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Inside ITRP - Marcos
November 8, 2011
Introduction: Over the next couple of months we’ll be sharing stories from current residents in Google’s
Internal Technology Residency Program
. Today, we start with Marcos Ramirez, who joined the ITR Program in August of 2010.
What is the IT Residency Program?
Marcos Ramirez:
The ITRP is a 2-year program that gives new grads the opportunity to learn all about how Google does IT. The program itself is broken down into a few different areas: Training and Development, Front-Line Support, and Internal Rotation. With Training and Development, all IT Residents are essentially transformed into top-notch IT generalists—obtaining proficiency in many different areas ranging from networking, mobile support, programming, and many different operating system platforms.
We get a lot of these skills through front-line support, by helping many of the other Googlers who come into the Techstops—places at Google where IT support is provided—with their technical problems. If all that wasn’t fantastic enough, IT Residents also get to go on office rotations to other Google offices around the world, as well as spend a quarter with another team at Google (where you’ll get the chance to learn all about an area you’re interested in specializing in).
How did you get to where you are today?
MR:
I've always had a passion for the more social aspect of information technology, and project management in general, which is what attracted me to the Management Information Systems (MIS) program at San Jose State University (SJSU). The MIS program there provided a good combination of business, technology, and project management related courses, and overall really helped me define what path I wanted to take with my career. Outside of school, I did a few small internships, and then a one-year co-op at IBM during my senior year.
I found out about the ITRP when Google held an ITRP information session at SJSU, where I met Cameron, who was one of the PMs who helped create the program. I was really impressed with the presentation and the program, so I applied for the ITRP through
Google's Student Jobs webpage
. Now that I'm actually here, I can honestly say that IT at Google is truly a unique experience, which I don't think I'd be able to find anywhere else. It's really given me the opportunity to take what I've learned and apply it on such an incredible scale.
What have you enjoyed most about the ITRP program?
MR:
I've really enjoyed the sense of camaraderie between everyone on the team. We are all here sharing this experience together, working in the Techstops and on many different projects, and overall there's just this sense of mutual trust. It's a great thing to know that you can depend on your team. I also love the fact that we have the opportunity to learn about so many different aspects of technology, from Linux, Mac, and Chrome OS environments, to networking, Python and technical project management.
One of the projects I've been working on recently involves deploying
Google Apps to non-profit organizations
, which has been an incredible experience in itself. Along with a few other IT Residents, I'm going out and delivering Google Apps trainings to nonprofits, and helping them make the switch over to using Gmail, Docs, and the rest of the Google Apps suite. We get to see first-hand how technology can improve the collaboration, communication, and overall efficiency of an organization.
Tell us about the Ops Rotation part of the ITRP program? Explain what that means and how you've experienced it firsthand.
MR:
The Ops Rotation is a 3-month internal rotation with another group at Google—the idea is that, as an IT Resident, you've spent the first several months solving problems in the Techstops, and hopefully gotten an idea of your specific areas of interest. The Ops Rotation is an incredible opportunity to take what you've learned (as well as what you're interested in learning), and jump into an entirely different team within Google. For my Ops rotation, I joined the Support Engineering team as a Technical Project Manager. In this role, I had the responsibility of transferring several high-level software projects between different teams, as well as doing some development work supporting their tools in on-call rotations. It was a great experience, and it really increased my technical project management skills, and knowledge of how software development works at Google.
Got any good tech tips?
MR:
Well, I’m glad you asked! Google recently launced a new campaign called ‘Good to Know’
http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/
Good to Know contains a plethora of information on how to keep yourself safe on the web, with topics covering Google’s security tools, down-to-earth explanations of those tough security terms, and a bunch of other great tips on how to manage your data.
Posted by Marcos Ramirez, Internal Technology Resident
New look for Google student job site
October 13, 2011
Today we launched a new version of our
student job site
for the United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa. With the new site layout, we hope to make navigating for job opportunities at Google easier and more intuitive. You can begin your search by selecting your area of interest: technical or sales, general & administrative. You can then select whether you’re interested in full-time roles or internships. Lastly, you can choose your region, or a region where you’d be interested in working. We believe that this process will be much more effective for students, who can now quickly see available opportunities of interest to them.
There’s also more information on the hiring process, programs and scholarships, and what life is like at Google. We hope you like the improvements we’ve made and encourage you to
take a look
around.
Posted by David Santo, People Programs Specialist
From Stanford to Switzerland: How one Googler arrived at his dream job
October 11, 2011
Tell us about yourself.
