• Erin (Software Engineer)
• Jay (Software Engineer)
• Maryam (Software Engineer)
• Michael (Software Engineer)
• Rose (Associate Product Manager)

Erin (Software Engineer) Mountain View, California Hometown: Redmond, WA Education: BS in Computer Science (and BA in Music and B. Music in Piano) from University of Washington Why did you decide to come to Google? Although I wasn’t officially referred by anyone at Google, I did have several friends from school that came to work here that I asked about it, and when they told me about it I thought it sounded like a great place to work. Why do you like working at Google? There are so many reasons, but far and away the best thing about working at Google is the people. Everyone I ‘ve met has been incredibly intelligent, creative, personable and fun to work with! What cool projects have you worked on at Google? I’ve been working on our billing system, and one of the coolest projects that I’ve been involved with was enabling electronic funds transfer (direct deposit) for AdSense publishers. It was a feature they’d been requesting for a long time, and it was really great to know that so many people were so excited by the launch of a project. What is your favorite perk/benefit about working at Google? Probably the fresh fruit that’s always available in the mini-kitchens. I love having some strawberries and bananas for breakfast when I arrive in the morning – although we have hot breakfast and a smoothie bar in the morning as well, my favorite remains the fruit available throughout the day. Or the on-site massage. Or the shuttle to and from San Francisco. Or…you get the picture – all of the perks/benefits are amazing.

Jay (Software Engineer) New York, New York Hometown: Harbor City, CA Education: BA Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University; MSE Computer and Information Sciences from University of Pennsylvania Why did you decide to come to Google? I started at Google as a summer intern while in grad school. I got hooked, so I stayed on after the summer to keep working on my project. But really, I knew I belonged at Google long before that. As I was finishing up college, I applied for various scholarships to work on oral histories - that is, to collect varying accounts of the same event and make them available online so that people could explore different perspectives of events and make their own decisions about what happened and which lessons should be learned. During an interview for one of these scholarships, someone asked me what else I would do if I didn't end up collecting oral histories, and I only half-jokingly replied, "Well, I'd work at Google." After all, Google was already doing what I wanted through its mission of organizing all the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful. So now here I am, helping to make that mission a reality. What is your favorite perk/benefit about working at Google? Of course, the food at Google is the benefit that gets the most press. (The San Jose Mercury News said that the cafe in Mountain View "would be one of the hottest restaurants in the South Bay if you could get in without an invitation.") But while the food is amazing, I think the biggest perk has to be the available resources. When I leave the office at night, there are often still many, many machines running experiments on my behalf. In a single day at Google, I can process more data than I ever did in an entire semester of school. These resources do create the challenge of coming up with enough interesting ideas to try so that machines are never idle, but luckily Google also has an abundance of amazingly smart people. My manager wrote one of the textbooks I used in grad school; another member of my team created a software package I relied on consistently in my research. Having these kinds of people around to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with ensures that our machines always have interesting work to do. What's been the biggest surprise about working at Google? I expected the people at Google to be smart, based on the products that the company puts out, and I wasn't disappointed in this respect. But other than that, I didn't really know what to expect of Googlers. I now know you really can't ask for a better group of people to work with. I could sit all day and rattle off examples to illustrate why I believe this, but I think one characteristic stands out most - Googlers seem to be, on the whole, a very generous group of people. Last December, my girlfriend flew out to Mountain View to meet me for a vacation, but the airline lost all of her luggage. Though the airline's customer service agents were completely unhelpful and told her she'd have to wait a number of days before they could do anything, a Googler let my girlfriend borrow clothes for our vacation. I've also seen examples of Googlers' kindness in more everyday situations, from giving me a ride home (I used to bike to work) when I have a large package to offering free movie or theatre tickets that they can't use. And people at Google are also very generous with their advice – for both work-related questions and other miscellaneous ones. People are always willing to take the time to offer suggestions of things to do in a place they've visited; in the work realm, you often see some of the most senior people in the company answering multiple questions from new hires every day on mailing lists. What has been the most amazing experience or day you've had at Google thus far? I was at one of our snack stations making an espresso one afternoon, and I looked up to see that Al Gore was also taking a coffee break. And to be honest, I wasn't all that shocked to see him. Google's attracts interesting people - both engineers and visitors - and you never know who you'll run into on campus.

Maryam (Software Engineer) Mountain View, California Hometown: Holmdel, New Jersey Education: BA in Computer Science from Princeton, Masters in Computer Science from Columbia, and currently in PhD program at Columbia for Computer Science Why did you decide to come to Google? I was referred (by my brother!) to work at Google as a summer intern. In August of my internship, I decided I didn't want the summer to end, so I stayed on as a full-timer. Why do you like working at Google? The people, the perks, and the potential to impact. I am surrounded by some of the smartest and nicest (yet most humble) engineers - of course it’s easier to stay nice when you are well-fed, can get massages on campus, and can grab a beer on Friday afternoons. But what inspires me the most is the potential to impact millions of people through the work I do. What are your goals at Google - what are you working to achieve? I work on the wireless (think cell-phones) team and my overarching goal is to make Google "mobile." I'd like to see Google revolutionize how people use their mobile phones. And achieve world peace. What is your favorite perk/benefit about working at Google? It’s a tie between the massages and the Reese's peanut butter cups on the second floor of my building. What's been the biggest surprise about working at Google? The number of people who wear Google t-shirts to work! It’s like being at a college campus that has tons of school spirit.

Michael (Software Engineer) Mountain View, California Hometown: Portland, Oregon Education: BS in Computer Science from Stanford; MS in Computer Science from Oregon Graduate Institute/Oregon Health & Science University Why did you decide to come to Google? Google came to my school while I was working on my Masters and it seemed like a great opportunity. After going through the interview process I felt that Google would be an exciting and enjoyable place to work. What cool projects have you worked on at Google? The main project I'm working on right now involves changing the way that projects request and obtain computing resources. I've been trying to make sure that the allocation of resources and building of machines interact correctly and that the needs of all the projects out there are satisfied. I've also been using my 20% time to get exposure to some completely different areas of Google technology by helping out with different projects. What is your favorite perk/benefit about working at Google? Tech Talks. It seems like every week there are in depth presentations about Google technologies and talks by distinguished researchers from around the world. The topics are always very interesting and they're just down the hall. I've come to really appreciate the level of commitment Google has to continued learning and education for their engineers. A correlated benefit of these talks is that I get to work with the kind of people who are also very interested in the topics that are presented. What has been the most amazing experience or day you've had at Google thus far? A few months ago the chef Mario Batali came to give away copies of his new book and Charlie's Cafe was serving one of his menus for lunch. Then in the afternoon Thomas Friedman gave a talk about the flattening world and Robin Williams gave an impromptu comedy sketch to close out the day.

Rose (Associate Product Manager) Mountain View, California Hometown: Shanghai, China Education: Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from University of Nebraska, Lincoln Why did you decide to come to Google? I first visited as a finalist for the Anita Borg scholarship and I met so many great people. I've never met so many young, excited, and intelligent people who genuinely enjoy their job. I decided then that I would love to be a part of Google. Why do you like working at Google? I like working at Google because everyone has a common goal to add value to our end users lives and to make our product better for them. That makes my work exciting. What cool projects have you worked on at Google? I'm working as a product manager on Gmail. I hope to make it the best email service possible and make sure everyone can access it from almost anywhere. What is your favorite perk/benefit about working at Google? I really appreciate the Google Shuttle that runs from the Mountain View campus to San Francisco. It makes living in the city a lot easier and I can use the commute time to read or check my email or finish up work.