Google Data

Just like Superman, Google Games made its return in 2013. This year, we invited over 1,000 students from 39 universities located near a Google office in North America to join us for a day of fun and a glimpse of Google culture. The day included trivia, puzzles, word association, Lego building and coding, all of which happen to be a few of Googlers’ favorite activities. To add to the fun, we encouraged students to reveal their alter egos by donning capes and other super powers.

Throughout the course of the day, teams of five went head to head in challenges developed by Google engineers specifically for the event. Their goal was to see who had the power to score the most points! The day kicked off with trivia with questions such as “What is the opposite of Brobdingnagian?” and “The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are two children of this super-villain.” From there, teams tackled seven logic based puzzles, and by the time lunch rolled around, teams were ready to refuel and recharge for the second portion of the day. This year, we reintroduced Word Association (a Google Games version of shygypsy.com/farm) and challenged teams to be the first to uncover 95% of the word graph. In true Google Games spirit, the culminating round was the coding challenge, where we posed four problems to the teams via the Code Jam platform.

But it didn’t end there! It wouldn’t be Google Games without a Lego challenge, and this year we included it as our bonus round. The team with the highest point-scoring tower, based on height and the number of super heroes on the tower, received a special honor of their own.

At the end of the day, we totalled the points and crowned the winning teams at each location. Congratulations to everyone that participated and to the winning teams:

• New York – Orange Bubblesort (Princeton)
• Mountain View – QBRNKNBR (UC Berkeley)
• Cambridge – NEVA EVA (Harvard)
• Chicago – Conjurers of Erasers (University of Chicago)
• Atlanta – Trashball Champions (Georgia Tech)
• Seattle – Honey Badgers (University of Washington)
• Boulder – The Planeteers (University of Colorado, Boulder)
• Los Angeles – Team Beavers (Caltech), 3-time winning streak!
• Irvine – FUS ROH DAH (Harvey Mudd)
• Pittsburgh – Lemon Nonesense (Carnegie Mellon)
• Washington DC – Started from the bottom now we are here (University of Maryland)
• Waterloo – FortyTwo (University of Waterloo)

We could not have hosted these 12 events without the help of our trusted Google engineers, who created all of the challenges and helped on-site, too, so a huge shout out to them!

Check out our photo album to see more pictures, and don’t forget to add Google Students to your circles on Google+ to learn more about next year’s competition.

Posted by Caitlin Merrell and Kat Leung, University Programs

Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog

We’d like to recognize and congratulate the 84 recipients and finalists of the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship and Google Scholarship for Students with Disabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The full list of the 2013 scholars and finalists and the universities they attend can be found in this PDF.

Both scholarships aim to encourage underrepresented students to enter the computing field. The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship honours the memory of Dr. Anita Borg who devoted her life to encouraging the presence of women in computing; we recently announced the U.S. recipients of this scholarship. The Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities aims to help dismantle barriers for students with disabilities as well as encourage them to excel in their studies and become active role models and leaders in creating technology.

All of the students receiving the scholarships are pursuing degrees in computer science or related fields at universities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This summer, they’ll attend the annual Google EMEA Scholarships Retreat in Zurich, where they’ll have the opportunity to attend tech talks on Google products, participate in developmental sessions, network with Googlers and attend social activities. Notable speakers at the 2013 retreat include Alan Eustace, SVP of Knowledge, Megan Smith, VP of Google [x], and Carolyn Casey, Founder of Kanchi.org.

Applications for the scholarships will be open again in just a few short months. Learn more about how the scholarships impacted the lives of previous recipients:

For more information on all of our scholarships and programs, please visit the Google Students site.

Posted by Efrat Aghassy, EMEA scholarships program manager

The Generation Google Scholarship was established in 2012 to encourage aspiring computer scientists to excel in technology and become active role models and leaders in the field. Every year, high school seniors with financial need who have demonstrated a passion for computer science, technical aptitude, academic achievements, and leadership amongst their peers will be selected as recipients of this scholarship.

We are pleased to announce the 2013 Generation Google Scholars, along with the universities they will be attending this Fall:

• Yasmin Adams, Pomona College
• Ikechi Akujobi, Stanford University
• Megan Gebhard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Diana Hernandez, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Descartes Holland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Aneesha Kommineni, University of Texas at Austin
• Setareh Lotfi, University of Utah
• Daniel Mariselli, Amherst College
• Karolina Pyszkiewicz, University of Washington, Seattle
• Stephanie Yu, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Generation Google Scholars will receive a $10,000 academic scholarship and are attending Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute this summer, in Mountain View, CA or Cambridge, MA.

If you’re interested in learning more about our scholarship programs and timelines, please visit our Google Scholarships page.

Posted by Azusa Liu, Student Development Programs

Cross-posted from the Google Developers BlogOn June 1st and 2nd, thousands of developers from across the U.S. came together at nearly 100 different locations to participate in the first ever National Day of Civic Hacking. Using public data recently rel…

Google’s Computer Science for High School (CS4HS) program traditionally brings computer science workshops to locally train teachers how to incorporate CS and computational thinking into their classrooms. Through partnerships with universities, these workshops have reached thousands of teachers worldwide.

