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Young Innovators @ Google - Noah Levin
May 7, 2013
Today's post is a continuation of our
Young Innovators @ Google
series, where we're highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers, designers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For today’s post, we sat down with Noah Levin, an interaction designer at Google.
Tell us about your path to Google.
Noah Levin:
I first took interest in design through an early admiration of digital abstract art. I was enthralled with the way that technology could unlock creative expression in a completely new way. Then eventually through reading “
Design of Everyday things
” and “
Don’t Make Me Think
”, I learned that design was not just about how things look, but how they work, and I decided I wanted to learn more about the field in school. I also was very interested in musical theater at the time and wanted to attend a college that had both options, so
Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU) in my hometown Pittsburgh, PA was a perfect fit. I studied
Information Systems
and
Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI) with a minor in
Communication Design
, and also learned a lot during two summer internships at a small design firm in Pittsburgh. I decided to stay at CMU for my masters degree in HCI, part of which involved an amazing experience
designing a cuff-mounted interface for astronauts at NASA
in Mountain View. While on the west coast, I had a chance to interview with Google and now I’m loving it here!
Noah was recently featured in
+Life at Google
's
Do Cool Things That Matter
series - check out his full feature video below!
What was the first project you worked on at Google?
NL:
Before transitioning to work on the Google Search app, I worked briefly on a fun project to help design an interface for
related searches and visual refinements
. The feature makes it easier to get to the information you are most likely to search for next, based on a wide variety of signals. For example, after searching [
van gogh
], it’s very likely you may also want to see his paintings, like [
the starry night
]. This feature still exists today, and is now built into
knowledge cards
on the search page. Try it out!
In what ways have you been able to innovate at Google?
NL:
After just a few months of working here, I found out I'd be working on the Google Search app for iOS. Each day I come into work thrilled to have the chance to design interactions for a product that helps millions of people find the information they need every day, and I’m very lucky to collaborate with such a talented team of engineers to find new ways to make the app more useful, beautiful and easier to use.
Since joining the team, I’ve led the design through four major efforts:
redesigning the ipad search experience
including new interactions like a sliding web results page to get back and forth between search results and answers faster,
redesigning the iphone search experience
with a simplified interface and beautiful full screen image results, designing a
new voice search experience
with text to speech results, and most recently,
bringing Google Now to iOS in the Google Search app
. I am involved in all stages of the design process, from leading brainstorm sessions and creating sketches and mock ups early on to help define the vision, to refining those ideas using animation and interactive HTML / CSS prototypes, and finally providing high resolution assets and detailed implementation specifications to make the product really come to life.
Also, because Google is such an open and collaborative company, I often enjoy volunteering time outside of my primary project. For example, I worked with engineers to update many of the images we use on Google search to look crisp on high resolution displays and helped
unify our navigation across devices
including a fun subtle animation for search tools, in addition to spending 20% of my time working with the
doodle team
. It’s been quite a ride, and I can’t wait to keep building.
What was your involvement in launching Google Now for iOS?
NL:
When Google Now launched on Android last year at Google I/O, people really enjoyed how it makes computers do the hard work, empowering you to find the information you need before you even ask. We’ve been collaborating closely with the Android team to think about ways to bring this great predictive information to more people. After spending a lot of time getting to know the product philosophy and current usage patterns, I began sketching, making Photoshop mock ups, and building prototypes to illustrate how this might feel in the context of the iOS app.
The Android team set a new bar for great design with their work on Google Now, so we knew that every moment, every pixel and animation, had to keep that bar high. I worked very closely with our engineers to refine the details to make sure everything felt fast, smooth, and polished. I’m quite proud of how things turned out, and am excited to finally see it out in the world.
What has surprised you most about working at Google?
NL:
How much flexibility, freedom, and influence we have building products that reach hundreds of millions of people every day. I guess I expected to be working on small pieces of Google Search with a huge team and largely predefined requirements, but sure enough soon after joining, here I was fresh out of college working directly with just a few engineers and a product manager shaping and defining the best possible search experience on iOS. I was given the freedom to explore all sorts of concepts to figure out what we could do to make search feel fast and delightful, and had an amazing time refining these designs with such talented coworkers.
After we launched the
redesign of the iPhone app
, I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I first saw someone interacting with it casually while on a bus in San Francisco. They were touching and swiping things that I had once thought about and sketched on a whiteboard. The fact that this sketch can reach across the globe is incredibly eye opening, and really drives you every day to keep doing what you're doing.
What has been your favorite part about working at Google?
NL:
There’s a lot to pick from, but I one thing I think is truly unique is how many talented and approachable engineers and designers there are here. I love being able to reach out and have lunch with the amazing people who design products I use every day from Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Maps, and my favorite, the lovely and creative folks who make the Google Doodles! I’m proud to now not only call these people my coworkers, but my friends.
Any good stories?
NL:
I was shopping at an antique shop in San Francisco and noticed the owner was using the Google Search app on his iPhone. I was thrilled to see that and started chatting with him about it. When I mentioned I helped design it, he said “Oh great!” followed by something I always love hearing from people when I tell them I work at Google, “So I have some feedback for you.” I asked what was up, and he said, “You know... this logo here...” he points at the Google logo, “it just... it looks a little too much like the eBay logo. You should change that.” I hadn’t heard that one before, but happily replied, “You know, I can’t take credit for that, but I’ll pass along the feedback!”