Red Daly:
I was born and raised in the U.S., in Vienna, Virginia, but I have been living down the road from Google’s Mountain View headquarters for the last five years, studying at Stanford University, where I received both my B.S. and M.S. in computer science.
How did you end up at Google?
RD:
I wanted to live outside the United States for a little while, and I would feel pretty silly moving out of Silicon Valley to join or create a startup. I decided to search for a company with offices in both the U.S. and cool European cities, so I could work abroad for awhile and eventually come back home. Google was the first company to come to mind. A map of all the Google offices revealed the possibility of relocating to a new part of the world. Europe was beckoning me to work there, and after looking at the photos of Google’s Swiss office, I knew it was the place I wanted to be.
What were you most looking forward before you started? Any concerns or fears?
RD:
I was looking forward to seeing how Google performs all its engineering feats. It's like learning how a magician performs his tricks. My only concern was what I perceived to be a lack of beards among the Googlers I witnessed when I came in for my interviews. Perhaps it is during the winter months that the beards grow in thickest, and I came out of season. In any case I intend to remain vigilant.
Tell us what you’re working on at Google.
RD:
I am applying my machine learning background to improve the advertising experience for users, and, in turn, advertisers. Officially, I’m working on the product ads quality team, which works on improving ad formats for commercial products, like sweater dresses and motherboards.
How do you like living in Zurich? Do you miss anything about California?
RD:
My first few months have been super. The superiority of Swiss citizens’ English to my own has surprised me the most. Somehow, people around here speak three to five languages with exceptional fluency. Also, I knew the Alps were beautiful, but I didn't realize until moving here how easy it is to hop on a train and be on a mountaintop two hours later.
Zurich is an amazing city--do you want a laundry list of awesome? This summer, the weather was fantastic enough for impromptu lake swims and plenty of alpine hikes. The public transport here ranks among the best in the world: Not only is it easy to get around this city, but a train will hustle me back to work on Monday morning no matter what corner of Switzerland I’m in the night before. We are only a hop away from Germany, a skip away from France, and a jump away from Italy, so weekend getaway options abound.
Of course, I miss California. The Pacific Coast Highway, bike rides to Pescadero, the redwoods, and the fluid life of a university student all come to mind every now and again. But on the whole, life in Zurich is living up to expectations and then some.
What do you like most about working at Google?
RD:
An idea that starts off in a single Googler’s head can have a massive global impact. I appreciate that Google can propel good ideas into reality in a way that affects a lot of lives.
What’s the most challenging part of working at Google?
RD:
Choice is the killer challenge for me. There is so much buzz in the office every day, and my job, like most here, comes with a high level of freedom. It can be overwhelming deciding which Tech Talks to attend, how to choose my
20% project
, or which flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to try next in the cafe.
The way you accepted your job offer was very "Googley" acceptance. Can you share the story?
RD:
After graduation I spent two months traveling around Europe and southeast Asia. For the first month, I walked the
Camino de Santiago
, a seven-hundred kilometer pilgrimage from the Spanish-French border to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. I accepted the offer from Google on the same day that I crossed the highest point of the whole walk. It seemed logical to snap a photo capturing the moment.
Any tips for students on the job hunt or advice for students still in school?
RD:
Most of my peers did not consider working abroad after school, so I would encourage more graduates to consider broadening their horizons. My tip for current students: study computer science, or another highly technical discipline. I have not encountered a field where scientific skills are not extremely valuable.
How about a fun fact—what's your favorite cheese?
RD:
It's hard to globally maximize such a high dimensional and delicious space! Parmigiano Reggiano might be my favorite, though.
Posted by Marni Merksamer, EMEA People Programs Specialist
Google: Coming soon to a campus near you
September 7, 2011
As students head back to campus this fall, Google’s university programs team prepares to do the same. Recruiters are revving up to attend career fairs, host info sessions and put on other events at campuses around the world to promote programs, internships, scholarships and new grad full-time positions at Google.
Have you seen Google on your campus yet? Maybe you’ve spoken with a recruiter? Attended an info session? Let us know by following
@GoogleStudents
on Twitter and using the hashtag #googleoncampus in your tweet.
To find out about internship and full-time opportunities, go to
www.google.com/students
. We’ll continue to add new opportunities throughout the fall, so check back regularly.
