Perfect Day! Google

We started our day by visiting the Googleplex- much thanks to Craig Cornelius, a former Luther College Professor, who took good care of us from start to finish. This company is very enormous and has a very diverse employees. We started our visit by having a tour around the buildings. It definitely looks like a postgraduate university. They have cafeterias with free food ranging from Italian to Chinese to Indian. They also have buildings for different purposes that one would not find in other corporates. Swimming pools, fitness centers, shop, volleyball filed and even laundry rooms are some of the many things i saw at the Googleplex. Now who doesn't want to work for Google? It was raining so we couldn't get to see all the buildings. Craig had arranged a place and some Google workers to talk to us so we went to a small conference room. Our first speaker was Davidson Young who mainly takes care of university relations and recruitment of new employees for internships and jobs. One thing he mentioned that stood out for me is that besides our academics, we need to be involved in many activities that will make us stand out from the rest. This means most of the workers at Google are bright and were superbly active in their own fields before joining this growing corporate. Our second speaker was Michael Braderman who is heavily involved in Google Enterprise. He had worked for media companies like Myspace and Apple so it was remarkable to hear his stories and what he does. The next speaker was Xuefu Wang who is involved in Google books. His presence was a reminder of the rich international diversity of the company. He told us some of the challenges they face in terms of copyrights, language translation and character recognition. The next speaker was Jessica Pfund who is involved in Google Maps. She seems to have to so much interest in map. It was great to hear her background story and also some of the challenges she and her colleagues face in the Google map department, which still needs so much work.
Our last speaker was Rick Klau who is involved in blog project (the website i am now using to type this blog.) This website is still in the development stage so I hope to continue utilizing the upcoming features. Google's lunch in Charlie's Cafe was so delicious. We ended our stay at the Googleplex by visiting more buildings and finally buying some items from their store.
















Our next destination was the Computer History Musuem. I saw huge computers, printers, calculators and alikes. It's crazy how we've come so far in terms of technology-most things are now portable and fast. The place is setup very well- making it possible for visitors to grasp the history of computers easily.

Our last destination was The Menlo Circus Club, where we mate a successful Luther Alumni, Al Brudos, from class of 55 (wow!!). He has so much experience in the venture capital world. It was so remarkable to hear his stories and valuable advices. When the experienced people talk to us, they make the "road" look so easy, but i know it's hard out there and i think this trip has made me understand the 'road' much better.