My Google Journey (6)
Day 6 (5/30/17)
Activities:
- First full (mostly) day at my desk with my team
- Attended my second to last orientation workshop!
- Had first lunch and dinner with team members
- Watched lecture on unconscious biases and their effects in the workplace
What I Learned Today:
- There are a lot of advantages working in environments with smaller, more close-knit teams (and I think I actually prefer it this way). My previous internship did not have this kind of culture with the team I worked with and I felt lonely, but after being with my team today and seeing how close they are with each other, it felt more comfortable and like I belonged. Additionally, it feels nice knowing that I can always go to anyone on my team since they’re all very involved with everything the team works on.
- Google has their version of Uber to get around campus, and I’m all for it. It makes things much easier than just biking or walking around the large and spread out Mountainview campus.
- Unconscious bias — even if they are very minutely present amongst everyone — can make a huge impact in the workplace and beyond. I always knew this in the back of my mind, but the research in my training showed me that the effects can be more drastic than I imagined. One way to combat that, though, as a leader, is that when giving a performance review to ask the follower to repeat back what they heard you say, to ensure that you are not giving off any implicit messages you don’t mean to send.
Reflection:
In previous internships, I may have enjoyed my time and learned a lot, but I always felt as if I did not truly belong within the teams I worked in — and this isn’t at their own fault. I think I struggle personally with opening up to some people — especially managers or superiors. However, spending the day with my team helped ease these worries tremendously. Not only is everyone on my team friendly, but they all openly welcomed me and my partner to join them for lunch, dinner, and other activities. Our hosts and their manager also sit right next to us, which makes it very easy to reach out if we have questions, which I think I’m much more comfortable to do since they are so open with us and each other. They even have Board Game Monday lunches, which I really look forward to.
We also got to hear about our project options for the summer, and while I definitely lean towards one of the ideas in particular, I loved both of the options I heard about. It feels really great knowing that these projects will directly impact engineers both inside and outside of Google. I think this potential for impact motivates me to not only be a great intern, but just be a great developer overall. This gives me hope that if I find the right role where I can visibly help others through my own work, then I can be more satisfied in my full-time job.