This year, CS4HS is piloting a new online format to allow anyone to participate in a CS4HS event. The first of the four online courses is built on the open source Course Builder platform and is entitled “Creative Computing Online Workshop;” it starts on today and runs for six weeks. We caught up with the workshop’s creator and head instructor Karen Brennan, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to find out more about the project.

Your workshop is called “Creative Computing.” What exactly does that mean?

While I was a doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab, I co-hosted annual Google CS4HS events from 2009 until 2012 with Mitch Resnick — workshops we called “Creative Computing.” The name reflected a desire to broaden the scope of our CS4HS workshops beyond “computer science” and beyond “high school.” The concepts, practices and perspectives that people explore in computer science are valuable across disciplines and across ages, and we wanted to emphasize the creative potential for a wide range of young learners. The Scratch programming language, which was developed at the MIT Media Lab, was our primary tool for exploring creative computing.

At Harvard, I have continued my work in supporting educators’ explorations with Scratch, and the “Creative Computing” name still perfectly frames how I hope people will think about engaging with computing, computer science, and Scratch.

Does the workshop have a specific audience? Who should participate?

The workshop is designed primarily for K-12 educators. But anyone who is interested in learning more about creative computing with Scratch is welcome to join — the workshop is not limited to a particular number of participants.

We hope that people from a wide range of backgrounds and settings — and with varying levels of prior Scratch familiarity and comfort — will participate.

What is the workshop like?

The workshop is six weeks long, and runs from Monday, June 3 until Friday, July 12. The first three weeks, called Foundations, are an opportunity to develop greater familiarity and fluency with the Scratch authoring environment and online community through a series of scaffolded activities. The final three weeks, called Explorations, are an opportunity to define and pursue a self-directed project (such as designing Scratch activities, documenting your experiences of helping others learn Scratch, or experimenting with advanced features), which you can develop on your own or with others.

Each week is composed of primarily asynchronous interactions, so you can work at your own pace, depending on your schedule and your time zone. The asynchronous components include mini-lectures, activity overviews and walkthroughs, tutorials, and discussion forums — and will be made available at the beginning of each week. These asynchronous interactions are accompanied by twice-weekly synchronous sessions (a.k.a. “Office Hours”), held on Tuesday evening and Friday morning (Boston time).

You can participate as much or as little as you like during the six weeks — and all of the resources will be publicly available after the workshop.

This workshop focuses on the use of Scratch. Can you tell me more about what Scratch is and why you chose it for this workshop?

Scratch, developed by researchers at the MIT Media Lab, is a free authoring environment for creating interactive media and an online community for sharing those interactive media creations. Launched in 2007, Scratch is used by hundreds of thousands of people (mostly ages 8 through 18) around the world, and more than 3 million projects have been created and shared through the Scratch online community.

“Creative computing” isn’t Scratch-specific — there are many other great tools that can serve as entry-points for exploring the big ideas underlying creative computing. But Scratch was a natural choice for the workshop because it was designed for a broad audience, with the aim of making interactive media creation accessible to as many people as possible. I was also a member of the Scratch Team at the Media Lab for 5 years, so it is something with which I am familiar!

I also chose Scratch because a new version was recently launched in May 2013. Scratch 2.0 includes a new web-based project authoring environment and many new features (such as cloning, custom blocks, and cloud variables), and the online workshop will serve as an opportunity to explore the new version.

How does someone get involved?

Join us at creative-computing.appspot.com. You can participate as much or as little as you like — dive into building Scratch projects, connect with others interested in creative computing, or just explore the resources. The Creative Computing Online Workshop facilitation team is excited about working with you and learning from your experiences.

For updates on Creative Computing Online and the other in-person and online CS4HS workshops, join our CS4HS G+ community, open to all students, teachers and other CS enthusiasts.

Posted by Erin Mindell, Program Manager for Education

Editors note: Applications for the Asia-Pacific Scholarship will close on the 31st of May, 2013. To apply and for more information, go to: www.google.com/anitaborg/apac

Dr. Anita Borg devoted her adult life to revolutionising the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology. Even today, her combination of technical expertise and fearless vision continues to inspire and motivate women to become leaders in creating technology.

As part of scholarship that Google dedicates in her name, winners of the award are invited to a retreat which brings young female computer science students together to learn from some of the best minds in the industry and each other.

We’ve asked to Sarah-Marie Heimlich, a Junior Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship finalist to tell us about the the experience she and her fellow scholars had at the Sydney retreat last year:

“For as long as I can remember, I have loved science and technology. At age three, my favourite toy were a set of LEGO Duplo bricks. I loved just building things and putting things together. By the age of ten I begun programming my LEGO robots and when I made it to high school I joined a robotics team. As the sole female in a large group of boys, you learn quickly to become just “one of the guys.

