Diary of a Google Nigeria Intern
My name is Benjamin and in 2015, I interned at Andela, after which I wrote a blog post about my time spent working there. The said blog post has now received about 2,000 views.
Hence, I decided to do something similar with my time at Google. Only that this time around it is going to be more like a diary published as a (medium) series towards the end.
A couple of people have written about interning at Google in other places (see this one from an NY Intern) of the world but I’m yet to see one from a Lagos intern.
So, this is going to serve as the index-cum-intro page.
Hopefully, this index section would grow with the addition of new stories.
On April 3, something unusual happened — I got an (internship) offer from Google!
Role: GOMP Intern — Marketing
This is unusual because in 2015 and 2016 I got denied at the online application stage, meaning, I never got to do an interview.
So, getting it this time around, means it was my third time of applying consecutively.
Filled with joy, I took to my Twitter to break the news, but then, I just teased (see tweet below).
At the time, I was in school — UK. So, me taking up an internship at Google implied several things.
For one, I would have to come back to Nigeria because that’s where I was needed/deployed.
Also, I’ll miss the end of year dinners that took place in my department :(
Then, I’ll have to struggle with doing my dissertation at the same time.
Ff to the week before, I went to get an additional pair of jeans, you know how we see all those Google employees wearing T-shirts and Jeans, I wanted to feel among :( . I later got to find out that wearing what you are comfortable in appears to be crucial to Google. The fact that you can be serious without wearing a suit is one of the ten things they hold true (see appendix A for the rest).
I had my GF over to assist with the packing, we went to the store to get me some casually-corporate looking shoes to match the jeans I had just bought.
I tried to read a little more about the office, my manager and some of the people I might be working with.
I connected with a past intern, Taslim and he graciously connected me with a current FTE.
Alas! June 3/4, I was in the air.
I took a few snaps and ranted more on Twitter.
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