Posted by Sarah Henderson, People Programs Specialist
A Day in the Life of a Norwegian New Grad @ Google Dublin
April 16, 2013
As part of our ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’ series we’re highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our
Google Dublin Office
who joined straight after graduating!
Today we’re featuring one of our Norwegian Googlers, Håvard Nyberg, who joined Google in 2011, to give you an inside look into the Associate Account Strategist, SMB Sales role. If you’re interested in applying for an SMB Sales position, or any of our new grad roles in Google Dublin, check out our open opportunities at the bottom of this post.
Tell us about your path to Google?
I studied international marketing at university, and have always been interested in the role of the internet in growing businesses worldwide. Working for one of the worlds best known and most transformative companies seemed like a pretty good option.
Håvard at the Cliffs of Moher
What is your role at Google?
I work in SMB Sales where I help small and medium sized Norwegian advertisers develop and follow through on their online advertising strategy. The ability to work with small and medium companies to help them grow their business was something that really attracted me to Google in the first place.
How does your role fit in with the larger team?
The team I work in is called SMB Sales Nordics. As the name suggests, it is a cross-nordic team, made up of people from all the nordic countries. There are about 20 people on the team all handling different markets and responsibilities, but we work together and report as a truly Nordic team.
Tell us about a typical day in your life at Google
Wake up at 6:30am
I like to get up early in the morning. While walking to work, I listen to audio-books, especially historical biographies. Churchill, Napoleon, you name it, I like to walk to work with these guys.
8:00 - 8:30 Breakfast
Everything you have heard about food at Google is true and more! It all begins at 8am when a delicious breakfast is served. I like to have eggs in the morning, usually coupled with some bread and a glass of cold milk (nordic style!).
8:30 - 9:30 Emails
I take the elevator up to my desk (fastest elevator in Ireland, true story) to do some typing. The first thing I do every morning is clear my inbox.
9:30 - 11:00 Advertiser time
After sorting my emails I usually spend time reaching out to my clients. It can be everything from developing an email, to making phone calls and even having a live Hangout with advertisers where we go through the different opportunities open to them.
11:00 - 11:30 Team Huddle
We usually have a huddle around 11, where we spend some time updating each other on what we are working on.
11:30 - 12:30 Lunch
Lunch at 11:30...I know! We Nordic people like to eat early, so we usually go for lunch around this time. Usually I have lunch with Googlers from my team, but I also try to meet up with people on other teams.
12:30 - 15:00
After lunch I spend my time checking emails again and following up on whatever needs it. When that’s done, I tend to spend my time building advertising campaigns or attending meetings.
15:00 - 15:15 Break
I make sure to take a proper break around this time to go to the micro-kitchen to have a snack and a coffee with some coworkers.
15:15 - 18:00ish Meeting time
The rest of the day is usually a mix of meetings, and following up on projects that I have taken on.
What is the most interesting project/client that you have had to work with?
When we set up my current role for Norway. I was the first person to work on wide scale sales towards Google’s SMB clients in Norwegian media-agencies, and it has been a great ride to see what works and what doesn't work.
What's your favourite Google memory or ‘Magic Moment’?
My favourite Google memory was when I got to be an art-teacher for a day at an inner city children's school. Google is a very socially responsible company, and we set aside time every year to give back to the community. To teach art to 9 year olds was an experience I will never forget!
One fun fact about yourself?
Me and my brother once had this crazy idea of starting a country-and-western themed bar/restaurant in our home town back in Norway. We had an awesome time doing it!
What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
Try to find a company that matches your values and what you find important. I don't think it’s possible to do great work unless you really believe in your employers core mission and values.
Interested in working for Google Dublin? Check out our
new grad positions
today and apply!
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.
Posted by Håvard Nyberg, SMB Sales
A Day in the Life of a Danish New Grad @ Google Dublin
April 4, 2013
Today we’re launching ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’, a new blog series highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our
Google Dublin Office
who joined straight after graduating!
The Googlers you’ll read about work in the tallest office block in Ireland, located on Barrow Street, the "Silicon Valley" of Europe. As Google’s Headquarters for sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Googlers in the Dublin Office work with a broad range of businesses and markets – small businesses, multinationals, AdWords, AdSense, Display, Mobile advertising and more. Google Dublin is our third largest office in the world, made up of thousands of Googlers from over 65 countries, speaking over 46 different languages on a daily basis. The work that our Googlers do in this office are as diverse as the number of nationalities represented there!
We will feature a different Googler in the office and talk to them about what their day to day life at Google encompasses, their background and what they love about working for Google. For our first post, we hear from Christopher, a Global Customer Services Associate.
Visit Google for a day with Christopher
Meet Christopher - who has packed his suitcase and moved to Dublin from his home in Denmark to work in Google's European headquarters. With a background from CBS (Copenhagen Business School) and an entrepreneur's interest in innovation and online. Is Google the right place to nurture such passions - even when it's your first full time job after university? Christopher describes his daily work and what it’s like to work with over 3000 other young people from around the world in an industry that is constantly changing.
Christopher working at Google Dublin Office
So Christopher, tell us a bit about your background?
My background is from CBS (Copenhagen Business School), where I took a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Economics and a master’s degree in Management of Innovation and Business Development, with a semester spent at Renmin University of China in Beijing. My fascination for online and e-commerce derived mainly from my entrepreneurial project Steel - a niche online store that sells everything from viking to samurai swords. My current job at Google is my first full-time job.
What does an average day at Google involve for you?