So when I followed this passion at university I barely noticed I was only one of a handful of girls. When I was selected for the Anita Borg Summit last year, I was excited to be able to spend time hanging out with other geeks. It didn’t really dawn on me until I arrived that everyone there would also be female.

There I was amongst all these others girls who were just as passionate about what I did. For probably the first time in my life, it felt completely ok to be a “one of the girls”.

One of the most important things I gained from the scholarship is that I was able to see I was not alone in my chosen profession – and that there are other women who want long and successful careers with the knowledge that they have the ability to change the world.”

Now in its 10th year, the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship has grown to include Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand. This is the first year it is being offered regionally to Asia-Pacific.

It’s important that this scholarship does more than just help connect passionate females, but that it also inspires a new generation of female computer scientists to continue doing what they love with confidence.

Applications for the Asia-Pacific Scholarship will close on the 31st of May. For more information, eligibility requirements and to apply, go to: www.google.com/anitaborg/apac

For information on the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in other regions, see: www.google.com/anitaborg

Posted by Diana Kalkoul, Asia-Pacific Talent and Outreach Programs

(Cross-posted from Google Lat Long blog)

From your own backyard all the way to Mount Everest, Google Maps and Google Earth are here to help you explore the world. You can learn to harness the world’s most comprehensive and accurate mapping tools by registering for Mapping with Google.

Mapping with Google is a self-paced, online course developed to help you better navigate the world around you by improving your use of the new Google Maps, Maps Engine Lite, and Google Earth. All registrants will receive an invitation to preview the new Google Maps.

Through a combination of video and text lessons, activities, and projects, you’ll learn to do much more than look up directions or find your house from outer space. Tell a story of your favorite locations with rich 3D imagery, or plot sights to see on your upcoming trip and share with your travel buddies. During the course, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from Google experts and collaborate with a worldwide community of participants, via Google+ Hangouts and a course forum.

Mapping with Google will be offered from June 10 – June 24, and you can choose whether to explore the features of Google Maps, Google Earth, or both. In addition, you’ll have the option to complete a project, applying the skills you’ve learned to earn a certificate. Visit g.co/mappingcourse to learn more and register today.

The world is a big place, we like to think that you can make it a bit more manageable and adventurous with Google’s mapping tools.

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Program Manager

We recently hosted a Hangout On Air to highlight Site Reliability Engineers (SRE) at Google. SRE is comprised of software and systems engineering teams worldwide who are specialists in troubleshooting, tools development and production systems automation. SRE is responsible for ongoing capacity planning to handle Google’s rapid traffic growth and global expansion.

Today we’re featuring Ib Lundgren, an SRE intern in our ZRH office, who will tell you more about Site Reliability Engineers and the work they do at Google. Ib received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and will be starting his master’s at UCL after his internship is complete.

What have you worked on as an SRE intern?

SRE interns are involved in a large number of projects and their role in each project can vary tremendously. For me, much of the work SREs do is unlike anything I’d experienced previously at university.

Two good examples were my projects related to monitoring. After the introductory weeks I dug into a migration and refactoring of our threshold based monitoring setup for a specific legacy service. This gave a good introduction to the Google ecosystem.

Later, I embarked on what would become my largest project, the development of a new smart time series analysis system. The purpose of this was to supplement the traditional monitoring by looking for anomalies in trends and classifying their importance based on deviation from the expected, as opposed to deviation from a hard coded threshold.

Another project I was involved in lies in the opposite end of the SRE spectrum, capacity planning. In parallel with my first project I created statistically sound future projections of Bigtable resource usage, mainly disk and memory usage, using an internal forecasting tool. Capacity planning is done per service, as opposed to per team, and my first task was to define these services in terms of Bigtable tables. Then I set up the data extraction pipeline necessary to feed the usage data into the forecasting tool.

What is your typical day like?

My day often starts with skimming through the night’s worth of emails from across the pond. This helps me prioritize what I need to do for the day as a new bug assignment might need urgent attention. I spend part of my day reading and answering code review feedback and bug discussions with various reviewers, usually from my team. This often leads to code needing to be altered, added or removed. When all feedback has been addressed, I move on to the main portion of my daily activities, writing shiny new code.

As an intern you are blessed with much time to focus on one or two tasks without much distraction. The last few months have been almost entirely devoted to my time series analysis project and consequently to finding reviewers for thousands of lines of code. The system was mainly developed by me and it was a great experience to go from an idea of what we would like to achieve, to researching and suggesting possible approaches, to refining the idea and seeing how this new system grew through a large number of iterations, each step with excellent feedback from Googlers both in Zurich and Mountain View.

As a student with experience mostly from the open web and a few article databases, discovering the corporate intranet is similar to finding a new Internet, except you only have a few months to digest all of it! Thus I also try and spend a little time each day to watch tech talks and research libraries, best practices and tools.

Why did you apply for an SRE internship?

I applied to SRE because it would be a great opportunity to grow and gain skills I had not had a chance to develop at university, but in hindsight it really was for the nerf gun shooting, rocket launching glory that is being an SRE.

