How and why to become Google volunteers
It is not true that the times of zealous volunteers, hurrying to over-fulfill the five-year plan for the sake of an honorary diploma, have sunk into oblivion together with the Soviet Union. And nowadays there are companies with excellent non-monetary motivation, in which they go to work not for money, but for the idea, for the chance to join the big and interesting, or for the opportunity to look into the future. Such a company, and I saw it recently with my own eyes, is Google.
Prehistory
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It all started quite unexpectedly: an invitation came to Habrapochta to take part in the second summit of the Leading Participants in the Google product forums. The company assumed payment for the flight and accommodation. It was tempting in and of itself, and after I found out who the Leading Participants were and what the weekend program was, I got on a plane without a second thought and flew to St. Petersburg. And, looking ahead, I will say that I almost did not regret.
Leading members
However, first things first.
I think many will agree that the work in technical support could lead the ratings of the most difficult and ungrateful . Now imagine that in Google, people in tech support work for free, do it in their spare time, and, most importantly, get real pleasure from it. Submitted? So I could not, until I met with them personally. Yes, the Leading Participants are the very freelance volunteers who patiently help the users day after day to figure out what's what.
There are a total of 53 such Russian volunteers scattered around different cities: there were guys from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Magnitogorsk, Minsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Riga, Kharkov and Kiev. Each of them is responsible for their site on the forums, and they make the choice themselves - adsense, drive, search, analytics - depending on what the soul is and who knows what more. Google publishes all needs for members on its website, there is also the opportunity to apply for becoming a Lead Participant. For its part, the company provides the Participant with all the necessary information support, and as a reward once a year arranges a general gathering in one of the cities with its office. For example, last year it was the California San Jose.
Profportret Leading Participant
Most of all I was afraid to be in a circle of sullen introverts or frantic fanatics, but the guys were not at all like that. Young (from 25 to 35), many family, successful. Another thing in common is a great sense of humor and high loyalty to the company: even in the middle of the night after the fifth mug of beer, all the conversations revolved around the workers with genuine interest.
Program and format of the meeting
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to yawn from the word “summit”. Immediately it seems a large oval table with mineral water and a number of boring ties. Google rips these templates to shreds. The Google-language summit looks more like a weekend with friends: an evening in a pub, an excursion to the office, a dinner at a restaurant, informal conversations, collective selfies. The leading impression of the meeting was that there is no subordination in the company, everything is with each other on “you” and only by name. It is accepted to share knowledge and experience with colleagues, ask questions, search for a solution together, discuss achievements, new products and meet new team members. Degree of friendliness and general drive rolls over.
Office, food and leisure
The office occupies the top two floors in the center of St. Petersburg - panoramic windows offer a beautiful view of the city.
The St. Petersburg branch of Google employs only 20 people. Cabinets are more like small living rooms, beanbags and fitballs are scattered everywhere. Scooters are available for moving around the office. At any time, you can drink coffee - for this there are three different coffee machines.
There is a good selection of tea, three types of milk (including soybean), a juicer and a basket of citrus barrels, trays with snacks - bars, bread. All food is free.
And here, for example, looks like a rest room:
Communication with Google employees
The St. Petersburg office is not much different from other Google offices scattered around the world. Is that a little cozier. Therefore, the orders here are the same:
Even at work you can wash, sleep, play sports or yoga, play table tennis and xbox, sing a guitar and fight in chess. In general, how then to call her work I was left incomprehensible.
Discussions and presentations
The official part was intertwined with a series of events unobtrusively and was extremely curious. Employees spoke with stories about this or that product, some specialists connected via video through Hangouts, and some flew to Peter to deliver reports.
We talked about both the current functionality and what will appear in the next month, half a year or a year (oh, tell you, I signed a non-disclosure document) - from prototypes of specific applications to discussing Google advertising campaigns in Russia. For example, the leading participants knew about the same launch of Inbox in advance.
Everything is very informal and without too much official traffic. An example of a dialogue with one of the heads of the department:
Each Participant had with him a list of urgent issues and the heat of discussion of each was not at all like a meeting of volunteers. They did not do it at all for the letters that they were handed out to them at the end of the summit. They really were very, very important answers.
I have been looking for the solution to this paradox all weekend. Perhaps the magic is that Google is still a big startup that, like a puzzle, is made up of the personal initiatives of the people working there. And even if you are an out-of-state employee, but you have a good idea, there are no obstacles to the fact that tomorrow it will grow into a product that the entire golden billion will use.
