In the ancient days of corporate internships, ties and dresses were de rigueur. You were a newbie nobody who spoke only when spoken to. It was assumed you knew close to nothing and you were led by the nose and micromanaged.
Enter the Google Internship. Yes, you wear a silly Noogle propeller hat and a school-type backpack as if you’re still on your college campus. But as many Nooglers have discovered, this is not their father’s internship.
Kyle Ewing, heads up Google’s internship program and says the film, The Internship, in which she served as an advisor, accurately reflects what happens during a Google internship. “I think the movie does a great job of portraying Google’s culture,” she says. “I was happy to see the work that the interns do all summer, the hard work that they put in, be the object of a feature film.”
The company offers a number of different internship options. Technical interns are given the opportunity to contribute in major ways. The internships are full-time positions and are offered throughout the year. Students are accepted from a wide range of disciplines—including CS, EE, Math, and Physics. Start and end dates are flexible and can dovetail with your academic schedule, but you’ll need to commit to at least three months of full-time work.
Kitt interned at Google for the Google+ launch. As an Associate Product Manager, she managed parts of the Search experience in Google+ and designed webpages that were seen by millions of users. “I had a lot of responsibility,” said Kitt. “At first, it was a little overwhelming because I was doing things I had never done before. I ‘owned’ the page that tons of people would land on.” She now works on Google+ security.
Getting a Google internship is not easy. A Google spokesperson notes that Google accepts just 1,500 interns out of 40,000 applicants every year in the U.S. Earning a spot at Google is highly competitive.
Student Rohan Shah filled out an online application following a career fair at the University of Illinois. The detailed application asked for things like grade point average, past experiences, extra curricular activities and more. Google finally called him weeks later for the month-long interview process. "I had interviews with around five different teams," he says—each being about 45 minutes long. Some of the questions are challenging and real-world based. "It was essentially applying your knowledge in a very practical situation," said Shah. “It's figuring out if you can scale a system, or you can make something much more efficient," he added. He was finally selected as one of 50 Spring Nooglers. The perks are many for Nooglers: 24 cafes, multiple gyms, a wellness center, company paid apartment, and free shuttle to and from work.
Technical internships at forward-looking companies like Google are changing the way first time job seekers integrate into the corporate structure. It’s challenging, fun and highly competitive.
Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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