What’s been your favorite part of the internship?

The greatest part by far about being an SRE intern is seeing the impact you have on your team and other teams you interact with. SREs are constantly working towards eliminating all repetitive work, either their own or in an effort to reduce the workload of others. At first this might come off as a sign of laziness, but it really is about striving to solve new and more challenging problems, not repeating the same job over and over again. As an intern you have time to tackle larger problems the team is struggling to find time for, but is causing them pain on a regular basis. By eliminating that problem and seeing the effect on your team is an opportunity I believe is unique to being an SRE intern.

Also, Google’s food is ridiculously awesome. Of course, with that comes the daily afternoon food crash, which is when I go to the on-site gym =)

Ib and an impressive looking snowman after a day of skiing in Engelberg

What skills have you gained from this internship?

The culture here is like no other I’ve experienced. From the start I was free to choose from and work on a number of somewhat tersely described bugs. The initial phase of researching the bug and figuring out what a fix might look like took a while and was a big change from previous lab assignments. It would have been much quicker had I overcome my Noogler (term for “new Googler”) fear of making a fool of myself and started asking questions earlier. This was really when I started to understand how things work at Google. Since then, getting started on new projects and over a blocking issue has gone exponentially faster. The mentality of always asking questions, zooming in on your target and polling for regular feedback to see if you are going in the right direction are invaluable skills to have gained.

Engineering wise I’ve learned the value of doing things the right way and not taking short cuts. I was grilled extensively early on in code reviews and after having to defend all my choices I now know to do my due diligence before choosing any specific solution.

Google has been through many intriguing problems, the type of problems usually discarded in text books as so unlikely to happen that you need not bother thinking of them. Here, however, you stumble over these knowledge gems daily as you wander through the vast codebase.

Any advice for people considering applying?

You don’t need to be a command line ninja with years of Linux kernel hacking experience to do an SRE internship so don’t be afraid to apply, the worst you can get is a no.

What are your plans after your internship is over?

I’m going to do a master’s in the UK and I hope to work full-time at Google once I finish.

Interested in an SRE internship? Applications for our 2014 internships will be available at the end of this summer on google.com/students. You can also take a look at full-time roles posted here.

Posted by Frida Borjesson, College Recruiting Specialist

(cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Dr. Anita Borg revolutionized the way we think about technology and worked to dismantle the barriers that keep women and minorities from entering the computing and technology fields. In her lifetime, Anita founded the Institute for Women and Technology (now The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology), began an online community called Systers for technical women, and co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. We’re proud to honor her memory through the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, established in 2004.

Today we’d like to recognize and congratulate the 30 Google Anita Borg Memorial scholars and the 30 Google Anita Borg Memorial finalists for 2013. The scholars, who attend universities in the United States and Canada, will join the annual Google Scholars’ Retreat this summer in New York City, where they will have the opportunity to attend tech talks on Google products, network with other scholars and Googlers, participate in developmental activities and sessions, and attend social activities. This year, the scholars will also have the opportunity to participate in a scholars’ edition of 24HoursOfGood, a hackathon in partnership with local non-profit organizations who work on education and STEM initiatives to make progress against a technical problem that is critical to their organization’s success.

Find out more (PDF) about our winners, including the institutions they attend. Soon we’ll select the Anita Borg scholars from our programs around the world. For more information on all our scholarships, visit the Google Scholarships site.

Posted by Azusa Liu, Student Development Programs Specialist

As part of our ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’ series we’re highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our multicultural Google Dublin Office who joined soon after graduating! Today we’re featuring one of our Irish Googlers, Dean, a Brand Account Manager in our Large Client Services Team to give you the inside scoop about his role and top tips for new graduates. If you are interested in working in Google Dublin, check out some of our new grad positions at the end of this post.

Dean & Jack Daniel

Tell us about your path to Google?

Eight years of primary school, Five years of secondary, Four years of University, Six jobs.

I spent ages 3-9 wanting to be in An Garda Síochána (Cop, Policeman, Hot Fuzz)
9-13 wanting to “work with computers”
13-17 wanting to be an Architect
18 back to An Garda Síochána
And finally, settled down in a Marketing degree.

Rule one of Google: Quantify everything, it makes everything look more impressive.

The thing that prepared me most was the numerous jobs I had before joining Google. These included working on my Dad’s factory floor folding shirts or collecting empty pint glasses at the famous Fagan’s pub in Drumcondra, Dublin and working in Marketing for ESB’s Customer Supply team.

Then came my degree. DCU’s Marketing, Innovation and Technology course is honestly one of the best in the country. It offers a great mix of both traditional marketing theory combined with new age technology and offers a deep dive into practical real-world examples.

And after that came, well, Google.

Tell us about a typical day in your life at Google.

My brain doesn’t turn on until around 10:00 am. So up until that point I eat breakfast and plan for the day.

Next, I feed Chadwick, my turtle:

Super Ninja Turtle

After, that I kick it into high gear.

