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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 German Googlers, Mengühan, to give you an inside look into the Associate Account Strategist, SMB Sales role. Mengühan began his career with Google as a summer intern and returned to be a full time Googler after his studies!

If you’re interested in applying for an SMB Sales/Services position, check out our open opportunities at the bottom of this post.

Tell us about your path to Google?
I grew up in a small town near Stuttgart in Germany and majored in International Business and Finance at Reutlingen University. During my studies, I completed several internships in industry, consulting and eventually at Google as well. In retrospect, Google was the only place where I was actually looking forward to leaving home to go to work in the morning. For me, it was clear that I wanted to join Google for a full time position after graduating.

Mengühan at the Google Dublin Office

Why Google and not other companies?
That’s easy. At Google, you have the opportunity to work with some of the smartest people. If you are interested in technology, then Google is the place to be. Besides that, the perks are unbeatable with free gourmet food, on-site massages, gym and gaming corners on each floor.

What is your role at Google?
I’m an SMB Sales Associate for the German speaking market. I advise small and medium-sized businesses on their online marketing strategies. This can include finding tailor-made solutions for our clients, helping them navigate through their account or talking about how they can cope with upcoming trends. My role is very entrepreneurial. You can decide how and when you want to work. The flexibility is of course bound to high responsibility, but if you are able to manage and discipline yourself properly, you will do well.

Sales is in my opinion the best place to acquire the skills you need for a successful career in any corporation – communicating professionally on a high level (mostly with CEOs), working towards targets/objectives and, of course, building great relationships with your customers.

How does your role fit in with the larger team?
As a salesperson at Google, you have a lot of responsibility, towards both your customers and Google. Google’s revenue is generated from AdWords which means we in the sales teams play an important role as our work enables our colleagues from other teams to work on cool new products and innovation.

The most amazing part of my job is that I advise mainly small businesses. Most small businesses cannot afford to hire a marketing professional so they rely on me to be their Chief Marketing Officer. It’s just great to talk to young entrepreneurs about their goals and ambitions and their strategies to compete in the market.

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

Here’s a typical day for me:

7:30: Start of the day
My smartphone’s alarm is ringing – let´s snooze for five more minutes, and then five more, and then again.. nope, I’m not a morning person. I love the snooze alarm function. Finally, I get up, and I’m already excited about my breakfast at work: Waffles with Nutella and freshly-squeezed orange juice. Epic!

8:45: Emails
After my delicious breakfast and espresso to kick-start the day, I go to my desk and check my emails. I have set several labels in Gmail, so I know what to look for.

9:00: Appointment scheduling
It’s time to schedule some appointments with my customers. German customers are very active in the morning so, with the support of a nice cup of Maroccan Mint tea, I am usually able to schedule around three client appointments.

10:00: Customer calls
Between 10 am and 12 pm, I usually have my first scheduled calls with customers. I take about 20 minutes to analyze the accounts to find optimization potentials. Early in the call, I try to understand the business model, the market, the competitors and so on. It’s always extremely interesting how people make money.

12:30: Lunch
I love sushi, so today I decide to meet with a friend at the Earth Cafe where they have a sushi bar. Salmon Mango Maki and Tuna Nigiri, I love it. The black forest cake for dessert of course, feels like home.

13:00: Customer calls
After around 1pm, I usually have some other calls. Customers tend to be more relaxed with a full belly after lunch. Of course, I do, too.

15:00: AdWords campaign creation
Sometimes the campaigns of customers have to be built from scratch. That’s when we have our creative time. While my music is cranked up in my headphones, I think about a proper structure for the customer’s account – i.e. which customer groups to target and which online marketing channels to utilise. For instance, I like creating banner ads with the AdWords ad builder. It makes you feel like a designer.

16:30
In the evening, I usually have some time for personal projects, such as writing this blog post.

18:00
The best way for me to finish a day is to power out myself in the Google gym.

What is the most interesting project/client that you have had to work with?
That’s difficult. I have talked to many clients that were very interesting. Once, I talked to a the CEO of a start-up that provides a car sharing service in Munich and it was one of the first of its kind in Germany. You can basically pick up a car anywhere with your member card and pay on a per minute basis. I’ve always thought that car sharing is the next big thing in public transport. Hearing the strategy and data behind the concept from the CEO was very exciting.

