100 Googlers in 14 weeks
I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m about to begin the last week of my internship here at Google. The projects I’ve done here were absolutely incredible. I worked on much more than a little button on some website. I actually worked on meaningful Google products and I actually felt like I had an impact.
Other than doing the work though, I really wanted to make the most of my summer with thousands of brilliant people in one place. Over the course of 14 weeks, my goal was to meet with at least 20 people outside of my team. Well, I beat that goal and met with 100 employees here at Google. After the first few 1:1s, I noticed how open Google was so I kept on asking! I met designers who were just in my shoes the year before to VPs of product areas to even the legendary Sergey Brin himself. I couldn’t thank them enough. They took time out of their day to have a lunch or froyo with me and I was just an intern! That’s crazy! But I learned so much from each and every one of them so the time was definitely not wasted. It would probably be way too long to talk about each person but I want to summarize my favorite takeaways and the common pieces of advice I received.
I’m excited to share with you the top 5 things I learned from some of the industry’s greatest minds:
1. Find your specialty.
- Jay Runquist
I can easily say, design is my biggest passion… but design is such a broad term. Everyone loves designing but what exactly do I like about design? This topic has come up in several talks I’ve had with people like Jay Runquist, Daniel Shiplacoff, Christian Bohland, and Jeromy Henry. It’s a little hard to find my exact speciality because I’m so new to this industry and it’s hard to choose just one or a few things when I’m so interested in everything! Even though designers should specialize in one thing, you shouldn’t limit yourself to just that. Dave Wright says to “be a t-shaped designer” which means to have an amazing skill but also be good at other things as well. Mike Buzzard has also told me once that you don’t have to be a genius at everything but the more you know about the medium, the easier it will be to partner with people on ideas and projects.
- Dave Wright
a collaborator.”
- Mike Buzzard
2. Do what you love.
Everyone grows up with a mentality that you have to be “successful”. But what does success mean? A lot of people associate success with the amount of money you have. I agree that we should try succeed but not in monetary terms. I’ve learned from people like Jake Knapp and Daniel Burka that what matters most is that you’re doing what you love with the people you love. As I go into my senior year of college, I’m trying to decide what exactly I want to do after I graduate. This shouldn’t be based on where I’m going to get offered the most but more about where I’m going to have the most fun. Where I’m going to get up every morning just so excited to go to “work” and even dread the weekends, just kidding. haha
It’s nice knowing that whatever I do decide, it’s not the final thing I’ll do. “People change their jobs all the time and you’ll eventually try out everything in your career,” says Jonah Jones. He’s literally been all over the place! It’s pretty reassuring that whatever I end up doing, it’ll just be the next step to whatever’s going to come next.
- Emmet Connolly
- Jonah Jones
- Jake Knapp
3. Just focus on your work.
good work.”
- Shalin Pei
There are so much distractions out there, it’s hard to focus on what we’re actually doing here. Jean-Marc Denis and Malea Gadoury have mentioned some topics in which there is so much fluff in the design world, things like “elitists”, and other crazy social things. Shalin Pei has also advised not worrying about what people think about you, just keep doing what you’re doing and learn a thing or two along the way. #hatersgonnahatehatehatehate
We’re constantly learning. We’re never done learning. You can learn a lot from other people, especially the ones who’ve had much more experience than you. Noah Levin has emphasized many times about the value of talking to people. My manager, Nate Koechley, says communication is so important and that you should have empathy with who you’re communicating with.
in your band.”
- David Besbris
- Nadya Direkova
4. Take risks.
I’ve learned that right now, it’s a good time to break rules and take risks. After meeting with Jon Wiley, two designers on Android Wear (Alex Faaborg and Emmet Connolly), and two on Google Glass (Isabelle Olsson and Amy Yip) I’ve really been interested in doing something new lately, solving harder interaction design problems past just the UI on screens of mobile and web devices. I’m also pretty interested in motion design now because of the work on Material Design and the exciting things Nicholas Jitkoff has told me about it. I’ve learned that if I actually want to try something out, the best thing I can do is to just do it. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission.
to take risks.”
- Bradley Horowitz
Bradley Horowitz brought up a good point to me about risks. Right now, the only thing we have to worry about is ourselves. No spouse. No kids to take care of. We can afford to crash on a friend’s couch. We should definitely take advantage of this.
However, “if you take a risk, be happy with what you’re risking,” says Daniel Shiplacoff. Make sure you have a good reason as to why you’re doing this.
5. We are incredibly lucky.
I hope more people realize this. Not only are we so lucky to be alive and well, we are in a place where opportunities open up for us literally all the time. The unemployment rate for people graduating college right now is around 10% and here we are deciding which of the biggest companies in the world to play at or just hoping for things to land on our laps. It’s crazy! Definitely don’t take any of this for granted. It’s nice knowing the people I look up to like Sergey Brin, Brynn Evans, and Matias Duarte understand.
- Matias Duarte
- Sergey Brin
Knowing this, I’ve also talked to recent graduates like Helena Jaramillo, Sun Park, and Nadim Raad. They’ve been in my shoes so recently and they know all about what I’m going through right now. It just seems like everything is happening so fast and we have to decide what exactly we have to do right after school but that’s just the internship mentality right now. We have time to decide and not make such quick decisions without thinking.
- Jeromy Henry
I’ve had such a great time meeting the people here at Google. I’ve made such new lifetime best friends and great connections and mentors that I’m sure will pay off in the future. I won’t get into too much of an ending because this isn’t my final post of the summer, but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone I met. I’ve learned a lot from you all.
Here’s a list of every Googler I met. Even though I didin’t write about you all, you all have taught me so much. I’ll remember each thing you’ve all said while I’m making some big decisions.
Update: Just had my intern conversion interviews with James Home and Joe Ashear! They were incredibly awesome to meet with. But that makes #99 and #100. 100 Googlers in 14 weeks. So awesome, thank you.
* There’s more to life than just work.
Here’s a bonus thing I learned, and it’s from the people I spent literally my whole summer with. I’ve grown up thinking that I always had to be productive. If I feel like I’m wasting time, it really bothers me. I don’t believe in relaxing when there’s so much work to do. It’s weird because I don’t see it as work though but maybe some day I might burn out, and we don’t want that to happen. I know it definitely won’t because I absolutely love what I’m doing, but everyone needs a break once in a while.
After this summer, I’m going to try things out that I haven’t done before, even if I’m scared… and I’m scared of a lot of things. lol I have to get off my phone, computer, google glass, etc. once in a while and explore the world because that’s not a waste of time at all! There’s deifnitely things I can learn! So thanks so much Funtastic 4. We didn’t get to do everything I wanted to try, but at least you’ve shown me that there is a world out there. And it’s a nice feeling knowing that I’ll see you guys again soon so we can continue exploring.
#funtastic4
