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Diary of a Summer Intern - Luke
August 20, 2012
I’ve been sitting in front of this blank Google Doc for about 30 minutes now, trying to figure how my final entry could possibly bring justice to what an amazing summer this has been. This week will be the last of my summer internship, and although I have already parted ways with my team (who will be at an off-site), there are still a number of projects I have to wrap up at work.
A couple of weeks ago I accompanied my team to Chicago, Illinois for one of the most epic music festival experiences ever. As
Lollapalooza
is one of the many music festivals we stream on YouTube, a few members of my team worked in a production truck to ensure a smooth broadcast. Being at the festival for work meant that a lot of my time was spent in the truck managing the channel, but it also meant I was hooked up with a spiffy “Crew Chief” badge on my breaks. Chief of Crew meant free food and drink, as well as backstage access to any stage, but most importantly, it meant the opportunity to brush shoulders with Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow and exchange a few words with Alan Palomo from Neon Indian. Halfway through Neon Indian’s set on Saturday we got word that the festival was being evacuated due to thunderstorms. After three hours of waiting we were allowed to return back to the festival grounds where we discovered our truck was flooded. The Lollapalooza staff and YouTube team worked with incredible speed and efficiency to get things back in order and were able to bring the Red Hot Chili Peppers
live
to the many viewers tuning in.
I wrapped my muddy Vans in a plastic bag and returned to San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon. The next day I delivered my final presentation on what I had worked on this summer and had a meeting with the head of my team about a side project I’ve been working on. This next week I’ll be editing a team video, wrapping up my main project, and packing my bags to return to good ol’e Austin, Texas. I’ll miss the YouTube office: the putting green in front of my desk, the disc golf course in the back of the office, and the cafe that has spoiled me rotten, but most of all, I’ll miss the people. Working with a team that brings so many amazing experiences to the YouTube community has taught me a number of invaluable lessons, both about myself and the world of media. They say that all good things come to an end, but I say that many good things live on in their own unique way. Parting ways with my cubicle and scooter will be sad, but I’ll leave peacefully knowing that many of the lessons I learned this summer will shape how I approach my final year at school.
- Luke
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs
Diary of a Summer Intern - Luke
August 1, 2012
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
Diary of a Summer Intern - Luke
July 11, 2012
Hey everyone!
I knew interning with YouTube would be an extremely enjoyable experience from the start, but after being assigned to work on the live stream for
Lollapalooza
I realized this could easily be the best summer of my life. Between
ACL
,
SXSW
,
Nocturnal
, and many other live music shows, much of my free time at school is spent squished between thousands of sweaty people dancing and yelling the night away. Helping manage and run this YouTube program is much more than a cool project, it’s an opportunity to share one of my deepest passions with people all over the world. Rewind to ten years ago when I would stay up late at night listening to Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s
Scar Tissue
and ask my brother if he knew any “young Kentucky girls” and what a “scarlett draw” was anyway? I can only hope that somewhere in the middle of nowhere, TX, some little kid and his older brother will be tuning in to see RHCP live at Lollapalooza and wondering all the same things.
Aside from working on the Lollapalooza stream and other projects, I’ve been taking time to soak up all the great perks of working at Google. I can’t explain how wonderful it is to be able to walk down the hall to a fridge full of unlimited drinks and a microkitchen stocked with endless snacks, brainstorm project ideas over a game of billiards, and play with beautiful dogs every day I go to work. This past weekend, I joined
over 1,000 ecstatic Googlers
to march down 42nd in San Francisco in the city’s annual
Pride Parade
. What I thought would be a few casual miles of walking and waving erupted into an enormous dance party that would give even the best music fests a run for their money. The energy, love, and happiness that our group exuded is something I will never be able to form into words. I looked around at all my coworkers laughing, dancing, and grinning, and, for one of the first times in my life, hoped I was staring at my future.
-
Luke
Fun Google Fact:
Did you know that the conference rooms at YouTube’s office are named after popular games, memes, and famous YouTube videos? A few of my favorite rooms include
Socially Awkward Penguin
,
More Cowbell
, and
Q*bert
. Our printers are also named after members of the Wu-Tang Clan!
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs
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