Other ways to stay connected with Google:
Add the University Programs specialist you meet on campus to your circles on
Google+
Follow the
Google for Students blog
Follow
@GoogleStudents
on Twitter
Check out the
Google Students YouTube channel
Look for these exciting series and more, coming soon to the Google Students blog:
My Summer @ Google - a recap on our summer programs and internships from the perspective of students who participated in these programs
Recruiter Tips & Tricks with Google recruiter
Jeff Moore
A relaunch of Googlers Beta - a series featuring fall and winter interns
A new series profiling Google engineers
Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator
New Graduate Job Opportunity - Google's Internal Technology Residency Program
February 25, 2010
At Google, we rely on an internal technical support team that keeps Google running, robust and secure. Their objective is to create solutions and provide technical support to help Googlers be more efficient and keep them up to date with technological advances.
S
ound like something you're passionate about? Read on!
As part of our commitment to hire and develop top talent, Google has created the
Internal Technology Residency Program
for recent and experienced university graduates.
Residents will learn what it takes to support and scale Google’s internal technology from our infrastructure to the end user. Combining classroom style training and mentorship, hands-on support and travel to awesome Google offices across the world, this program has it all.
Interested in learning more about what it's like to be a part of Google's Internal Technology Residency Program? Google for Students sat down with Nimit and Ayka, Corporate Operations Engineers, to find out what it's all about.
First, let's get some stats.
Office:
Nimit: Mountain View, California
Ayka: Irvine, California
Education:
Nimit: BS in Business Administration with a focus in Management Information Systems from San Jose State University
Ayka:
BS in Information Systems and Computer Science from University of Texas in Arlington
Time at Google:
Nimit: 4 1/2 years
Ayka: It will be 2 awesome years in March since I started at Google.
What team/project do you work on?
Nimit: I am one the managers of our font-line IT support team.
This team assists Googlers with issues ranging from basic troubleshooting to developing applic
ations
that both scale and improve efficiencies
within IT
support.
I have also worked on several operations projects such as our remote access infrastructure, developing several tools for our transportation teams, building out new Google offices and helping to integrate IT systems from Mergers and Acquisitions.
Ayka:
Besides working with Googlers on their support issues as a field tech, I'm also involved in several projects with teams inside and outside of our organization. Some of the projects I've been working on with other members of our organization: coordinating security rollouts at Google, tech support tool based on Google chat, IT related policy reviews and rollouts, helping with improvements to our internal ticketing system, local office server room improvements and maintenance.
What is your favorite part about your job?
Nimit: I would say working with the people at Google is what I love the most. Working with some of the smartest people and teams from around the world across all departments and solving complex and challenging problems that have not been seen before is truly an exciting experience. We have a direct impact on Google by making Googlers more efficient and by keeping our internal systems running and operating. 4 1/2 years later I am still learning something new every day.
Ayka:
Interfacing with a lot of very smart people and learning something new every day. Being in Corporate Engineering also puts us in a unique situation to work with teams outside of our organization. It's not uncommon for us to find out about something cool or new coming down the pipelines before anyone else in the company does.
What is the day to day like as someone in your role?
Nimit: There is never a dull moment. We are constantly innovating as a company and one of the great things is we get to try out new products first and help give feedback to the Engineers to make the product better. I could be working on fixing a network problem in Mountain View one day and then flying out to support an office build out or Enterprise Deployment in Europe the next. Being on the front lines of support you get to interact with a diverse cross-section of the company. Throughout the course of a day I might help people solve problems from our Sales department, our finance teams, or one of our many engineering teams (mobile, maps, search). We hire some of the most talented engineers, so we make sure to support them with an equally talented IT support organization.
Ayka:
The primary function is to handle our users' support issues, which can range from something very simple to something complex that takes up most of the day. In between support tasks, I also try to find the time to improve our local IT infrastructure (proactive support work for the local office, server room improvements, TechStop re-design/improvements, etc), and work on various projects that I've picked up.
Any other information you'd like to share with the student audience about the ITRP job :)?
Nimit: If you love IT and being on the cutting edge of technology while connecting the world together and meeting new people, this is the job for you! It's a great opportunity to grow professionally within general IT support, IT management or even as a springboard into other groups across the company like networking, telephony, enterprise or mobile operations. I absolutely love being here. It's like the tech version of Disneyland.
Ayka:
IT support at Google is very different from what you would find at other companies. You can sometimes spend a day doing something fairly simple but overall you'll get to work on issues that are not very common. An average Googler is going to be more tech savvy than your usual user so the problems you encounter will be a little more exciting. Having a very diverse platform base also adds to the non-conventional IT support environment - you're guaranteed to work on Macs, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS,
and mobile platforms.
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