I work directly with Google AdWords everyday. I am a single piece of a carefully composed puzzle where I support small and medium sized businesses and their online advertising with AdWords. It can include everything from solving technical problems to advising our advertisers on their online marketing strategy and how they can launch the perfect AdWords campaign.
An average day consists mostly of troubleshooting and consultation via email and / or phone in my support role. In addition, I have specific specialist roles in my Nordic team, making the daily work even more fun and interesting. I am a Nordic Analytics Specialist, which is my favourite role.
Google Analytics
is a free program that analyses the behavior of users on a website. I firmly believe that the analysis of this data can make a business’s website much better and can be used to improve advertising campaigns to reach new heights. In this regard, I support the Nordic team solving difficult Analytics challenges and I organize Analytics trainings.
Furthermore, I am the Nordic contact for one of our charitable programs,
Google Grants
which is where charities can apply to get free advertising with Google. It was in this role that I got my first major assignment to schedule Denmark's first ever Google Grants event. My manager gave me complete autonomy to plan, coordinate and organize the event. There was no micro-management and in November 2011, representatives of 18 charities appeared for an exciting day of “Google AdWords” at Google's new Copenhagen office.
I am also the editor of the
Danish AdWords Blog
where my next little project will be to write an Analytics blog post to help users to get more out of their Analytics accounts. Finally, I have helped to build a Danish learning portal that will aid new and inexperienced AdWords advertisers and this will launch soon.
These different roles keep my daily work fresh and give me a feeling of making a difference.
Can you tell us about your team mates?
I work among a team of incredibly talented people. Google's absolute force (besides the amazing food and future swimming pool) - are the people they hire. Most of whom are in the same situation as myself: they have moved from friends and family to pursue a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship merged with the online world.
My colleagues are also my new friends. Since moving to Dublin, I have met some of the most interesting and talented personalities I've ever encountered. It sounds like a cliche, but I can honestly say that I look forward to going to work every day and being motivated and challenged by people with very strong qualities. Each one of my teammates are all similar in terms of mindset, ambition and motivation despite having come from very diverse backgrounds. Amongst my closest colleagues is a Finnish fashion blogger from Aalto School of Economics in Helsinki and a Swede with a qualification in evolutionary anthropology from the University of Oxford outside of London. Everybody is unique or "Googley" as we say, whether they come from Ireland, Israel or Italy. This sheer diversity has helped make Google Dublin a truly unique place to work (in addition to the on-site masseuse, PlayStation rooms and the minigolf course that is ten feet away from my desk!).
What does your future hold?
What the future holds is hard to say, but it looks very interesting. I think that “being online” is a concept that is gradually disappearing as we are constantly “connected”. Whether it's on the laptop at work, on your smartphone on the go or on the tablet at home. Whether you’re looking for information about the program you’re watching on one of YouTube's millions of channels, needing to find your way in your self-driving car or keeping in touch with your global network via video chat, you are constantly "plugged in". Google dares to think bigger than most companies, and does everything possible to motivate employees to do the same - even as a new grad! I feel very privileged to be part of this.
Interested in working for Google Dublin? Check out our
new grad positions
today and apply!
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.
Posted by Christopher Brixen, Global Customer Services Associate
Young Innovators @ Google - Laura Holmes
January 20, 2012
Introduction: Today's post is a continuation with our
Young Innovators @ Google series
where we're highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For today’s post, we sat down with Laura Holmes, a product manager at Google.
Tell us about your path to Google.
Laura Holmes:
I went to Stanford where I considered being an English and psychology major. I discovered computer science pretty late in the game because one of my dormmates suggested I take the intro class. I found that there are actually quite a bit of similarities between English and coding—phrases, for example, whether they be in literature or code, represent very complex thoughts. I ended up working at Google in New York City as a
software engineering intern
on mobile search quality. I was told that I would make a great product manager (PM) since I spoke well and knew technology so I actually spent a couple of weeks during my internship as a PM, specifically on mobile docs. During this time I was the PM for the launch of the doclist and mobile spreadsheets UI. After graduating, I worked on user experience at Cooliris before joining Google’s
Associate Product Manager
program, which is a two year rotational program for those interested in product development. I was recently promoted to Product Manager on Google Analytics conversion tracking products, helping marketers understand their return on investment across different marketing channels.
Tell us about your APM experience. What rotations did you have?
LH:
The APM program is an amazing two-year rotational program that helps grow new grads with Computer Science backgrounds into Product Managers. They do this by giving you way too much responsibility way too soon, and everyone just expects you to rise to the occasion. APMs have the same responsibilities as any Product Manager, where you have to work with engineers and designers to define the direction and strategy of your product. Some could liken it to a sink or swim mentality, but it’s mostly swim because Google’s there helping you every step of the way with all sorts of mentorship and skill development.
After you spend one year on a product, APMs rotate onto a different product, usually in an entirely different product area. The rotation experience is important to the APM program because it gives you a great breadth of experience across different teams. It was a great way for me to discover the other things I wanted to learn to balance out my skill set.
When I first joined Google, I thought they were going to put me in mobile because I had a lot of experience there. However, my first rotation was actually on Search and my second rotation was on the conversion tracking team for
Google Analytics
. I really benefited from the placement process, because I never would have picked Search for myself. I always thought Search was this big behemoth that no one fresh out of college could possibly help with, but within a couple months I was making decisions that affected a large percentage of queries. I bounced around between a couple different Search projects, then
Google Instant
started taking off, and I ended up working on that full-time. I first worked on localization of Instant and the slow connection experience, child safety experience, and machine planning and roll-out scheduling. At the end of the day, I was in charge of where Google Instant was going to be and when. It was up to me to decide when Google Instant was launching in Europe and Southeast Asia.