I work in the Branding Team where I’m an Account Manager for a handful of Google’s clients. It’s fast-paced, constantly changing and most importantly, interesting.

I normally start by reading through my inbox, looking for anything urgent that needs to be handled. Which is normally everything. Two pieces of advice regarding email: First, don’t email; try and pick up the phone instead, it solves things faster. Second, say it in 200 words or less. People have a short attention span, so keep it short ‘n sweet.

After that, I could be doing anything from helping a brand manager put together a media plan for a new marketing campaign, right down to giving a training to a digital agency on the “how to” of getting the most out of a YouTube Channel. The nature of branding clients means they have a big focus on Display Advertising and YouTube so one of the best parts of my job is playing around on YouTube during the day. You know those skippable Ads, massive banners on the youtube homepage or the Hunter Shoots a Bear Tipp-Ex Ad? Well that’s what I do.

One thing about working in advertising is the fast pace. With constant product development and market evolution, you are learning on the job all the time. So I spend a large portion of my time in training sessions and reading about new product releases and industry reports. I think that new graduates have a tendency to stop learning once they finish college…I know it sounds a little trite, but you never stop learning.

One fun fact about yourself?
In my final year of college I was the face of DCU’s marketing campaign. Unfortunately Google so far has refused to pay me to model for them.

DCU’s most successful Ad campaign

What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
I could probably talk for an hour on this one but because I’m rapidly approaching my word count limit, here are my top five:

1. Do your core job really well first. After that, you can start focusing on other stuff.
2. All things have an expert, the trick is to find that person, be nice to them and ask them for help when you need it.
3. Become an expert in something. People will be nice to you.
4. “If all you have is a hammer in the toolbox, everything looks like a nail.” – This is a business saying and there’s nothing wrong with it.
5. The last and probably most important thing to remember is “confidence”. Whether it’s during an interview or doing your job. Having and showing confidence is key.

Interested in working for Google Dublin? Check out our new grad positions today and apply!
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.

Posted by Dean Magee, Brand Account Manager.

As part of our ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’ series we’re highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our multicultural Google Dublin Office who joined soon after graduating! Today we’re featuring one of our Turkish Googlers, Yigit, to give you an inside look into the Associate Account Strategist, Global Customer Services role. If you’re interested in applying for an SMB Sales/Services position, check out our open opportunities at the bottom of this post.

So, tell us about your path to Google?
I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. I went to the German High School Istanbul and then I studied Economics at Bogazici University. During my final two years at university, I took Japanese courses which helped me to win a Japanese Government Scholarship to study Japanese at Keio University in Tokyo for one year. After Japan, I came back to Turkey and started working at Borusan Mannesmann as an export sales specialist. Then I worked at Philips in Turkey as a management trainee, spending one year in Product Marketing and six months in consumer sales. After Philips, I came to Dublin, Ireland to work at Google’s EMEA Headquarters.

Yigit celebrating at the St Patrick’s Day festival in Dublin!

What is your role at Google?
I am an Associate Account Strategist in SMB (Small and Medium Business) Services for Turkey. Currently, I am helping SMBs in Turkey to optimize their AdWords accounts to ensure their online advertising campaigns produce the best results possible and I also help to solve any problems relating to their accounts. Other projects that I work on include the Google Engage Program, in which I support advertising agencies and educate them to serve their customers better and Ad Review Optimization, which helps to review ads more efficiently. Before I began working on these projects, I was responsible for the Official Inside AdWords Turkey blog. Currently, I also have a “Buddy” role for Nooglers (new Google employees) to help them get up to speed quickly when they start in our team.

How does your role fit in with the larger team?
Our core job is to optimize and troubleshoot SMB AdWords accounts. However, every team member has a side project with a 20% time allocation to be used to contribute to the team in different ways. I use my 20% time allocation to educate AdWords agencies and I try to optimize the ad review process which in turn helps reviewers to use their time more efficiently.

So what does your typical day at Google involve?!

08.00 Trying to wake up
08.10 Still trying to wake up
08.20 Finally waking up (?)
08.45 – 09.00 Breakfast in Google
09.00 – 09.30 I check my customer accounts: before the day really starts, I try to analyze the needs of the customers and see where I can help improve what they are doing and troubleshoot any issues.
09.30 – 12.00 AdWords Account optimization & Troubleshooting
12.00 – 13.00 Lunch with colleagues to enjoy some delicious Google food!
13.00 – 14.00 AdWords Ad Review Process: I check current performance metrics and based on feedback from reviewers, I try to find ways to improve performance.
14.00 – 15.00 Training on new product features: Google AdWords products are being improved almost every day, so we constantly keep up to date on developments.
15.00 – 16.30 Account optimization and Troubleshooting: I try to finish all my accounts before the day ends.
16.30 – 17.30 Google Engage: I help agencies to solve their problems and improve their clients accounts or I prepare a webinar for agency education.
17.30 – 18.00 Buddy time : Support Nooglers for their ramp-up period

What’s your favourite Google memory or ‘Magic Moment’?
Instead of a single memory, for me the magic moments happen every time I receive feedback that the improvement I made to an SMBs AdWords account resulted in more sales and revenue for our customer. You can touch people’s lives by improving their account performance and it’s great to get positive feedback from them.

