Getting a summer internship at Google, one of the most coveted companies in the world was nothing less than a dream come true.
This article is a humble attempt to capture my learnings from functional (work-related) and behavioral aspects of the internship.
Functional Aspects
1. Spend time sharpening your axe (Pre-Internship
Phase)
As part of the preparation for this internship during the
first year, I spent time reading about Google’s Ads business, and to understand
the nuances of implementation on Adwords, I took up a live project of running a
remarketing campaign on YouTube for an educational start-up.
This preparation helped me quickly grasp the context of my
project during the internship, enabling me to relate to the business problems
and participate in team discussions effortlessly.
2. Consistency - Collaboration - Critics to
sail through tough times!
a. Consistency (Fail
Fast!)
There were times when I didn’t
have a clear idea of the way forward. One thing that kept me going was
continuous progress, sometimes I digressed, but that always resulted in
learning, and provided me with new avenues and different dimensions that I
could add to my project.
I believe in the principle of failing fast (or rapid
prototyping), it has helped me in times of uncertainty and enabled me to deal
with ambiguous and complex situations.
b. Collaboration (When
you need to innovate, you need to collaborate)
One of the highlights of my
project was that I managed to work with every team member (in a team of 14). In
this short span of time, I tried to ensure simultaneous consumption of my work
by the teammates. At times, it required a little extra work from my end, but
working along with team members, opened the doors to crucial inputs that helped
in improving the deliverables, as they were being consumed parallelly by our
larger team and clients.
c. Critics (Feedback is
the breakfast of champions)
While seeking continuous feedback from my mentors, ensured
that I stay on the right track of my project. I also solicited feedback from
Googlers of different business divisions/verticals, and those critical sessions
helped me in getting a zoomed-out view of the project and its interconnections
and potential for generating value for other business divisions.
3. Miscellaneous
a. User first
One of the critical things that I have
imbibed in myself from this internship is to always think in terms of
'End User' while solving any problem. I found drastic changes in my
approach and the final outcome, when I started questioning my deliverables from
the users perspective! No wonder, all the Google's products are highly
user-friendly.
b. Simplicity - Scalability -
Socialization are critical for the Sustainability of the project
As the project was taking shape,
my mentors mentioned about creating a scalable solution, which is simple to
understand and easy to replicate for all others. I can’t thank them enough for
this advice, as later, developing a scalable solution formed a critical piece
in my project work.
Another important feedback that I
received from my cross-functional mentor was to ensure socialization of the
project within the team, so that the work gets consumed and creates value for
the organization, even after completion of the internship.
Thus, a simple, scalable solution, well socialized (evangelized) formed a complete package for my project.
c. Narrative is critical
Delivering value through the project
work is just one piece of this internship puzzle. To get the complete puzzle in
place, effective delivery of the message is imperative, and storytelling is the
key to set that straight.
A lot of focus and guidance was put-in by my seniors to
ensure that I develop a great narrative for my project, which resonates with
the senior leadership team. After, ‘User-First’, I believe this is the second
most important learning from my internship.
Behavioural Aspects
1. Value people
The foundation of Google's culture is based on
valuing people and their well-being in all aspects of life. From my experience,
everything that Google does for its employees revolves around having happy,
healthy and heartful people.
During my short stint of 8 weeks as an intern,
I received all the facilities equivalent to a full-time employee, sometimes a
little extra (Google Schwags) ;) :D
I could observe the saying, "If you value people, they will do wonders for you" in practice.
2. Humility is at the core of Google's culture
"Shobhit, we will do
collaborative learning, you help us with this, we will teach you
business!" - A Senior Googler on 2nd of the internship
I wondered, how can I help anyone at Google,
esp. when it is coming from a senior! But, I guess this was a lesson for me on
humility, just at the start of the internship!
On our first day, we were told about the values
of Google, and how humility is something which runs through everyone's nerve. I
saw it in practice on the second day itself!
3. Value Experiences
Google truly nurtured us (interns) not just
with the internship learnings but also by ensuring that our time beyond office
was equally memorable.
One of the best parts of our internship was when we
travelled to Hyderabad office for training and all India interns offsite. A
full day fun outing at a famous resort in Hyderabad coupled with outbound activities
helped us bond with all other interns.
A big thanks to the people-operations team of Google, who
made sure that our stay with the company becomes one of the best times of our
lives!
Ending Note:
The two months of internship have not only taught me the
critical aspects of business but have also changed me as a person to a greater
extent, and I will embrace these learnings throughout my career.
My key takeaways -
User First - Doing the right thing - Being Humble!
Bonus Experience:
Parents Visit to Gurgaon Office
My internship experience would be incomplete without a thanking note to all the people who were part of this small yet a crucial part of my life!
A heartfelt thanks to -
My manager, buddy, teammates, fellow interns, all the old and new friends at Google, people-ops team, and everyone else whom I have met during this time! Hope our paths cross again!
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