In what ways have you been able to make an impact?
LH:
Google Instant was a highly strategic product that gave us an edge in a lot of search markets. However, we had to carefully figure out which markets we launched in to make sure the product met our quality bar, and that was my job. Because I was the decision maker for when and where we launched, I had a big impact on Google Search's positioning in international markets.
How has Google helped encouraged you to be innovative?
LH:
Google encourages innovation first and foremost through its people. We spend a lot of time in rooms just brainstorming, and by having a bunch of smart and adventurous people together, we get a lot of great ideas.
Another way in which Google encourages innovation is through lowering the barrier to trying out new ideas through prototyping. There are a couple of in-house tools that make it possible for people to make quick changes and try them out on real users, fast.
Search has an infrastructure that allows engineers to prototype rapidly. If you want to try something new, rather than having to do everything from scratch, you can prototype the change within a couple of minutes. This allows innovation to happen at a large, quick scale.
How long after joining Google did you first see the impact of your work?
LH:
The first launch was the
Google anagram Easter egg
, which was about 3-4 months after I joined. On April Fools’ Day, I worked with the spelling team to localize a special result for the search query [anagram], which asks the user, “Did you mean ‘nag a ram’?” We put it in 35 languages and it was pretty cool to set up Google alerts and see as people slowly discovered the Easter egg and their surprise and delight in Google.
The Instant project moved very quickly. The whole project took about five months to grow it from a demo on one engineer's computer to an internationally launched product. I joined the project about two months in, and saw it launch a meer three months later in five countries that were my responsibility.
What does Google offer that is different from other companies?
LH:
The APM program gives you a lot of the same experiences you could get at a start-up, but you have the tools to help you develop professionally. You’re given mentors who help you navigate difficult situations. You're also given a management coach that can work 1:1 with you to develop public speaking skills and interpersonal skills to navigate tricky situations.
Google's also great because of the quantity of great leaders you get access to, even when you’re an entry level employee. You get to see leadership from a variety of different approaches, and learn which styles you want to emulate.
Lastly, Google also offers you the opportunity to operate at scale. Everything you do has to be scaleable, because it's going to be seen by millions of people. I keep telling myself that if I can succeed here, I can work on pretty much anything.
Any great Google stories?
LH:
I gave a presentation to the Board of Directors where I demoed
Google Instant
. It was such a unique and exciting experience. I had been at Google for only five months, and I was standing in front of the Board of Directors showing them the future of Search. They asked pointed questions about it and then John Doerr asked, “so when is it launching?”
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
Young Innovators @ Google - Tova Wiener Nadler
November 30, 2011
Introduction:
Young Innovators @ Google
is a blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have made a big impact on Google. This week we sat down with Tova Wiener Nadler, a software engineer who graduated from Harvard University in 2010 after completing a bachelor’s degree in applied math and computer science and a master’s degree in computer science.
Tell us about your path to Google and your current role.
Tova Wiener Nadler:
I came to Google through the college recruiting program and joined as a
software engineer
in the fall of 2010, after a long, relaxing post-college summer. While in college, I was a bit wary of working as an engineer. I envisioned more long nights of hair-yanking coding, which was why I decided to do an internship in quantitative finance instead of engineering. That summer, I realized that my favorite part of my job was coding, and that if I was going to code, I wanted to code in an environment built around engineering. Furthermore, I realized that if I wanted to work at a software company, Google was the one for me. Fortunately, I have found my job to be the perfect balance of pressure and relaxation!
Why were you interested in being a Software Engineer?
TWN:
I was interested in being a software engineer because I really enjoyed the computer science classes I took in college and found that as time went on, I would actually eagerly await the next assignment. I could focus on a piece of code for longer than I could focus on anything else! I found that I really enjoy the creative design of producing software and that it feels great to watch your products come to life.
What was your first project at Google, and what impact did it have?
TWN:
My first project was to inline the image thumbnails for books mode: when the browser is given an image, it can either be given the URL where that image is stored, or it can be given the actual bytes that comprise the image. While the first method is simpler, the second method saves the browser HTTP requests while loading, and decreases page load latency. This technology was already in use for other search modes, so my project was to figure out how they did it, and replicate for books mode. This change was totally invisible, but your book search results pages have loaded just a bit faster ever since.
How has your role evolved since then?
TWN:
My role has evolved in two important ways: I have been given more autonomy with respect to what I implement, and how I implement it; and I have been able to work on and launch client facing features.
One project that I spent a lot of time on that launched this summer is an upgrade to the images that are displayed on relevant web search queries. Our project displays multiple rows of images, packed in an aesthetically pleasing manner, for queries where the user probably wants to see images. We have also added “hovers” - when a person mouses over one of the images, a larger version of the image with more information about the image appears. I was primarily responsible for adding the
hover functionality
and worked with my team on many of the other details.
In what ways have you been able to innovate at Google? What makes working at Google unique for you?
TWN:
Although I have definitely been given room to innovate, what makes working at Google unique for me, especially as a fresh graduate, is the access to tremendous amounts of information about how the world’s best search engine works. I love the ability to code surf, exploring how different parts of the system work and learning how other people have solved complicated problems.