Have you done a rotation onto another team? If so, can you tell us about that?
I did my internship last year on the same team but for the Turkish market, as I am of Turkish heritage. It’s unbelievable how customers differ. Turkish customers have to build up a personal relationship before you can give them any suggestions on their work. German customers usually cut straight to the chase. Hard to say what I would prefer, sometimes I want to chat, sometimes just do my work.

What’s your favourite Google memory or ‘Magic Moment’?
At Google, magic happens and is created on a daily basis. I know that sounds cheesy, but that’s actually what makes everything “Googley”. During an internal social engagement activity called Age Engage, I taught a senior citizen how to use a computer, the internet and a social media site in order to stay in contact with his grandchildren. He, in exchange, shared personal and very interesting aspects of his life with me. Personally, I found that magical.

What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
Take a short break. I took one month off to travel after graduating. It really helped me to get a new and fresh view on everything and my life. After that, I would plan over some months for the application process. Don’t go for the first offer, get some options by applying to many companies and then decide for the place that suits you best. For me, it was Google. I love to work in a technology company with a young and dynamic working environment. Google facilitates the lives of so many people every day – that’s amazing. I would say, choose the job you really want, not the one you think will bring you the most money. Good luck!

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 Mengühan Ünver, Associate Account Strategist.

During the first week of March 2013, Google invited 49 students from 32 universities and campuses from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru to participate in our second annual Google Student Ambassador Program in Latin America. With only 19 students last year, the Google Student Ambassador program more than doubled in size and added a new country to the mix! Ambassadors are given the unique opportunity to serve as liaisons between Google and their campus for the academic year, holding workshops, trainings and events with their university community around Google’s core products, programs and initiatives.

In order to perform their role as Ambassadors most effectively, we invited our stellar new class of students to pack their bags and make their way to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and largest Google office in South America, to attend our annual summit.

The summit included a jam-packed two-day agenda full of workshops and trainings that provided a unique networking opportunity by bringing all of the students from the region on-site. Students were not only exposed to Google’s tools, products, programs and technologies by over 20 Googlers, but were given resources to enhance their professional development that they could take back to their peers as well. Additionally, many Ambassadors enjoyed their first visit to a Google office, where they were introduced to our unique, collaborative work environment and given an opportunity to meet our hard-working sales, marketing and Developer Relations teams and learn about their day-to-day.

Ethan Cohen delivers an interactive training on G+

Highlights included interactive, thought-provoking sessions where students would break out into groups to “hack” answers to potential challenges on campus, collaborating and networking with Argentine Googlers during office “merienda”, and lots of color as students sported cultural and school spirited clothing each day of the event. Whether Ambassadors were brainstorming use of Hangouts in the classroom or discussing

And the fun wasn’t confined to the office – Ambassadors got the chance to explore the city, were treated to a classical Argentine meal and tango show, and had to put their learnings to the test at Tango classes!

Ambassadors celebrating in the Buenos Aires office

By the time the Ambassadors danced their way to the stage during the graduation ceremony, it was evident how close they had become to one another and how much they had learned during the summit. Many of the newly appointed LatAm GSAs described this opportunity as one of the most rewarding, empowering experiences of their life, which we were thrilled to hear. We only anticipate great things on campus from our LatAm GSAs in 2013!

Posted by Sarah Henderson, Student Development Programs

(cross-posted from the Official Google blog)

If you’re a university student with CS chops looking to earn real-world experience this summer, consider writing code for a cool open source project with the Google Summer of Code program.

Over the past eight years more than 6,000 students have “graduated” from this global program, working with almost 400 different open source projects. Students who are accepted into the program will put the skills they have learned in university to good use by working on an actual software project over the summer. Students are paired with mentors to help address technical questions and concerns throughout the course of the project. With the knowledge and hands-on experience students gain during the summer they strengthen their future employment opportunities in fields related to their academic pursuits. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

Interested students can submit proposals on the website starting now through Friday, May 3 at 12:00pm PDT. Get started by reviewing the ideas pages of the 177 open source projects in this year’s program, and decide which projects you’re interested in. Because Google Summer of Code has a limited number of spots for students, writing a great project proposal is essential to being selected to the program. Be sure to check out the Student Manual for advice.