One fun fact about yourself
Thanks to my previous employer I have great product knowledge and know many things about steel pipes, electric shavers, epilators and light bulbs Let me know if you consider buying any of these!

What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
First of all, to study abroad is a very valuable experience, especially if you learn the language and immerse yourself in the culture of the country in which you study. I would definitely suggest studying abroad before graduation.

Second, my advice to a new grad would be to instead of insisting on a single path right after graduation, it’s better to consider all opportunities open to you. In other words, being open to different projects and roles is very important. It helps you to understand what you really want and what makes you happy in your career while broadening your perspective. In my personal story, I believe that having different experiences and roles, both during my studies and my career, paved my way to Google. Even inside Google, mobility among different roles is very important as well.

Interested in working for Google Dublin? Check out our new grad positions today and apply!
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.

Posted by Yigit Yucel, Associate Account Strategist.

• Build a support network (classmates, friends, etc)
• Don’t be afraid of asking questions and don’t feel like you’re the only person that thinks this is hard
• Believe in yourself and do things that speak to your passions

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Googlers grabbing lunch with the Georgia Tech group at the Tapia Conference

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Today’s post is a continuation of our Young Innovators @ Google series, where we’re highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers, designers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For today’s post, we sat down with Noah Levin, an interaction designer at Google.

Tell us about your path to Google.

Noah Levin: I first took interest in design through an early admiration of digital abstract art. I was enthralled with the way that technology could unlock creative expression in a completely new way. Then eventually through reading “Design of Everyday things” and “Don’t Make Me Think”, I learned that design was not just about how things look, but how they work, and I decided I wanted to learn more about the field in school. I also was very interested in musical theater at the time and wanted to attend a college that had both options, so Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in my hometown Pittsburgh, PA was a perfect fit. I studied Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with a minor in Communication Design, and also learned a lot during two summer internships at a small design firm in Pittsburgh. I decided to stay at CMU for my masters degree in HCI, part of which involved an amazing experience designing a cuff-mounted interface for astronauts at NASA in Mountain View. While on the west coast, I had a chance to interview with Google and now I’m loving it here!

Noah was recently featured in +Life at Google‘s Do Cool Things That Matter series – check out his full feature video below!

What was the first project you worked on at Google?

NL: Before transitioning to work on the Google Search app, I worked briefly on a fun project to help design an interface for related searches and visual refinements. The feature makes it easier to get to the information you are most likely to search for next, based on a wide variety of signals. For example, after searching [van gogh], it’s very likely you may also want to see his paintings, like [the starry night]. This feature still exists today, and is now built into knowledge cards on the search page. Try it out!

In what ways have you been able to innovate at Google?

NL: After just a few months of working here, I found out I’d be working on the Google Search app for iOS. Each day I come into work thrilled to have the chance to design interactions for a product that helps millions of people find the information they need every day, and I’m very lucky to collaborate with such a talented team of engineers to find new ways to make the app more useful, beautiful and easier to use.

Since joining the team, I’ve led the design through four major efforts: redesigning the ipad search experience including new interactions like a sliding web results page to get back and forth between search results and answers faster, redesigning the iphone search experience with a simplified interface and beautiful full screen image results, designing a new voice search experience with text to speech results, and most recently, bringing Google Now to iOS in the Google Search app. I am involved in all stages of the design process, from leading brainstorm sessions and creating sketches and mock ups early on to help define the vision, to refining those ideas using animation and interactive HTML / CSS prototypes, and finally providing high resolution assets and detailed implementation specifications to make the product really come to life.

Also, because Google is such an open and collaborative company, I often enjoy volunteering time outside of my primary project. For example, I worked with engineers to update many of the images we use on Google search to look crisp on high resolution displays and helped unify our navigation across devices including a fun subtle animation for search tools, in addition to spending 20% of my time working with the doodle team. It’s been quite a ride, and I can’t wait to keep building.

What was your involvement in launching Google Now for iOS?

NL: When Google Now launched on Android last year at Google I/O, people really enjoyed how it makes computers do the hard work, empowering you to find the information you need before you even ask. We’ve been collaborating closely with the Android team to think about ways to bring this great predictive information to more people. After spending a lot of time getting to know the product philosophy and current usage patterns, I began sketching, making Photoshop mock ups, and building prototypes to illustrate how this might feel in the context of the iOS app.

The Android team set a new bar for great design with their work on Google Now, so we knew that every moment, every pixel and animation, had to keep that bar high. I worked very closely with our engineers to refine the details to make sure everything felt fast, smooth, and polished. I’m quite proud of how things turned out, and am excited to finally see it out in the world.

What has surprised you most about working at Google?