On the innovation front, the Google attitude seems to be, “If you build it, and it’s awesome, launch it!” This means that you get a lot of freedom and resources to explore your idea, but that you are responsible for demonstrating to those around you, and those not around you, that it truly is awesome.
What do you like most about your job? Are there personal rewards from the work you do?
TWN:
I enjoy setting goals and making incremental progress towards achieving those goals. The mentorship at Google is great and it is a very goal-oriented culture.
Overall, how do you feel about your time here at Google, and what do you see yourself doing next?
TWN:
I have really enjoyed my time at Google. My coworkers are great - the culture is very collegial and people are always striving to build the best products that they can. The emphasis on learning new skills has really eased my transition from student to professional life, as I feel that my education is continuing. I hope to stay at Google for the foreseeable future, and would like to continue to take on bigger projects and to take on more leadership roles.
What advice do you have for young people who are considering this career?
TWN:
The advice I have is
Learn how to work well with partners on your class assignments.
Take classes that have a lot of coding assignments because that is how you will really develop your skills.
Become familiar with the C++, Python and Java.
Learn how to teach yourself: find a random piece of code somewhere and figure out how it works!
How does a person progress in your field? And how has Google helped with that progression?
TWN:
In order to progress you need to take on more responsibility and leadership in the projects you work on. At Google, the progression is natural and you are given more responsibility when you have proven you can handle it. If you can build up your skills and knowledge base there will be people all over the company asking for your advice. Here, it’s not about who has been here longer and if they have more experience than you: at any stage you can take ownership of things you’ve done and help others.
Any fun google stories to share?
TWN:
When I first started work in the Cambridge office my team went on an off-site to a
smithy
. We were equipped with aprons, goggles and sound blocking earmuffs and spent the day hammering pieces of metal into hooks. We all had a lot of fun and came home with some very impressive wrought-iron hooks.
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
Young Innovators @ Google - Matt Ward
August 26, 2011
Introduction: We recently launched
Young Innovators @ Google
, a new blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For today’s post, we sat down with Matt Ward, a software engineer at YouTube.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you became interested in computer science.
Matt Ward:
Before I was a YouTube dude, I was a computer science student at
Columbia University
in New York City. When I wasn’t in class (and sometimes during), I was working on freelance web projects. I got my first taste of the real (internet video) world working as a web development intern at
CollegeHumor
during the summer after my freshman year of college.
Tinkering with computers was always a passion of mine, but I was also drawn to film and television production while running my high school’s television station. I actually started college thinking I was going to be a film major but found the technical bits a lot more interesting. I ended up coming out of the computer science program as a computer graphics major.
How did you end up at YouTube?
MW:
I secured an internship at YouTube after my junior year in college, and faced a really tough decision trying to figure out if I wanted to be in the startup world or become a Googler. Just days before my internship at YouTube I helped hack together
GroupMe
at TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC. The startup scene in New York was fast-paced and exciting. I loved it. When I was faced with the decision between the startup world and Google, I asked some VCs what they thought. The overwhelming majority said I should not pass up the opportunity to work at Google. There are a couple big reasons that surfaced from those discussions and have stuck with me to this day.
The first was that going into the startup world might be a missed opportunity for me to keep learning. Startups need someone to get it done, which means you’ll probably be expected to learn, but on your own with less likelihood of mentoring. At Google I think I learn something new every day, frequently from my peers. Each little thing I learn is another point on my personal knowledge stock. I think of working at Google as an important asset for my future that provides a proven track record and extraordinary professional and personal benefits.
The other compelling reason was the scale at Google. In the startup world, building a prototype is important but many projects face problems when it is time to scale. Working at Google makes you think at scale every day. My co-worker put it well at breakfast the other day, “my code executes more times every single day than there are people in the world.” He later said half-jokingly (while doing a back of the envelope calculation), that one of his projects might increase our application’s efficiency so much that a small powerplant might be able to shut down. Now that kind of impact is hard to have at a startup.
What project did you work on as an intern and what impact did it have?
MW:
During my internship last summer, I was one of the very few people working on YouTube for Google TV. The product is now known as
YouTube Leanback
and is available on your computer or as an application on your internet connected TV. It was really awesome to work on an unreleased product, but a challenge not to talk too much about it. When I came back, the product was evolving fast and the team has expanded significantly. I also helped with the
YouTube Remote
for Leanback, and continue to lend a helping hand today.
What brought you back to YouTube to work full-time? How has your role evolved since your internship?
MW:
I think the biggest thing that brought me back was the people. I had a great personality match with everyone I was working with. I actually enjoy going to work every day to hang out with the friends I have in our office. In general, I feel like I work at a startup because of the energy everyone has. However, I know I am at a huge company with worldwide impact when I meet with people from Zurich, London and Tokyo. I really doubt there are many other places like it.
Since I’ve come back, I don’t think things have changed that much. As an intern, I really felt empowered to make the changes I wanted to and I feel the same today. I think the major difference is in how co-workers are more willing to accept my critiques now that I have more experience. Having said that, my internship was an invaluable chunk of experience.
How has YouTube encouraged you to be innovative?
MW:
I think there is a real acceptance of experimenting and trying out different ideas at Google. No one is stopping me from testing anything I think might improve the user experience. In addition to experimenting, my 20% time is spent working on the YouTube Remote for Leanback, which I think is a really innovative project. Over a year ago, I was given the freedom to hook together the pieces for it and now it is a real product.
Overall, how do you feel about your first few months at Google? What projects are you working on?