For ongoing information throughout the application period and beyond, see the Google Open Source blog, join our Summer of Code mailing lists or join us on Internet relay chat at #gsoc on Freenode.

Good luck to all the open source coders out there, and remember to submit your proposals early—you only have until May 3 to apply!

Posted by Stephanie Taylor, Open Source team

Cross-posted from the Google Arabia Blog

The Google Student Ambassador Program is an opportunity for university students to work closely with Google, develop their professional skills, and collaborate with people from around the region who are excited about technology, or eager to learn. The 2013 application for the Middle East and North Africa region is now open, and the deadline to apply has been extended to April 24.

Since the start of the 2012 academic year, the MENA Google Student Ambassadors held many successful events, spanning 11 countries and 80 universities in the Middle East and North Africa. The events, ranging from training workshops to casual meetups, served to educate their respective university communities about Google products and programs relevant for students.

Among the successful events were campaigns to enrich the Google Maps content of their countries using Google Map Maker. The Ambassadors collected thousands of edits through these ongoing campaigns, and it’s still growing.

The Google Student Ambassadors (GSA) in MENA have also succeeded in holding social media awareness events, introducing new features of Google+. One of these events hosted none other than G+ Ambassador, Myriam Fares at AUL in Lebanon, along with Wael Fakharany, Google’s Regional Manager for Egypt and North Africa. Hundreds of attendees watched as Myriam Fares introduced G+ features, including Hangouts, and talked about how it helped remove the barrier of distance between her and her fans around the world.

Myriam Fares hosts G+ awareness event

But GSA activities aren’t just limited to campus. During his recent visit to Palestine, President Obama asked to meet with active youth to understand the problems, challenges, as well as youth initiatives in the region. Local NGO’s nominated eight students to represent their country to the US delegation. Among the elite eight was Akram Dweikat, Google Student Ambassador and Google Developer Group (GDG) leader in Nablus. Akram was selected because of his numerous activities in the field of technology as a GSA, a GDG leader, and even before that as an NGO volunteer.

Akram meets with President Obama

During his meeting with President Obama, Akram spoke about the GSA and GDG programs and related events, including StartUp Weekend Nablus and other events he held on campus. He talked about how investment in entrepreneurship, new business ideas, and development would help build a better future for those in Palestine. Though support for these initiatives is still much needed, programs such as the GSA and GDG enable communities to learn from one another and share valuable experiences. They also help to highlight and enrich the skills of the talented youth in the region – creating a gateway for university students to discover their hidden potential, challenge themselves in the field and get recognized for their hard work and ultimately do cool things that matter!

If you want to join the fun – and are currently studying for your masters or bachelor degree in a university in the Middle East and North Africa with at least one more academic year ahead of you – this is your chance to be part of history and become a 2013-2014 Google Student Ambassador.

Deadline for registration has been extended to April 24, 2013, so apply now!

To learn more about the program, please watch this video for the 2011 Google Student Ambassador Training, or check our our previous blog post.

Posted by Rana Ahmed, University Outreach Coordinator, MENA & Rania Hadi, Outreach Manager, MENA

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 Norwegian Googlers, Håvard Nyberg, who joined Google in 2011, 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, or any of our new grad roles in Google Dublin, check out our open opportunities at the bottom of this post.

Tell us about your path to Google?
I studied international marketing at university, and have always been interested in the role of the internet in growing businesses worldwide. Working for one of the worlds best known and most transformative companies seemed like a pretty good option.

Håvard at the Cliffs of Moher

What is your role at Google?
I work in SMB Sales where I help small and medium sized Norwegian advertisers develop and follow through on their online advertising strategy. The ability to work with small and medium companies to help them grow their business was something that really attracted me to Google in the first place.

How does your role fit in with the larger team?
The team I work in is called SMB Sales Nordics. As the name suggests, it is a cross-nordic team, made up of people from all the nordic countries. There are about 20 people on the team all handling different markets and responsibilities, but we work together and report as a truly Nordic team.

Tell us about a typical day in your life at Google
Wake up at 6:30am
I like to get up early in the morning. While walking to work, I listen to audio-books, especially historical biographies. Churchill, Napoleon, you name it, I like to walk to work with these guys.