NL: How much flexibility, freedom, and influence we have building products that reach hundreds of millions of people every day. I guess I expected to be working on small pieces of Google Search with a huge team and largely predefined requirements, but sure enough soon after joining, here I was fresh out of college working directly with just a few engineers and a product manager shaping and defining the best possible search experience on iOS. I was given the freedom to explore all sorts of concepts to figure out what we could do to make search feel fast and delightful, and had an amazing time refining these designs with such talented coworkers.

After we launched the redesign of the iPhone app, I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I first saw someone interacting with it casually while on a bus in San Francisco. They were touching and swiping things that I had once thought about and sketched on a whiteboard. The fact that this sketch can reach across the globe is incredibly eye opening, and really drives you every day to keep doing what you’re doing.

What has been your favorite part about working at Google?

NL: There’s a lot to pick from, but I one thing I think is truly unique is how many talented and approachable engineers and designers there are here. I love being able to reach out and have lunch with the amazing people who design products I use every day from Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, Maps, and my favorite, the lovely and creative folks who make the Google Doodles! I’m proud to now not only call these people my coworkers, but my friends.

Any good stories?

NL: I was shopping at an antique shop in San Francisco and noticed the owner was using the Google Search app on his iPhone. I was thrilled to see that and started chatting with him about it. When I mentioned I helped design it, he said “Oh great!” followed by something I always love hearing from people when I tell them I work at Google, “So I have some feedback for you.” I asked what was up, and he said, “You know… this logo here…” he points at the Google logo, “it just… it looks a little too much like the eBay logo. You should change that.” I hadn’t heard that one before, but happily replied, “You know, I can’t take credit for that, but I’ll pass along the feedback!”

Posted by Sarah Henderson, People Programs Specialist

As part of our ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’ series we’re highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our multicultural Google Dublin Office who joined soon after graduating! Today we’re featuring one of our Belgian Googlers, Pieter, to give you an inside look into the Associate Account Strategist, SMB Sales role. If you’re interested in applying for an SMB Sales/Services position, check out our open opportunities at the bottom of this post.

How did you end up at Google Dublin?
I was finishing my masters in European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels when I was contacted by a friend who was working for Google in Dublin. He told me Google was hiring and wondered if I was interested in applying. Since online media and free food are two of my passions I did not hesitate – I applied and was lucky enough to be hired!

Could you explain your role of an Associate Account Strategist a bit further?
I work with the BeNeLux (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) markets, so I help Dutch and Belgian customers. As an SMB Sales Associate we aim to provide AdWords customers with free strategic advice to optimize their AdWords accounts. The customers we help are mainly small and medium businesses that do not always have the resources to invest too much time in AdWords so that is why we lend them a hand.

What I love about my job is the fact that you can really make a difference with these companies. Often the tips you give a customer result in increasing sales on their websites; so you can really see what you have accomplished.

The variety of customers is also really amazing. You could be talking to a baker, a lawyer, a flagpole salesman and an insurance company all in the same day. It is super cool to get to know so many business models in such a short period of time.

So, what does a typical day at Google look like?

My alarm goes at 7.45, (I snooze till’ 8.00), take a shower and ride my bike to work with an empty stomach (I get dressed in between by the way!). Breakfast is waiting in one of our four on-site restaurants. I don’t consider myself a morning person, but the amazing breakfast makes starting the day a lot easier.

By 9.00 I’m at my desk, checking my emails and my agenda for the rest of the day. Before noon I have probably called a client or two to advise them on their AdWords account.

Around 12.30 is lunch time. Again, Google really knows how to spoil us with healthy and delicious food, so I really look forward to it.

After lunch I follow up on some emails and reach out to one or two customers. Around 4.30 I go and play my daily game of ping pong with a colleague. On good days I win, but most days I get my bottoms kicked. Nonetheless it is a great way to get ready for the last hour of the day, which I mostly reserve for some administrative chores. After work I go home and cook dinner or, when I’m lazy, I go and have dinner at, surprise surprise: Google.

What is the most interesting project/client that you have had to work with?
Currently I am working with agencies that manage AdWords professionally for their clients. To offer these guys added value requires a lot of preparation on my part since many of the people I talk to have been managing AdWords accounts twice as long as I have. To give these guys helpful advice is a challenge, but it does keep you sharp. I love that these agencies don’t take your advice if you can’t support it with data, so I try to find facts and figures before pitching a product to them. If they implement a feature I have recommended it gives a great sense of satisfaction.

What’s your favorite Google memory or ‘Magic Moment’?
Before I came to Google I participated in a rally to Mongolia. During this trip I met two guys that were working for Google in Dublin; we travelled together for a week through the Gobi desert. They got the nickname ‘Dustboys’ because their air filter was broken and they were always completely covered in dust.

On my first week in Dublin someone touched me on the shoulder and asked ‘Hi Pieter, what are you doing here?’ I had no idea who this person was so I was kind of weirded out. Then he said ‘I’m Ryan, from Mongolia, we shot a bazooka together’. Only then did I recognize one of the Dustboys who was now cleanly washed and smelling a lot nicer than in the desert a year before. This was a pretty cool moment.