Prehistory
')
It all started quite unexpectedly: an invitation came to Habrapochta to take part in the second summit of the Leading Participants in the Google product forums. The company assumed payment for the flight and accommodation. It was tempting in and of itself, and after I found out who the Leading Participants were and what the weekend program was, I got on a plane without a second thought and flew to St. Petersburg. And, looking ahead, I will say that I almost did not regret.
Leading members
However, first things first.
I think many will agree that the work in technical support could lead the ratings of the most difficult and ungrateful . Now imagine that in Google, people in tech support work for free, do it in their spare time, and, most importantly, get real pleasure from it. Submitted? So I could not, until I met with them personally. Yes, the Leading Participants are the very freelance volunteers who patiently help the users day after day to figure out what's what.
There are a total of 53 such Russian volunteers scattered around different cities: there were guys from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Magnitogorsk, Minsk, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Riga, Kharkov and Kiev. Each of them is responsible for their site on the forums, and they make the choice themselves - adsense, drive, search, analytics - depending on what the soul is and who knows what more. Google publishes all needs for members on its website, there is also the opportunity to apply for becoming a Lead Participant. For its part, the company provides the Participant with all the necessary information support, and as a reward once a year arranges a general gathering in one of the cities with its office. For example, last year it was the California San Jose.
Profportret Leading Participant
Most of all I was afraid to be in a circle of sullen introverts or frantic fanatics, but the guys were not at all like that. Young (from 25 to 35), many family, successful. Another thing in common is a great sense of humor and high loyalty to the company: even in the middle of the night after the fifth mug of beer, all the conversations revolved around the workers with genuine interest.
Program and format of the meeting
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to yawn from the word “summit”. Immediately it seems a large oval table with mineral water and a number of boring ties. Google rips these templates to shreds. The Google-language summit looks more like a weekend with friends: an evening in a pub, an excursion to the office, a dinner at a restaurant, informal conversations, collective selfies. The leading impression of the meeting was that there is no subordination in the company, everything is with each other on “you” and only by name. It is accepted to share knowledge and experience with colleagues, ask questions, search for a solution together, discuss achievements, new products and meet new team members. Degree of friendliness and general drive rolls over.
Office, food and leisure
The office occupies the top two floors in the center of St. Petersburg - panoramic windows offer a beautiful view of the city.
The St. Petersburg branch of Google employs only 20 people. Cabinets are more like small living rooms, beanbags and fitballs are scattered everywhere. Scooters are available for moving around the office. At any time, you can drink coffee - for this there are three different coffee machines.
There is a good selection of tea, three types of milk (including soybean), a juicer and a basket of citrus barrels, trays with snacks - bars, bread. All food is free.
And here, for example, looks like a rest room:
Communication with Google employees
The St. Petersburg office is not much different from other Google offices scattered around the world. Is that a little cozier. Therefore, the orders here are the same:
- at the device candidates are interviewed not only with the head, but also with colleagues;
- work schedule is not fixed - like to work at night - to health;
- 20% of the time can be used on your own projects;
- for an internship all fly to one of the main offices, for example to Dublin;
- food is free (there are vegan dishes on the menu),
- and there is no dress code at all (they say that bankers and neighbors in the business center complain).
Even at work you can wash, sleep, play sports or yoga, play table tennis and xbox, sing a guitar and fight in chess. In general, how then to call her work I was left incomprehensible.
Discussions and presentations
The official part was intertwined with a series of events unobtrusively and was extremely curious. Employees spoke with stories about this or that product, some specialists connected via video through Hangouts, and some flew to Peter to deliver reports.
We talked about both the current functionality and what will appear in the next month, half a year or a year (oh, tell you, I signed a non-disclosure document) - from prototypes of specific applications to discussing Google advertising campaigns in Russia. For example, the leading participants knew about the same launch of Inbox in advance.
Everything is very informal and without too much official traffic. An example of a dialogue with one of the heads of the department:
- Remember, two years ago, Google services did not work for two hours around the world? This is because one person uploaded the wrong code here.
- What happened to him, he was fired?
“As far as I know, in the end he was promoted.”
Each Participant had with him a list of urgent issues and the heat of discussion of each was not at all like a meeting of volunteers. They did not do it at all for the letters that they were handed out to them at the end of the summit. They really were very, very important answers.
I have been looking for the solution to this paradox all weekend. Perhaps the magic is that Google is still a big startup that, like a puzzle, is made up of the personal initiatives of the people working there. And even if you are an out-of-state employee, but you have a good idea, there are no obstacles to the fact that tomorrow it will grow into a product that the entire golden billion will use.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/362337/
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