8:00 – 8:30 Breakfast
Everything you have heard about food at Google is true and more! It all begins at 8am when a delicious breakfast is served. I like to have eggs in the morning, usually coupled with some bread and a glass of cold milk (nordic style!).

8:30 – 9:30 Emails
I take the elevator up to my desk (fastest elevator in Ireland, true story) to do some typing. The first thing I do every morning is clear my inbox.

9:30 – 11:00 Advertiser time
After sorting my emails I usually spend time reaching out to my clients. It can be everything from developing an email, to making phone calls and even having a live Hangout with advertisers where we go through the different opportunities open to them.

11:00 – 11:30 Team Huddle
We usually have a huddle around 11, where we spend some time updating each other on what we are working on.

11:30 – 12:30 Lunch
Lunch at 11:30…I know! We Nordic people like to eat early, so we usually go for lunch around this time. Usually I have lunch with Googlers from my team, but I also try to meet up with people on other teams.

12:30 – 15:00
After lunch I spend my time checking emails again and following up on whatever needs it. When that’s done, I tend to spend my time building advertising campaigns or attending meetings.

15:00 – 15:15 Break
I make sure to take a proper break around this time to go to the micro-kitchen to have a snack and a coffee with some coworkers.

15:15 – 18:00ish Meeting time
The rest of the day is usually a mix of meetings, and following up on projects that I have taken on.

What is the most interesting project/client that you have had to work with?
When we set up my current role for Norway. I was the first person to work on wide scale sales towards Google’s SMB clients in Norwegian media-agencies, and it has been a great ride to see what works and what doesn’t work.

What’s your favourite Google memory or ‘Magic Moment’?
My favourite Google memory was when I got to be an art-teacher for a day at an inner city children’s school. Google is a very socially responsible company, and we set aside time every year to give back to the community. To teach art to 9 year olds was an experience I will never forget!

One fun fact about yourself?
Me and my brother once had this crazy idea of starting a country-and-western themed bar/restaurant in our home town back in Norway. We had an awesome time doing it!

What career advice would you give to a new grad embarking into the world of work?
Try to find a company that matches your values and what you find important. I don’t think it’s possible to do great work unless you really believe in your employers core mission and values.

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 Håvard Nyberg, SMB Sales

Today we’re launching ‘A Day in the Life of a New Grad @ Google Dublin’, a new blog series highlighting the work of 8 Googlers in our Google Dublin Office who joined straight after graduating!

The Googlers you’ll read about work in the tallest office block in Ireland, located on Barrow Street, the “Silicon Valley” of Europe. As Google’s Headquarters for sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Googlers in the Dublin Office work with a broad range of businesses and markets – small businesses, multinationals, AdWords, AdSense, Display, Mobile advertising and more. Google Dublin is our third largest office in the world, made up of thousands of Googlers from over 65 countries, speaking over 46 different languages on a daily basis. The work that our Googlers do in this office are as diverse as the number of nationalities represented there!

We will feature a different Googler in the office and talk to them about what their day to day life at Google encompasses, their background and what they love about working for Google. For our first post, we hear from Christopher, a Global Customer Services Associate.

Visit Google for a day with Christopher
Meet Christopher – who has packed his suitcase and moved to Dublin from his home in Denmark to work in Google’s European headquarters. With a background from CBS (Copenhagen Business School) and an entrepreneur’s interest in innovation and online. Is Google the right place to nurture such passions – even when it’s your first full time job after university? Christopher describes his daily work and what it’s like to work with over 3000 other young people from around the world in an industry that is constantly changing.

Christopher working at Google Dublin Office

So Christopher, tell us a bit about your background?
My background is from CBS (Copenhagen Business School), where I took a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Economics and a master’s degree in Management of Innovation and Business Development, with a semester spent at Renmin University of China in Beijing. My fascination for online and e-commerce derived mainly from my entrepreneurial project Steel – a niche online store that sells everything from viking to samurai swords. My current job at Google is my first full-time job.

What does an average day at Google involve for you?
I work directly with Google AdWords everyday. I am a single piece of a carefully composed puzzle where I support small and medium sized businesses and their online advertising with AdWords. It can include everything from solving technical problems to advising our advertisers on their online marketing strategy and how they can launch the perfect AdWords campaign.

