{"@context":{"rdf":"http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#","rdfs":"http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","foaf":"http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","sioc":"http://rdfs.org/sioc/types#","blog":"http://vocab.amy.so/blog#","as":"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#","mf2":"http://microformats.org/profile/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","solid":"http://www.w3.org/ns/solid#","view":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/view#","asext":"https://terms.rhiaro.co.uk/as#","dbp":"http://dbpedia.org/property/","geo":"http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#","doap":"http://usefulinc.com/ns/doap#","time":"http://www.w3.org/2006/time#"},"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2010/07/tools-toys","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-582599558161252099","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"
As expected, the first week flew by, with lots of small projects coming my way\r\nas well as meetings scheduled about some bigger ones. I also finally got to\r\nmeet the rest of my team, who had been in Zurich at the Anita Borg\r\nScholarship Retreat.
\r\nGoogle Calendar has become a tool impossible to live without. Whilst I'd never\r\npreviously used it with any seriousness, after two days at Google I can't\r\nimagine ever planning my time without it again.
\r\nSimilarly the Tasks feature in Gmail has become invaluble, and I've started to\r\nuse it to remind myself about menial things to do in my personal life as well.\r\nThe trick is to write down something you have to do the minute you're asked or\r\nemailed to do it. The list quickly became bottomless, but you can move things\r\nup and down by dragging - so it's easy to prioritise, and of course there's\r\nthe satisfaction of a big tick and a strike-through when a task is done.
\r\nIt also surprises me how quickly having meetings with people in other\r\ncountries has become normal. Video conferencing is seamlessly integrated into\r\nthe normal workflow, so you can either make a call from your desk for a quick\r\nchat, or book a room (for the person you're calling, as well as yourself) for\r\na longer meeting. I've met the members of my team in Zurich and Vienna in this\r\nway. (Still hoping I get to head out to visit them in person some time\r\nthough!)
\r\nOther particularly memorable highlights of the week included hiding under a\r\ndesk, behind a giant red ball, waving toys in the air like puppets in the\r\nbackground of a short video... For like, seven takes. Not in my job\r\ndescription, but definitely fun. Plus the chocolate fountain the canteen.\r\nEveryone seemed amazed at this, so I guess it doesn't happen often. There were\r\nmini jam doughnuts to dip. I do love working here.
\r\nBut not just because of the food (although that is quite a contributing\r\nfactor. Seriously, the vegetarian chilli - twice - was awesome). I also love\r\nhow well interns are treated, and how I feel that the projects I'll be getting\r\nstarted with next week actually have some sort of impact. I've made friends\r\nwith a group of other interns (mostly engineering ones) and I'm pretty sure\r\nthey all feel the same. We don't just get menial tasks to keep us out of\r\ntrouble, but hefty pieces of work that keep us interested and thinking.
","as:name":"Tools, toys and a chocolate fountain","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2010-07-04T20:41:00.000Z"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/done"},{"@id":"blog:Done"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/google+internship"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/google"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/work"}],"as:updated":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2013-04-01T00:03:04.594Z"}}