MW:
I don’t see the excitement of my job fading anytime soon. Most recently, I made our player controls darken and automatically hide while watching a YouTube video. This new design was actually created as part of a very ambitious redesign of YouTube that we call the
Cosmic Panda
. Working on our video player’s design is fun and very visible, but my current work is slightly more behind the scenes optimizations of our video player’s performance.
Anything else you’d like to include?
MW:
I was responsible for the
Nyan Cat progress bar
.
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
Young Innovators @ Google - Andrew Oates
August 11, 2011
Introduction:
Young Innovators @ Google
is a new blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. This week, BOLD intern Melissa Arguinzoni sat down with software engineer Andrew Oates. Andrew graduated from Brown University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and again in 2010 with a master’s degree in computer science.
Melissa Arguinzoni: Tell us about your path to Google and your current role at the company.
Andrew Oates:
The summer between my junior and senior year I interned at Pixar. The following summer, after dropping my resume off at a career fair and having a few phone interviews, I got an offer to intern at Google. During the summer of 2009, after I got my bachelor’s degree from Brown, I interned at Google on the Make The Web Faster team. When I completed my masters in September 2010, I joined Google full-time as a software engineer on the same team.
MA: Why were you interested in being a software engineer?
AO:
Since I was little, I liked programming. I started programming on my mom’s computer when she first got one, when I was in middle school. In high school, I worked at a computer camp where I taught programming. When I got to college, I was originally going to study electrical engineering, but I still took computer science classes. I actually enjoyed doing the homework for my CS classes, which was new to me. I figured if I liked doing the homework then it would probably be a good field for me, so I started majoring in computer science.
MA: What was your first project at Google and what impact did it have?
AO:
My internship at Google was a little unusual; I wasn’t working on any Google properties and I didn’t write any Google code. Someone had an idea for how to make websites load faster and I was basically doing research to see if it would work. My job was to figure out a way to measure how big of an impact speeding up websites like this would have. From the research I did, we saw that it would have a substantial impact. The project has changed since then, but some of the ideas have made their way to use in the Chrome browser.
When I started full-time under the same manager, I worked on the Page Speed team, developing an open source tool to help webmasters make their sites faster. At the time, it was just a Firefox extension for the browser and my project was working on Page Speed Online, which was a web-based way making sites faster. You would go to the website, punch in a URL and it would come back and
tell you what could be improved on the page to make it load/work faster
. I did all the back end and most of the front end work and we launched in March 2011. Since then, I have made an
API version
as well, and my team is looking for new ways to integrate Page Speed in Google products.
[Editor’s Note: Page Speed Browser Extensions are now available on both Chrome and Firefox
browsers
.]
MA: How has your role evolved since you started?
AO:
While my internship was mostly research-based, my full-time role is working on a public-facing product. It involves working with a lot more of Google's technologies and code base, as well as with other teams and developers. Watching
Page Speed Online
go through production and public launch was different from what I’d done before.
MA: What do you like most about your job? Are there personal rewards from the work you do?
AO:
For a lot of people, a job is just a job. For me, this is something I would want to do with my life even if I wasn’t getting paid for it, which is a great situation to be in. I get to do something I love, work on interesting problems and work with really smart people.
MA: Overall, how do you feel about your time here at Google, and what do you see yourself doing next?
AO:
So far, my time here has been great. I am hoping to work more with other teams to have
Page Speed integrated in more places
. We're working with several clients, internally and externally, to integrate our product with their tools and development practices. My focus in the coming quarters is going to be getting Page Speed results into more projects and venues, and working with internal teams to add our analysis to their development cycles.
MA: What advice do you have for young people who are considering an engineering career?
AO:
Take opportunities when you can get them and don’t be lazy. One of the things employers look for in hiring candidates is someone who really enjoys and brings passion to the job because those are the sort of individuals who everyone wants to work with. If you can find something you really enjoy doing and you’re good at it, everything else will fall in place. For Google specifically, study your algorithms textbook, work on personal projects and get used to talking about them to other people—all of these will help with your interviews.
MA: How does a person progress in your field? How has Google helped with that progression?
AO:
At Google, if you can prove yourself you will advance. You can’t coast by with just a degree from a good school or from past accomplishments. Instead, you have to keep working and taking initiative and continue to tackle hard and interesting projects. If you have a personal interest in a project, take the initiative and do it. That’s how you’ll get noticed and that is how you will advance. Google is a great environment for self-motivated and creative people. I saw something I was interested in fixing and I went ahead and fixed it. In some places, that may be frowned upon, but here reaching out and taking initiative is rewarded.
Posted by Melissa Arguinzoni, BOLD Intern
Young Innovators @ Google - Manas Tungare
June 14, 2011
Introduction: We recently launched
Young Innovators @ Google
, a new blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For today’s post, we sat down for a few questions with Manas Tungare, a software engineer at Google, who recently helped launched Voice Search for desktop.
Tell us about your academic background and your interest in HCI.
Manas Tungare:
Before I joined Google in 2009, I was at Virginia Tech getting my Ph.D. in
human-computer interaction
(HCI), and before that, a master’s in computer science (CS) from Georgia Tech.
I was drawn to HCI after encountering one badly-designed user interface after another. I figured I'd enjoy working in a field within CS where I'd get to design innovative user interfaces and implement them as well. As part of my Ph.D. program, I took psychology courses to understand how humans process information, and that knowledge has been tremendously useful for creating the kind of minimalist UIs for which Google is well-known.