An average day consists mostly of troubleshooting and consultation via email and / or phone in my support role. In addition, I have specific specialist roles in my Nordic team, making the daily work even more fun and interesting. I am a Nordic Analytics Specialist, which is my favourite role. Google Analytics is a free program that analyses the behavior of users on a website. I firmly believe that the analysis of this data can make a business’s website much better and can be used to improve advertising campaigns to reach new heights. In this regard, I support the Nordic team solving difficult Analytics challenges and I organize Analytics trainings.

Furthermore, I am the Nordic contact for one of our charitable programs, Google Grants which is where charities can apply to get free advertising with Google. It was in this role that I got my first major assignment to schedule Denmark’s first ever Google Grants event. My manager gave me complete autonomy to plan, coordinate and organize the event. There was no micro-management and in November 2011, representatives of 18 charities appeared for an exciting day of “Google AdWords” at Google’s new Copenhagen office.

I am also the editor of the Danish AdWords Blog where my next little project will be to write an Analytics blog post to help users to get more out of their Analytics accounts. Finally, I have helped to build a Danish learning portal that will aid new and inexperienced AdWords advertisers and this will launch soon.

These different roles keep my daily work fresh and give me a feeling of making a difference.

Can you tell us about your team mates?
I work among a team of incredibly talented people. Google’s absolute force (besides the amazing food and future swimming pool) – are the people they hire. Most of whom are in the same situation as myself: they have moved from friends and family to pursue a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship merged with the online world.

My colleagues are also my new friends. Since moving to Dublin, I have met some of the most interesting and talented personalities I’ve ever encountered. It sounds like a cliche, but I can honestly say that I look forward to going to work every day and being motivated and challenged by people with very strong qualities. Each one of my teammates are all similar in terms of mindset, ambition and motivation despite having come from very diverse backgrounds. Amongst my closest colleagues is a Finnish fashion blogger from Aalto School of Economics in Helsinki and a Swede with a qualification in evolutionary anthropology from the University of Oxford outside of London. Everybody is unique or “Googley” as we say, whether they come from Ireland, Israel or Italy. This sheer diversity has helped make Google Dublin a truly unique place to work (in addition to the on-site masseuse, PlayStation rooms and the minigolf course that is ten feet away from my desk!).

What does your future hold?
What the future holds is hard to say, but it looks very interesting. I think that “being online” is a concept that is gradually disappearing as we are constantly “connected”. Whether it’s on the laptop at work, on your smartphone on the go or on the tablet at home. Whether you’re looking for information about the program you’re watching on one of YouTube’s millions of channels, needing to find your way in your self-driving car or keeping in touch with your global network via video chat, you are constantly “plugged in”. Google dares to think bigger than most companies, and does everything possible to motivate employees to do the same – even as a new grad! I feel very privileged to be part of this.

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 Christopher Brixen, Global Customer Services Associate

Introduction: Earlier this month we launched the application for the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), a three-week summer program for graduating high school seniors who are interested in studying computer science. Today through the My Summer @ Google series, we’re bringing you another story from former CSSI participant, Alice. Alice is a CSSI alum and freshman at the University of California at Berkeley studying computer science. If you’d like to learn more about CSSI, visit our website and apply by April 7th.

I have always been inspired by how computer scientists such as Larry Page and Sergey Brin have changed the world through technology, and I thought it would be cool to spend my summer at Google. Although I was quite interested in computer science, I was actually uncertain whether or not I could pursue it. I had never programmed before CSSI, and I had this misconception of computer scientists being expert hackers (which I wasn’t) who played video games for most of their time (which I didn’t). Therefore, attending CSSI seemed like the perfect way for me to not only experience what it is like at Google, but also learn more about computer science and find out if it is right for me.

On the very first day of CSSI, the instructors told us we would learn how to program in two weeks and build a web application by the end of the program. I could not believe my ears. For someone who had never even typed a single word in any programming language before, building a web application in one week was unimaginable. For the first two weeks we learned a new topic each day. First it was App Inventor, then it was HTML, Javascript, CSS, Python, and AppEngine—basically everything we needed to build a web application.

