{"@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#"},"@graph":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2010/06/anticipation","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-864384804260099640","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"
Having finally found somewhere to live in London, I'm now looking forward to\r\nreturning to Google's amazingly brightly coloured office in Belgrave House.\r\nThe few hours I spent there during my interview left me with impressions of\r\ncomfy chairs, excitable people, and rubber ducks stuck upside down to the\r\nceiling. I also got a fleeting glimpse of the legendary canteen, which I'm\r\nsure I will become very familiar with over the coming weeks.
\r\nFor those of you who don't know, my role as University Programmes Intern will\r\ninvolve supporting the University Programmes team as they forge links between\r\nGoogle Engineering and the academic world, throughout Europe, the Middle East\r\nand Africa (read more about it\r\nhere). It's a non-\r\ntechnical role, but I'm hoping my technical background will be helpful in\r\nrelating to the technical people (students and academics) the team will be\r\nworking with.
\r\nHere's to hoping I'm up for the task!
","as:name":"Anticipation","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2010-06-23T21:39:00.000Z"},"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-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":"2013-04-01T00:03:27.504Z"}},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/2010/06/first-day-googler","@type":"as:Article","blog:bloggerid":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18505529.post-213653436630686746","as:actor":{"@id":"http://www.blogger.com/profile/12227954801080178130"},"as:content":"I have my own desk, my own @google.com email address and a shiny shiny MacBook\r\nPro. I also have a million and one things to remember, three floors to learn\r\nmy way around and a ton of name/face/job combinations I've almost certainly\r\nforgotten already. The important thing is, I know where the canteen is. In\r\nfact, I'm still in the office right now (the rest of the team having gone home\r\nalmost an hour ago) purely because I'm waiting for the canteen to re-open for\r\ndinner.
\r\nAlready I have meetings scheduled and an event to attend. I spent a lot of\r\ntoday learning the ropes of the intranet. There are all these delightful\r\nextra things within the regular Google products you know and love... Things\r\nthat aren't available to the public, and that I can't even talk about.\r\nKeeping the excitement inside is painful, but if I breathe a word, there will\r\nprobably be a contract on my head. Not really, that would be\r\nevil. But I'd be in trouble.
\r\nSo while I wait for my second free meal of the day, I'm signing up to internal\r\nmailing lists... Things like... the daily menu for the canteen.
\r\nOh, some of you may be interested... I'm entitled to bring two people per\r\nmonth to the canteen for lunch. That's six people in total. Let me know if\r\nyou're interested, although three to four spots are probably already taken by\r\ndefault.
\r\nNow, I hear plates clanking in the distance... Time to go!
","as:name":"First Day as a Googler","as:published":{"@type":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#datetime","@value":"2010-06-28T17:13:00.000Z"},"as:tag":[{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/done"},{"@id":"blog:Done"},{"@id":"https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/google+canteen"},{"@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":"2013-04-01T00:03:12.362Z"}},{"@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.
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