**********************************THIS BLOG IS NO LONGER ACTIVE*********************************
This blog captured my summer adventures while an APM Intern at Google.
I have currently moved-on to full-time work in the start-up world and am writing my new Sprucing It Up blog instead.
Thank you for reading!
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Intern at Google by day; San Fransisco devotee by night.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Shoelaces: It's just another Whirlwind Wednesday

(Extra points for those who noticed the Manic Monday reference)

It's 7:30am and I'm riding the shuttle bus towards Mountain View for one of the last times this summer. The city, as usual in the mornings and evenings, is overcast and muggy. Given that it's my last week, you might be tempted to think (as I did) that it would be a bit boring as I tie up loose ends on my project and say goodbyes…not quite.

This morning, I opened my calendar and laughed out loud at what I found (I didn't literally laugh out loud, as people tend to sleep on the shuttle in the morning. Besides, they already got woken up by the man to my right who sneezed so furiously that he hit his head on the seat in front of him! Good morning, sunshine!). Back to my calendar: I laughed because my last Wednesday here has a whirlwind of events. Following breakfast on campus -- I am thinking it's going to be a Belgium waffle this morning -- I have an interview with a Product Management (PM) director. All APM interns who would like to be converted as full-time employees must go through a final interview with a director. Wish me luck!

Right after the interview? Sprint to a conference room across main campus and jump onto a video conference bridge with a Zoogler in the Zurich office. Even though my time here is ending, some of my projects are not, and I want to give them as much momentum as possible before leaving.  Following the Zurich meeting, I will be working with our user experience designer on a project or two. I also will be presenting for about 10 minutes to my team shortly after lunch about my summer at Google.

Sprinkled in over the entire day is what I have dubbed "the Shoelace Challenge." At the end of this week, it would be ideal for my work to bed seamlessly passed off to my team. Projects inevitably create loose-ends of "untied" thoughts that are hard to trace after a person leaves. My goal is to tie-up as many of those loose ends as possible. After all, it's clearly preferable to receive a shelf of tennis shoes all laced-up neatly in a row than a jumbled box of tangled laces! (I suppose that's not true if you're a cat...but cats can't read blogs...)

The late afternoon hits and I will find myself in a Google conference room learning a  secret flashmob dance routine. For those not familiar, a flashmob is when a group of people storm a busy, public area and do a unexpected dance routine in the middle of a confused crowd (there are some great examples on YouTube!). Thus, I will be learning a routine in order to flashmob the deck of busy boat deck later this evening. To celebrate the end of an awesome summer, Google rents out a massive boat on the bay and cruises interns all around it. Did I mention it's a 3-story boat and has an open bar? No doubt in my mind: it's going to be a whirlwind of a Wednesday.

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