Why Google? What makes working at Google unique?
MT:
There are several reasons why I
j
oined Google, the most distinguishing of which has nothing to do with technology. During my first internship at Google, when I was a Ph.D. student, I came to understand and appreciate the Google culture. It's a different way of thinking: engineers here think big. If a certain feature calls for a few hundred thousand machines, no one blinks. If a feature requires a hundred
cars
roaming the streets of the world taking pictures and capturing terabytes of data a month, no one blinks.
Secondly, like Google, I strongly believe that software is a tool that empowers people. And, like Google, I believe that to do this, it must be free. Not only do we release a lot of our internal tools as open source libraries, but we also liberate our users' data so they are free to move to a competitor whenever they choose.
What was your first project at Google, and what impact did it have? How has your role evolved since then?
MT:
Soon after I joined, I started work on what eventually became
Google Instant
. I was the sole engineer/prototyper on that project for several months, along with my manager, Othar Hansson, who came up with the original idea. I created several tens of prototypes; some of them were incremental changes over previous ones; others were completely different in appearance and functionality.
Once the company decided to launch Google Instant, I shifted away from my role as a prototyper to become part of the expanding engineering team responsible for the launch. I worked with several talented front-end engineers to implement features in a way that would scale to Google's billions of users (as opposed to my earlier prototypes that were not designed to scale).
When Google Instant
launched
in September of 2010, it was noted as the biggest change to the Google search results page in a decade. Being able to view results while typing means that users can refine their queries to get better search results, and now have to wait less to complete their tasks. It was incredible working on something so cutting-edge for my first project as a Noogler (a term for “new Googler”) with the support of other seasoned engineers.
It’s great that you got to run with such a huge project right off the bat. Since then, in what other ways has Google encouraged you to be innovative?
MT:
Google is very open to bottom-up innovation. My manager and I would approach random Googlers with the constantly-evolving prototype, and this let us gather early feedback which influenced the design. The final product went through several iterations based on all the internal responses, and each aspect of the user interface is carefully tuned to preserve the qualities that Google is known for — minimalism, speed, and simplicity.
Googlers are encouraged to come up with ideas outside their area of work, and build prototypes or demos to sell the idea to management. The 20% time that Googlers are allotted to work on non-primary projects is pretty well-known outside Google. In addition to that, some teams — like ours, Search Features — take a week off every year, and let engineers and designers regroup outside their regular work teams and try to solve real users’ problems with innovative user interfaces.
Every once in a while, our team holds mock-a-thons, where we are encouraged to present our designs for making some aspect of Search work better than it does now. We identify the major pain points that we have personally encountered and come up with solutions to fix them. Some are minor tweaks; others are major redesigns. After measuring the impact to users carefully, (mostly to ensure that our intuition is correct, and that we are not, in fact, making the user experience worse with a new feature), the feature goes live to all of our users.
Any fun Google stories you’d like to share?
MT:
The first time we showed an early Google Instant prototype to senior Search engineers, one of them commented that if we decided to launch it publicly, we would have to build at least two more
datacenters
to handle the additional traffic. He said this so casually, like one of us saying we’d have to buy a new computer because the old one was a little slow. An entire new datacenter just so you could launch a new feature? Wow.
There are several subtle angles to this comment: first, he said this without flinching, in a matter-of-fact way. Building two new datacenters for a new feature isn't something I would have expected someone to say that way. Secondly, being able to create a new feature that has such a high footprint is both exhilarating and humbling. Only at Google would this conversation take place with such enthusiasm and little hesitation!
What are you up to now, and what do you see yourself doing at Google next?
MT:
I'm having fun building new things that can be launched to millions of users! After Google Instant, I worked closely with Google researchers specializing in voice recognition & speech technologies. They were keen to add speech recognition capabilities to Google Search. When they approached the Web Search team, I agreed to work with them to launch this feature. And after just a couple of months, we launched
Voice Search on Chrome for your desktop, as
announced
during this morning's media event with the other new search features.
Now you can talk to your computer to search in addition to typing out your query.
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
Young Innovators @ Google - Greg Schechter
April 27, 2011
Introduction: We recently launched
Young Innovators @ Google
, a new blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For our second post, we sat down for a few questions with Greg Schechter, a Web Developer at YouTube.
Tell us about your path to Google and what your current role is.
Greg Schechter:
I’m a fearless web warrior, fighting for browser and website progress. While training at the
University of Illinois
in Urbana-Champaign, I published articles with the
Opera Web Standards Curriculum
. Subsequently, I went on to battle alongside many different web companies, including Amazon, Yahoo!, and Google. I arrived at Google back in 2008 as an intern at YouTube. After college, I worked for a few other companies, but eventually returned to YouTube as a Web Developer.
My current alliance is with
YouTube
, where I spearhead the movement for
HTML5 video
capabilities as a front end developer. YouTube understands what it means to be a web developer and gave me a role that fits what I love to work on. Great people, sweet projects and opportunities to drive the web forward creates an environment that is hard for other companies to match.
What was your first project at YouTube, and how has your role evolved since then? What do you see yourself doing next?
GS:
The first project I jumped on at YouTube was
YouTube Live Streaming
. I was the original web developer for the project and built out most of the front end components of the page. It took only about a month for the first significant features to go live, and in about four months, I felt I was really innovating and pushing features I was passionate about. One of the first important features I pushed live was developing a monetizable experience for
YouTube Feather
, our lightweight version of our watch page. At this time, I’m no longer on Live Streaming, but instead have become the technical lead for two big features at YouTube—the
HTML5 Player
and
iframe embed api
. The technical lead is basically the lead developer who makes the major technical decisions.
