A day at Google’s office

Long time since I posted, I must blame my laziness to stretch a bit extra. But the last two months some great incidents happened in my life which I must share to all. These incidents or accidents are great for me, ‘coz they had been my great desires while I was doing engineering at GCT.

After winning the Google Got the ‘App’titude challenge our team at XL did not had time to think about it also due to the prolonged placements for seniors, I was also completely engrossed in the finance assignments and other end term projects during that time. One fine day on March, we got a mail from Google Gurgaon office inviting us to their office. It was a surprise for me that my dream of visiting is happening. So we fixed the dates, but only Thunga and Chintan could join with me for thee visit. Our Professor Mr.Ashish Pani and Amrit Pal Singh the other team mate could not join for the visit due to prior commitments.

The whole visit was taken for us by a Googler – Shashank. We got flight tickets booked by him from Jamshedpur to Delhi on 25 March ‘09. Our day at Google would be on 26th March. We reached Delhi on 25th night at Delhi Airport. The great honor for me was when I saw a person standing at arrivals with a Google Signboard engrossed with our names. I immediately got the signboard from him and preserved it. ( Come on – for the first time I am treated like a VIP by one of my most loved companies – Google and Microsoft. It does not happen every other day.)

All three of us felt Google is pampering us with flight trip and huge individual rooms at Ibis. But that was not the end. The next day ,

Date : 26th March 2009

Morning 7.45 AM : Beep Beep… My Phone rang… I woke up and attended it… It was the driver sent by Google to pick us for the Office.  I got ready and so were Thunga and Chintan and we got into car at about 8.45 AM

Morning 9.15 AM: We all three were in car and stuck in the usual Gurgaon traffic. We were moving to Google office. I got a call from Shashank saying what happened to us since we were supposed to be in the office by 9.00 AM and the director is waiting for us. I almost fainted, I made the director of Google wait :). It was a great day for me I thought.

Morning 9.45 AM: We all three were in the office of Google India Director.We discussed about the Contest on how we went about implementing the Apps at XL. He also told his experiences in life and it turned out to a general chat with him.

Morning 10.15 AM: After the meeting, Thunga had instinct to drink coffee, so there was Costa inside the office and Shasank took us there. Thunga took the coffee and was about to pay for it. Suddenly it struck, come on you dont pay for food in Google. We saw around it was a huge cafeteria with Pizzas to south Indian food stuffs. I can grab anything for free here today, I picked the Red bull from the case kept there (I never purchased a Red bull, and had argued it as useless for the amount we pay. But today I am treated by Google).Then I notices food was every where in the office you just need to stretch 20 Meters to grab anything :).

Morning 10.45 AM: We were in the Green Room. What were we doing ?. There was a video shoot on us, yes it was a video case study on our Apps Experience. We did some rehearsals and finally with in an Hour our case study presentation was over. I would update the link here once I get it from Google.

Morning 11.45 AM: We had a presentation on Google Ad-words Non Dedicated services.

After Noon 12.30 PM: Presentation on Google Analytics by Analytics team

After Noon 1.00 PM: I was damn hungry and we had a royal lunch in Google cafeteria.

After Noon 1.30 PM: We had a presentation by the Sales and Marketing team of Google.

At 2.30 PM,  It was coming to an end and we were presented the Winners Certificate for being the National Level Winners of the Google Challenge. We were showered with lots of Google Goodies (What no Bags to T-Shirts and some Gadgets too :) After that we were dropped at Airport and all three of us boarded on Jet Airways with fond memories to cherish.

When I finished my Computer Science Engineering -  There were only two companies that I considered the as my dream companies. One was Microsoft and Other was Google. Google for the revolution they had made in the way we work. We cant work without search in any job. Microsoft for my passion on Windows and DOS which I  had been working with from the day I started to use computers in the year 1996. Windows is so entrenched in my life and I dreamt being a part of Microsoft one day during that time.

So I finally had a chance to see Google and I also had a similar chance to be with Microsoft which I would write in my next post.