At the end of two very intense weeks of training, we were ready to take on the big challenge of creating our first web applications. We were divided into groups, and immediately began working together. What I really liked about the projects was that we could do anything we wanted. This made the process extremely enjoyable because everyone was so excited about what the group was creating that we all worked tirelessly together to make our web applications the best they could be. We also received lots of support from interns and other Googlers who not only helped us debug our programs but also showed us the master ways of doing things. Finally, after a week of frantic programming, we finished our web applications and presented them to Googlers around the world (thanks to Hangouts!). It was truly an amazing feeling to realize what everyone achieved in three weeks and to have our web applications tried out by other people.

CSSI was life changing for me because it helped me discover my love for computer science and convinced me to pursue the field. It really opened up the door to a whole world that I had never dared to enter, and showed me how beautiful computer science is. Learning how to make web applications has given me the power to create anything I want, and since the program ended I have built several web applications myself to solve some of my problems. The Googlers and fellow CSSIers I met have taught me how to tackle problems in different ways and have inspired me to be the programmer I am today.

Interested in CSSI? Apply here!

Posted by Alice Jia Qi Liu, CSSI Participant

Cross-posted from the Google Arabia Blog

Posted by Vic Alonzo, University Programs

Posted by Janet Ikpa, University Programs

Forty eight hours of continuous hacking in a lecture hall may not be your first choice for a three-day weekend, but for hundreds of students, it was a voluntary commitment at PennApps, the largest university hackathon in the world. Teams from about 40 colleges in the US, Canada and Zurich, traveled to Philadelphia for the MLK weekend, to conquer the three floors of the Towne Building at UPenn. Along with them, they brought laptops, Arduino kits, sleeping bags, snacks, and even their own drip coffee machines. The competition offered monetary prizes, but for most of the students, it was more than just winning a prize. Walking down the hallways, you could sense that every team member had the excitement of building awesome technology.

The competition started on Friday afternoon following the presentations by the sponsors, and ended with the judging session on Sunday morning. It was a tough decision to pick the winners. There were dozens of amazing projects, from augmented reality apps which mashed reviews and photos of places onto Google StreetView (Astoria), to apps which let you use multiple smartphones as one large screen (Mosaic). Students also used hardware such as building voice controlled coffee machines through Android devices (Mrs.Coffee).

In the end though, the team from Berkeley came out on top with their RFID-based personal inventory system (Inventory). In their demo, the Inventory team showed that the system they built can keep track of where a user’s belongings are. They played a situation where the student using the system left the stage without his passport to go to the airport, and the system texted student’s phone about the forgotten passport. You can imagine how useful this would be if built for a larger population.

Evan Benshetler (a fellow software engineer at Google and UPenn alum) and I were onsite for the whole span of the competition. We spent our time helping students with their design issues, debugging their code and using public Google APIs. This year, there were quite a few teams which integrated Google Maps API into their projects, which draws the attention to how the space in software world is still open for new ideas in combining maps with new technology.

At the end of the competition, the participants all had a strong sense of creating something cool that matters, and going through every step to make it a reality. We hope to see the passion which fueled the students during these 48-hours to continue glowing. We also applaud the student organizers in their amazing effort to keep things going with very little sleep.

As part of the winner’s prize, Google NYC will host the first place team in our office for an all expenses paid day trip, where they will do lunch, a tour of the office space, and present their winning app in front of a panel of Google engineers.

Congratulations to all of our PennApps participants. Google looks forward to continuing our partnership and supporting the next generation of developers!

Posted by Baris Yuksel, Software Engineer

Originally posted by the Official Google Blog

Algorithmic competitions are to programmers what tournaments are to tennis players: an opportunity to feel the rush of competition, learn new techniques and face off against their best counterparts from around the globe. Code Jam, Google’s worldwide online programming competition, gives developers a chance to use their favorite programming languages to solve algorithmic problems created by a team of contest champions at Google. 

Our 10th annual global Code Jam kicks off next month, starting with a qualification round on April 12. After three more online rounds, the top 25 contestants will be invited to Google’s London office on August 16 for a final matchup and a chance to win the coveted title of Code Jam Champion.

With more than 20,000 participants last year, Code Jam has grown leaps and bounds since it began in 2003*. To celebrate the competition’s 10th anniversary, we’ve raised the stakes: the winner will claim $15,000, and will automatically qualify for the 2014 Code Jam finals to defend his or her title.

If you’re up to the challenge of solving tough problems and coding elegant solutions (and perhaps debugging less elegant solutions), then register now. Want to warm up for the Qualification Round with a problem or two? How about finding the margin of safety for contestants on a television show, optimizing a tower defense game or swinging through the jungle on vines? You have a whole month to prepare yourself for the first hurdle on Friday, April 12.

Posted by Onufry Wojtaszczyk, Software Engineer, Google Code Jam

*To the mathematically inclined (all of our competitors), 2003-2013 sounds like enough time for 11 Code Jams. Nevertheless, this one will actually be our tenth global contest: we went through a major format change between 2006 and 2008, and there wasn’t a global contest in 2007.

Introduction: Earlier this week we launched the application for the Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI), a three-week summer program for graduating high school seniors who are interested in studying computer science. To give you some more insight into CSSI, we’re bringing you stories from former CSSI participants through the My Summer @ Google series. Today you’ll meet Chyheim, a CSSI alum and freshman at the University of California, San Diego who is studying computer science. If you’d like to learn more about CSSI, visit our website and apply today!

Coming from a high school that did not offer any computer science curriculum, I saw CSSI as an opportunity for me to learn the essentials and to obtain the skills to succeed in college. The majority of CSSI was dedicated towards teaching us the fundamentals of computer science and programming. In order to get our feet wet we started by learning App Inventor, then we dived into HTML/CSS, Python, JavaScript, and eventually the combination of all of those with Google’s App Engine. On a typical day, we would break away from coding and participate in a few activities and workshops. These ranged from tips on creating a resume and on being successful in a technical interview to a Lego challenge and a social with Google interns.  One of the best parts of CSSI was the time I got to spend with my fellow CSSIers in the residence halls. On the weekends off from programming, we had trips planned for Saturdays and then Sundays off to ourselves.

Eventually it became time for us to put all that we had learned together and create a product. Essentially, everything the instructors taught was geared towards providing us with the ability to go on our own and build virtually any web application we liked. And that’s just what we did. Throughout the final week we worked to develop our very own web applications. My team created a web application called Gif.it. Using the Python Image Library and several tools in JavaScript, we constructed an application that allows people to upload pictures and generate their own animated Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) image.

Months after CSSI, I have come to realize that I owe a lot of my current success in college to the instructors and the mentors from CSSI. The exposure I had to concepts such as data types, conditional statements, loops, and arrays, has made it easier for me to grasp them in my programming classes. Aside from technical skills, CSSI has provided me with a large network of friends and professional acquaintances. I have made a number of friends that I continue to keep in contact with for support and advice. I have also gained mentorship from different Googlers that I met through CSSI. The bond that was formed between the students and the instructors made it incredibly hard to say goodbye once the program was over.

CSSI is definitely an opportunity you do not want to miss out on. Moreover, my advice for anyone who meets the qualifications is to APPLY. You should still apply even if you doubt your skill level. CSSI is all about giving students the opportunity to learn more about computer science, therefore only having minimum skills is perfectly acceptable. As long as you convey your passionate interest in computer science through the essays and the interview you should be in good shape. Don’t stress it. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain.

Interested in CSSI? Apply here!

Written by: Chyheim Jackson-Burgess, CSSI Participant

The University Programs team is delighted to share that our summer 2013 BOLD Immersion Program for Freshmen application has launched.

Selected freshmen from four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. will participate in an all-expense-paid program at Google’s Mountain View Headquarters from July 23-27, 2013. The Building Opportunities for Leadership & Development (BOLD) Diversity Immersion Program for Freshmen is designed to provide exposure into the technology industry for students who are historically under-represented in this field. Participants will get a rare glimpse into the technology industry, non-technical career opportunities at Google and valuable professional and peer networks. The robust program will also include tech talks, skills-building seminars and, of course, fun!

We encourage students to take a chance and discover what it is like to work at a technology company, particularly those who are pursuing non-technical degrees.

Please review the BOLD Immersion website for more details. The deadline to apply is Monday, April 8, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

Questions about the program can be directed to [email protected].

Posted by Vic Alonzo, University Programs