What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
Go after the job you want and if you can’t find it immediately, make sure you do something cool with your time (internship, travel, …) so that you don’t get a gap on your CV.

Interested in working for Google Dublin? Check out our new grad positions today and apply!
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.

Posted by Pieter Boon, Associate Account Strategist.

As part of our ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’ series we’re highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our Google Dublin Office who joined straight after graduating! Today we’re featuring one of our Danish Googlers, Anna, one of our newest sales rockstars who joined Google in 2012, to give you an inside look into the Associate Account Strategist, SMB Sales role. If you’re interested in applying for an SMB Sales position, check out our open opportunities at the bottom of this post.

Tell us about your path to Google?
I was born in Luxembourg, the country that my Danish mother and Swedish father called home back in 1983. Since then I have lived in Sweden, Denmark, Chile and now in Dublin. My “home” hasn’t got latitude and longitude coordinates, it’s more like a state of mind – I feel at home when I’m surrounded by cultural diversity and inspiring people. I guess I’ve always seen the world as a playground, and I’ve had a strong desire to live abroad. I studied Business, Language & Culture (English and Spanish) at Copenhagen Business School, and in 2011. I went on exchange for a semester at Trinity College Dublin, and I completed an internship at Google Ireland. I was thrilled when Google offered me a full-time job, and I returned to Dublin in July 2012.

Me in the office

What is your role at Google?
I’m a sales rockstar in the Nordic SMB Sales team, and I help Small and Medium sized businesses grow their business with AdWords. Most of the time it feels like I am consulting my clients rather than selling to them – I educate them and share my knowledge about online consumer behaviour and show them how they can use AdWords features and products to reach consumers at different stages in the buying process. I have targets I need to reach each quarter, but it’s really an enjoyable task to be selling Google AdWords! Google is a strong brand, and it’s easy for clients to measure the ROI they get from AdWords.

Photography is one of my passions

How would you describe the Nordic SMB Sales team?
We are small but mighty, and we work smarter, not harder! My colleagues are Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish, and each of us work on growing our respective markets – at the same time we are one Nordic team with a strong sense of unity.

Do you wanna walk a day in my shoes? Lace up! Here we go:

My beauty sleep ends at 07:30am
I cruise to work on my red grandma bike, which I brought with me from Denmark. It takes about 15 minutes to get to work – and all the way I am longing for my breakfast at Google!

Breakfast at 08:30am
Every morning I take a trip down memory lane as I eat my breakfast at Google – the delicious oatmeal porridge with almond flakes and fresh berries totally reminds me of my childhood in Sweden. My adult self craves a steaming hot and creamy cappuccino, and now I’m ready to start my day.

Sales pitching 09:00am – 12:00pm
I usually have 3 calls scheduled before lunch – talking to clients gives me energy, and that’s how I like to start my day. The clients I talk to work with diverse business models, and sometimes I speak to the owner of the company, and other times it’s a staff member. It varies a lot how savvy the clients are, and I adapt to their level to ensure that we are speaking the same “language”. The sales job is really about communicating with people and understanding how they conduct their business to be able to help them get the best possible ROI from AdWords. I believe my work has a real impact – I share my knowledge in online advertising and that helps my clients grow their businesses.

Culinary Delights 12:00pm – 13:00
My lunch time is often equal to networking time. I like scheduling lunch dates with inspiring Googlers from other teams and nationalities. When the weather is good, I take the chance to have lunch on the rooftop terrace, or I visit the local food market close to the office.

Optimizations 13:00 – 15:00
After lunch it’s time for some hands-on work. I’m not only talking to the clients on the phone, I also help them optimizing their AdWords accounts. This involves improving the basic structure of the account, analyzing the data in their account to optimize performance and increase ROI. By analyzing the account I can also identify new opportunities, such as Mobile campaigns, Display Network campaigns, and Remarketing campaigns.

Best practice sharing 15:00 – 15:30
I hang out with some teammates in the “microkitchen”. It’s a very casual meeting where we can snack and recharge energy while we share our best practices.

Constant development 15:30 – 18:00
In the afternoons I like to attend trainings that are arranged by the Google Learning & Development team. These are trainings that are designed to help me improve my sales skills and ensure personal development.

After work: “What’s the Craic?”
That’s Irish for “What’s happening?” – Well typically I go to Bikram Yoga, go out with friends, or dance salsa. I’m a passionate salsa dancer!

What’s your favourite Google memory or ‘Magic Moment’?
During my internship in 2011, Eric Schmidt visited Google Ireland and I had the opportunity of attending a presentation where he shared insights about Google’s future business strategy. That is truly a memorable moment in my Google career!

It was a Magic Moment for me when Nikesh Arora announced that Google would bring all sales teams to Las Vegas for a Google sales conference in 2013 – I almost couldn’t believe it!

What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
Nurture your curiosity, never stop learning, and remember that sky’s the limit!

Interested in working for Google Dublin? Check out our new grad positions today and apply!
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.

Posted by Anna Nordkvist, Associate Account Strategist.