quick photo. There a lot of perks about working for YouTube, but getting the chance to meet celebrities has got to be top o’ da list.

These past few weeks have been a blur, a whirlwind of different objectives and activities. From helping manage the stream for Lollapalooza to building a program review survey, much of my time spent has been a healthy mix of individual and collaborative work. Some of my particular favorite moments have been attending meetings with the leaders of our team. Hearing these individuals speak about the future of our industry, let alone our company, is extremely eye-opening and often leaves me with a googelplex of questions. What’s even more amazing is that I’m not bound by a corporate glass ceiling that restricts me from asking all of these questions-- that wouldn’t be very Googley, would it? A few weeks ago I raised my hand while a Senior Financial Analyst was presenting and questioned a facet of our ROI model. Rather than shooting this wide-eyed intern down, he was intrigued and answered my question in much depth. After that meeting I sat at my desk and was quite in awe for a moment. I have a lot of respect for people who live up to their word, the ones who always do what they say they will. Google’s mission is “to the organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, and I couldn’t be happier that they apply this notion to their life at work.

- Luke

Fun Fact: YouTube was allowed to attain much of its own culture when acquired by Google in 2005. While the YT office still boasts many of the same perks, there are small differences such as the office color scheme being red & black instead of the traditional Google primary colors.

Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs