Diary of a Business Associate Intern – Africa
October 30th, 2013 | Published in Google Student Blog
Our 'Diary of a Business Associate Intern' series is designed to give you an inside look into the life of Google interns based all over EMEA. Today, the spotlight is on Adepoju Abiodun from Nigeria, who is a Business Associate Intern with the Emerging Markets team (Southern and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) in Google Lagos.
I’m Adepoju Abiodun, popularly known as “Biggy”; a final year student of computer science at the University Of Ibadan. My main area of interest is in people; I believe that empowering people with technology will give us a great future and make our lives easier.
I grew up with passion for people and technology. I was able to handle new technology seamlessly and teach people to use it at the same time. I became a consultant in my neighborhood helping people out with their newly acquired electrical equipment. In my second year of study, I applied to be the Google Student Ambassador at my university, which gave me a bigger platform to follow my passion and do more for my community.
I took the opportunity and put in so much effort to improve my university as a whole. I ended up being recognized as the Google Star Ambassador for the class of 2012. I know I still have a lot to achieve and to learn before I realise my dream of bringing the developing world online, and that is what led me to apply for this internship as I knew it would give me a more robust platform to reach out to people with amazing Google technologies.
I’m currently involved in Geo community outreach where we teach and encourage people to put their neighborhood on the map using the Google mapmaker tool. We are thereby showing the world how beautiful each community is and it also encourages people to visit. I also work on expanding the Google Business Group (GBG) program in Nigeria, where we teach business owners how to use web technologies and also encourage them to be part of the local GBG in their community. They have the opportunity to connect, inform and inspire others via amazing success stories from within the group.
One major thing that I have learnt is when you help or show people how to improve their lives, businesses and environment with technology, you see the amazing things they can achieve and that is the definition of ultimate happiness. I have also learnt some major project management and risk management skills, as things don’t always go to plan when you are organising an event!
I get to the office around 8:30am. I head to the kitchen to have breakfast, then check and answer some unanswered mails. After lunch I come back to make some calls to our community leads and check how planning for our next event is going. I end my day by putting some thoughts together about the next event we are hosting.
In the Lagos office we currently have 3 interns and we meet regularly to discuss our challenges and see how we can help each other. I also get to meet with other Africa interns to discuss the various projects we are working on.
My advice? Be the change you’d like to see in the world. Focus on your passion as that is the only thing that will bring change quickly. Don’t stop learning, be consistent and always do cool things that matter.
Lagos Nigeria office is a cool place to be. “THE REAL NAIJA GOOGLERS” are the best people I’ve worked with as they are always willing to help and go out of their way to make sure you are successful in any project you are doing. The outreach team are the most supportive team mates I’ve ever seen and I have a great manager who really believes in me.
I stay in the noisy part of the office and I enjoy it because there is never a dull moment.
Interested in becoming a Google intern? Internships are now open! Please visit www.google.com/students/internseurope to apply for new roles.
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.
For resume and interview tips before you apply, check out this Hangout on Air. Additionally, please find up to date information on all job and internship postings in EMEA on our job site, and learn more about how the hiring process works.
“Live simply so that others might simply live.”
I’m Adepoju Abiodun, popularly known as “Biggy”; a final year student of computer science at the University Of Ibadan. My main area of interest is in people; I believe that empowering people with technology will give us a great future and make our lives easier.
I grew up with passion for people and technology. I was able to handle new technology seamlessly and teach people to use it at the same time. I became a consultant in my neighborhood helping people out with their newly acquired electrical equipment. In my second year of study, I applied to be the Google Student Ambassador at my university, which gave me a bigger platform to follow my passion and do more for my community.
I took the opportunity and put in so much effort to improve my university as a whole. I ended up being recognized as the Google Star Ambassador for the class of 2012. I know I still have a lot to achieve and to learn before I realise my dream of bringing the developing world online, and that is what led me to apply for this internship as I knew it would give me a more robust platform to reach out to people with amazing Google technologies.
I’m currently involved in Geo community outreach where we teach and encourage people to put their neighborhood on the map using the Google mapmaker tool. We are thereby showing the world how beautiful each community is and it also encourages people to visit. I also work on expanding the Google Business Group (GBG) program in Nigeria, where we teach business owners how to use web technologies and also encourage them to be part of the local GBG in their community. They have the opportunity to connect, inform and inspire others via amazing success stories from within the group.
One major thing that I have learnt is when you help or show people how to improve their lives, businesses and environment with technology, you see the amazing things they can achieve and that is the definition of ultimate happiness. I have also learnt some major project management and risk management skills, as things don’t always go to plan when you are organising an event!
I get to the office around 8:30am. I head to the kitchen to have breakfast, then check and answer some unanswered mails. After lunch I come back to make some calls to our community leads and check how planning for our next event is going. I end my day by putting some thoughts together about the next event we are hosting.
In the Lagos office we currently have 3 interns and we meet regularly to discuss our challenges and see how we can help each other. I also get to meet with other Africa interns to discuss the various projects we are working on.My advice? Be the change you’d like to see in the world. Focus on your passion as that is the only thing that will bring change quickly. Don’t stop learning, be consistent and always do cool things that matter.
Lagos Nigeria office is a cool place to be. “THE REAL NAIJA GOOGLERS” are the best people I’ve worked with as they are always willing to help and go out of their way to make sure you are successful in any project you are doing. The outreach team are the most supportive team mates I’ve ever seen and I have a great manager who really believes in me.
I stay in the noisy part of the office and I enjoy it because there is never a dull moment.
Interested in becoming a Google intern? Internships are now open! Please visit www.google.com/students/internseurope to apply for new roles.
EEA work authorization is required for roles supporting EEA markets.
For resume and interview tips before you apply, check out this Hangout on Air. Additionally, please find up to date information on all job and internship postings in EMEA on our job site, and learn more about how the hiring process works.