I absolutely love being at YouTube. I really feel that I have the power and encouragement to work on what I’m passionate about. I hope to become more of a spokesperson and tech evangelist of HTML5 and YouTube. I’m speaking at a few conferences about the work we are doing at YouTube, and I hope I can continue to innovate and teach others how to do the same.
In what ways have you been able to innovate at YouTube? What makes working at YouTube unique?
GS:
I generally take initiative and innovate on projects I’m passionate about, which makes YouTube perfect for me. I never feel that there are any walls stopping me from developing, and I’m given the freedom to innovate on my own terms. I’m excited to be spearheading the movement for using HTML5 for video distribution.
YouTube offers so many resources that allow you to work on products that directly benefit users. Even though I’ve only been at YouTube a short time, I’ve had the opportunity to share my findings in HTML5 at conferences around the world (
WebDU
,
Google I/O
,
Velocity
). I really like being a speaker and evangelizing for the company, and I’m fortunate to have had many opportunities to travel and work with others.
Anything else you’d like to share?
GS:
On a lighter note, my favorite
Easter egg
I’ve added is when you are using the
HTML5 Player
, right click on the player and click “save video as”.
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
Young Innovators @ Google - Jeff Chang
March 15, 2011
Introduction: Today we’re launching Young Innovators @ Google, a new blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For our first post, we sat down for a few questions with Jeff Chang, a Product Manager for Google Chrome.
When did you first join Google, and why were you interested in being a product manager?
Jeff Chang:
My first position at Google was as an
Associate Product Manager
(APM) intern in the summer of 2007. At the time, I was studying computer science at MIT, with a minor in management. Though I had done a number of software engineering internships in previous years, I had the opportunity to take on a more product-management-like role at
Akamai
, an Internet content delivery company, during my junior year. I was immediately drawn to the idea of being involved in the entire product development life-cycle from design to launch, envisioning the “big picture” and working alongside various roles outside of pure engineering.
I learned a lot during the summer I spent as a Google APM intern, working on what eventually became
Google Profiles
. After the internship, I knew that product management was a good fit for me, and I joined Google full-time in the fall of 2008 after graduating with my bachelor’s degree.
What was your first project at Google, and what impact did it have?
JC:
My first official project after joining full-time involved a piece of the Gmail backend used for routing emails and other messages across
Google Apps
. This infrastructure work familiarized me with the various technologies and dependencies within the organization. Within a couple months, I had joined the
Google Groups
team, which consisted of only a few engineers and no product manager at the time. The Groups team was working hard to replace the internal mailing list system used within Google, but there weren’t really any concrete plans for developing it further after that.
Both the team’s engineering manager and I realized there was a huge opportunity for Groups to expand into the enterprise Google Apps business. We were able to get the organization’s leadership to agree, and were soon executing on our vision. And that’s how I found myself taking charge of a product, and designing and prioritizing features, only a few months after joining.
Long story short, about a year later, the team officially
launched
Google Groups as an enterprise product, and it’s used by millions of people today. Even though the team itself was quite small, we had plenty of computing infrastructure available to support our launch, as well as dozens of companies willing to beta test the product.
How has your role evolved since then?
JC:
After working on Groups for a year, I decided to switch to the
Google Chrome
team as part of the
APM program
rotation. At first, I focused on the technologies and APIs that make advanced
web apps
possible; now, I oversee all user interface features, Flash and PDF plugins, and privacy in Chrome. I also manage the feature set that goes into every Chrome release, and am coordinating the Chrome team’s presence at the
Google I/O
developer conference this year.
The challenges of working on Chrome are different than those of Groups -- we target a slightly different user audience, almost all of our development work is done publicly since it’s an open-source product (I constantly remind myself that tech bloggers can read my bug updates), and I have to juggle efforts distributed across a dozen or more office locations. But the work is fulfilling in many of the same ways, as I get to reach and affect millions of people’s daily lives.
Overall, how do you feel about your last few years here at Google, and what do you see yourself doing next?
JC:
To say I’ve been lucky to have had so many opportunities is an understatement. I’m very happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish in just a couple years here, and I’m also super grateful to all the talented Googlers I’ve worked with. It still surprises me how much ownership and independence I’m given as a 24-year old college grad.
As for what’s next -- for now, there is plenty of exciting work happening on Chrome; the team and the user base is growing impressively, and I’m looking forward to guiding it through many more versions. I’m still learning more and being challenged by my job every day, so I plan to keep at it as long as that’s true. And I know that no matter what I do in the future, I’ll be much better equipped with the skills I’ve acquired and experiences I’ve had at Google.
Any fun Google stories to share?
JC:
One of my fondest memories will always be the time I woke up at 4 a.m. to watch the auctioning of fresh tuna at Tokyo’s
Tsukiji fish market
with my fellow APMs during our multi-city
international trip
in the summer of 2009. After dragging our bleary-eyed selves to the market and watching the raucous auction, we stepped into a nearby restaurant to feast on some of the fresh fish. It was without a doubt the best sushi I’ve ever had, anywhere. I remember, at one point, realizing we had missed the rendezvous time that
Marissa
had pre-arranged for the group -- only to look across at the other table and see she was still eating as well. So we just ordered more sushi.
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