Google Data

Not too long ago, I arrived here in Zurich, and on August the 31st I am to leave Google. During the last three months as an intern at Google, I have gained years of practical and theoretical knowledge that has made everything I’ve learnt over the past four years at university a lot clearer to me. I found myself reflecting upon my “younger” days when I would sit through an entire lecture and at the end of it I walk out of the lecture room having learnt something; something that I had a slight recollection of months later. Honestly, like most of my other colleagues, I kept wondering, “How is this applicable in real life?”

Over the course of my life as a software developer, I have had to interact with other software developers, say, in a team working on a project. Looking back at the code we wrote, frankly speaking, I am so embarrassed to think that I termed it coding! At Google, before the code you’ve worked on has been submitted to production, it goes through a release process that is thorough. This means that before the actual users can see the change that you have made, rigorous sanity checks have been done to ensure the users are not remotely affected. Code reviews is one such way of ensuring code is at production quality. My first code review was littered with comments on almost every line, either informing me of a better way to write a code segment or some condition to take care of that might break the system in the long run.

The saner side of the Zurich street parade, thousands of people marched those streets!

As I conclude my internship and get ready to leave Google, I know I’m leaving as better person than I came -- a better person in all aspects of the word. My Google experience has brought much of my theoretical knowledge acquired to life. I have been faced with numerous occassions where I needed to directly or indirectly apply a concept I had learnt at some point in my undergraduate. Previously, I used to think to myself, “How is this applicable in real life?” but currently, my thought process has been enhanced to, “Which concept can I apply to best solve this problem?”. Here at Google, I have learnt best practices, I have learnt to optimize, I have learnt to secure, I have learnt to design, I have learnt foresight, I have learnt teamwork, I have learnt to pay attention to detail. I've seen my code improve tremendously throughout the summer thanks to this review process. Basically, I have learnt to code like the professionals, like a real programmer. Can I call myself a software engineer now? Well, I’m still working on that :-) Yesterday I submitted some code for review, and the response I got from my manager read:

At Mt. Titlis with my team on a cable car, talk of a Wednesday well spent!

“The code quality looks very high this time. Great improvement!”

Talk of an ego boost! :-)

Saying goodbye to Google is going to be hard. Like I told my colleagues, Google is my first real work experience and it has “ruined” all my future employment opportunities because Google is unmatched. My current aspiration would be to secure a permanent position at Google. I came, I saw, I learnt....still waiting to conquer!

- Franklin

Fun Google Fact: Just when I thought I had exhausted seeing every Google employee in the Zurich office, I always end up seeing a new face I don’t recognise.

Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs