Hello From The Other Side… (My First 6 Months At Google)

A couple of weeks ago I attended Google Team Work in Las Vegas, a sales kickoff event for Googlers who build and deliver products for the enterprise.  It gave me a fabulous opportunity to continue to learn what makes Google for Work (our enterprise business) tick, and it was perfectly timed at my being at Google for six months.  

Ticking Away The Moments…

Wow! Six months!! During this time, I witnessed two seminal events: The changing of the Google logo and the strong signal that Google sent to the market about its enterprise cloud business by hiring Diane Greene, the founder of vmWare.  Time has flown...it seems like only yesterday that I posted a blog about joining Google, laying bare my thought process that brought me here. (See “I Said Goodbye And Now I Say Hello...!”)  I’ve been asked umpteen times since then about life at Google, how it works like a startup, whether it is as magical as it seems, how it feels to work with millennials building consumer businesses and how and what I’m doing here (both literally and metaphorically).  These questions and comparisons to previous places I’ve worked are to be expected, given my enterprise background and that I came to Google from a stalwart of the enterprise market (See "Thank you SAP! A decade in-memory…")

Well it’s time to share my journey so far and answer some of your questions…

Let’s start at the very beginning...

“So how did the first few days feel?”  Most of my first week at Google was spent in “Noogler” - training, learning - indeed the first time in my entire life that I had such an extensive orientation.  The Noogler onboarding team has this down to a science, and I must admit that because I’ve been in the workforce for over a quarter century, I was initially skeptical. Not only did I quickly shed that skepticism but I also quickly became a willing “trainee” alongside developers, artists, marketers - creators from all walks of life.  Looking at all the talent around me, and despite my years of experience, I couldn’t help but ask myself - “How did I get so lucky?”  

It was just like a movie…

I know what you’re about to ask. “Is life at Google anything like in the movie - The Internship?” I hadn’t seen the movie before accepting the role so I made a point to watch it within weeks of joining. And it was exactly what I had imagined it would be: an infomercial on Google!  However it struck a chord. I started at Google at the same time as a close friend and colleague, Robert.  He’s blonde and… well, I used to be dark-haired (I’ll assume you get where I was going with that.)  At times as we discovered and stumbled across new things at Google, it did have a similar feel to the two friends from the movie - minus the drama of course!   

He’s an avid biker (ok, so a cyclist) and I jump on a gBike (Google bike) to go to lunch with him or chase after the gBus (Google bus) if we’re late, or use the bike to commute between offices...and at times I’ve even kept up!  

“So what about the perks shown in the movie?” you ask. I didn’t pay close attention to the movie but all true from what I can see, and then some.  Having said that I’ve yet to get a massage or sleep in a nap pod but IMHO those perks are gravy; and not the main reasons why people come to work at Google.

“...What a way to make a living”

“So what’s the work environment like at Google?”  Above all it is the calibre and quality of people who work here by far exceed any other place I’ve worked at.  This is just a simple, factual statement that is not in any way meant to belittle any of my previous employers or colleagues. This by far is the biggest difference I have seen in making and preserving the unique culture that Google has.  There is such a thing called “Googleyness” and our hiring process are designed to bring in not only the best and the brightest but also those who possess this magical quality.  

So what does it mean to be “googley”?  It is a quirky combination of what makes you tick, doing the right thing, bias towards action, working well in a team, being curious, not being afraid to fail, and learning from your mistakes, how you can do more with frugal resources (known as “jugaad” where I come from) and your passion (or “junoon”).  I’ve often talked about “Jugaad+Junoon” being the essential component of any startup/entrepreneur (probably a long overdue post) and these start up qualities are at the heart of Google culture.  It is amazing how carefully this culture is preserved through the hiring, awards, and promotion processes.  

So what is the Google culture like? It is a culture of openness, of helping each other out, of achievement, of focusing on what matters, of working hard and playing hard (further reinforced last week in Vegas!), of giving back, and of encouraging people to take valuable “disconnect from work” time everyday with their loved ones, and of “googleyness.”  

On the openness front I find that Google is very transparent with information shared with its employees and is more careful than most companies on what information is shared outside the company.  This is very different from what I’ve experienced before.  On the “disconnect from work” front I can already think of so many examples, one being where I literally did not check work emails for days during the Christmas break. I can’t remember when I last did something like that which my kids pointed out to me. Nothing is ever lost on them!

Finally, I can’t say enough good things about the IT, logistics, and transportation teams that make Google run so efficiently and automate so many things that took up so much time and energy in my past life.  They are the silent glue in the background that make everything work magically.  They are laser focused on improving the employees experience, reducing wait times, and taking friction out of the system.  Our internal IT has built these amazing applications that all of us Googlers use, to take care of finding available conference rooms, filing a facilities ticket, managing lists of things, looking up people and their teams, finding the best bus route to get you home from where you are at that moment, an Uber-like ride service to go between offices...you name it - there’s an app for that.   

Frankly I think if we just took the applications that empower us Googlers and brought them to market, we would make a hugely positive impact on companies of all sizes.  It is a refreshing change to be self-sufficient again and have technology really do the heavy lifting for me.

Is everything perfect? Of course not!  This is a living and breathing place to work and play - not some utopian land. It comes with its fair share of trials and tribulations like other enterprise software companies.  Agreed, I may still be in the “honeymoon” phase, but there’s no rose tinted glasses here.

Hit the Road Jack…

“So are you traveling much these days?” Not really. I’ve quite literally opted to take the road less traveled... (Frost must be turning in his grave with how often his poem is quoted). My frequent flyer status has dropped considerably which rightfully speaking is cause for celebration! While I traveled a lot less in the last six months, I did have the opportunity to see the wonderfully uniqe offices in NYC, Boulder, and Paris.  

(Pics taken by me in our Paris, NYC, and SF offices)

The Highline in NYC is a short walk from the office and a great place to have walking meetings.  The killer view of NYC from the terrace and the food make this my favorite office to be in so far.  The Boulder office is quite charming.  The   Paris office is in the heart of the city close to the Opera and the home-baked goodies in the cafe are “oh la la la” good!  

My home-base on Pear Ave in Mountain View behind the Computer History Museum is near the main Googleplex and close enough to Stevens Creek trail for walking meetings too. The SF office, which I try and work from on Fridays, is almost up there with the NYC office.

Let’s Talk About Me For A Minute...

“So how does it feel to work with millennials who build consumer products?"  This almost feels like a question ripe for a MythBusters episode.  Yes Google did start out building consumer products, and of course it has built some pretty good ones.  How many companies can point to 7 of their products being used by over 1 billion people?  In numbers that is our entire humanity!   Google’s enterprise business while relatively new, already has 2 million paid businesses with a few hundred millions of users.  It’s a key bet for Google and time will tell how well this bet pays off.  I’m here along with people of all ages and experiences to pitch in to make this a success.  We’ve only just begun.

“So what are you actually working on?”  Remember the part about sharing only with Googlers?  Well it wouldn’t be Google if I didn’t have something I was working on that I can’t talk to any of you or my family about. I’m looking at this opportunity to be a key part of transforming how we work and in the process incubate another billion dollar business. I’ve started building my team out for this effort and continue to learn, this time on the other side of Google’s phenomenal hiring process.  So if you are that rare person who can talk to CXOs, VCs, investors, and architects/developers just as easily, and can still sling some awesome code - let me know.  Until then, I will keep up the mystery. Stay tuned for more though…

 I see green trees and red roses bloom, rainbows amidst white clouds and blue skies…

 And to all my awesome colleagues (some of whom are pictured below)  who welcomed me to Google with open arms, I want to say thank you with this little mash-up. (If you’re a music buff - try and identify all the songs used in this post)

  I have found my home here ...the best is about to be                      Tomorrow will be even brighter than today… 

 And I think to myself...What a wonderful world this would be!

 Disclaimer:  This is a personal blog that like my Twitter activity(@aiazkazi) doesn't have any “insider information” or something you cannot find publicly elsewhere, nor is anything here the opinion of any of my current or past employers.  If that's what you are seeking then this is not the droid you are looking for...

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