Googlers Beta

Remember those days when you just couldn't wait for the bell to ring on that last day of class? You'd sprint down the hall, burst through the door, and head for daylight, because it's...SUMMERTIME! It's time for iced lemonade and laying out at the beach (or the back-yard plastic pool party), and last but not least, internships at Google (yeah, internships)!

This past summer, we played host to some incredible university students around the world - from 14,000 feet (or 4,500 meters!) up in the Swiss Alps to the land down under in Sydney, Australia. Our interns are only at Google for a few months, but their impact and presence remain long after they leave. They are key players in our daily innovation and have the opportunity to make big contributions. So, we wanted to tell their story. After all, they are Googlers Beta. To learn more about how you can become a Google intern, please visit www.google.com/jobs/students/intern. We are now accepting applications for Summer 2009.

Name: Matt Pokrzywa
Hometown: Pleasantville, NY
Department: Software Engineer - Google Checkout
Education: BS in Computer Science at Cornell University

My Story:
My internship experience can be best described as "work hard, play hard." Spending this summer at Google has allowed me to work on some really tough challenges and work with some of the smartest people in the world. I was placed on a small team on Google Checkout and from the first day onward, I knew the work I was doing was real engineering work that otherwise would have been assigned to a full time engineer. I even joined my team for a week trip to Mountain View to do a technical deep dive with the Google Sites team. While having such responsibilities was difficult and often times stressful, working at Google offered so many ways to break the tension. Whether it was playing ping-pong or Guitar Hero with my coworkers, or getting out to explore Manhattan with my fellow interns, Google provided so many awesome ways to relax and just chill out.
Besides being so much fun, working at Google was a learning experience like no other. I can honestly say I learned more in my 14 weeks here than I did the entire previous school year. I was fortunate enough to be assigned projects that allowed me to explore so many areas of Google technology. I worked with frontend web design, backend server programming, and I actively took part in brainstorming and design sessions to define the future of our product. On top of becoming a better programmer, working at Google has made me a better designer and problem solver in general.

Having interned in other technology companies before, I have to say that the Google internship experience blew all the others away. The quality of the code and the documentation, the brilliance of everyone around you, and the incredibly fun and relaxed company culture is something you'll not experience anywhere else.

Posted by Jessica Bagley, University Programs Team

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