How and why become Google volunteers
It is not true that the days of zealous volunteers in a hurry to overfulfil the five-year plan for the sake of an honorary diploma have sunk into oblivion along with the Soviet Union. And nowadays there are companies with great experience of non-monetary motivation that they go to work not for money, but for an idea, for a chance to join the big and interesting, or for the opportunity to look into the future. Such a company, and I saw this recently with my own eyes, is Google.
Background
It all started quite unexpectedly: the invitation came to habrapost to take part in the second summit of the Leading Participants of the forums on Google products. The company took charge of the flight and accommodation. This was tempting in itself, and after I found out who the Leading Participants were and what the weekend program was, I boarded the plane without hesitation and flew to St. Petersburg. And, looking ahead, I’ll say that I almost regretted it.
Leading participants
However, first things first.
I think many will agree that work in technical support could lead the ratings of the most difficult and ungrateful . Now imagine that Google technical support people work for free, do it in their free time from the main work and, most importantly, get real pleasure from it. Presented? So I could not, until I met with them personally. Yes, the Leading Participants - these are the very freelance volunteers who patiently help the users to figure out what's what every day.
In total, the Russian-speaking branch of Google has 53 such volunteers scattered in 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 their choice - adsense, drive, search, analytics - depending on what the soul lies in and who knows what more. All the needs for members Google publishes on its website, there is also the opportunity to apply for becoming a Leading Member. For its part, the company provides the Participant with all the necessary information support, and as a reward once a year arranges a general meeting in one of the cities with its office. For example, last year it was Californian San Jose.
Leading Member Professional Portrait
Most of all I was afraid to be in a circle of gloomy introverts or frantic fanatics, but the guys were not like that at all. Young (from 25 to 35), many family, successful. One more thing in common is an excellent sense of humor and high loyalty to the company: even late at night after the fifth beer, all the conversation revolved around 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 appears a large oval table with mineral water and a number of boring ties. Google tears these patterns to shreds. The Google Summit is more like a weekend with friends: an evening in a pub, an excursion to the office, lunch at a restaurant, informal conversations, collective selfies. The leading impression of the meeting was that the company lacks subordination, all with each other on “you” and only by name. It is customary to share knowledge, experience with colleagues, ask questions, together look for a solution, discuss achievements, release a new product and meet new team members. The degree of friendliness and general drive rolls over.
Office, food and leisure
The office occupies the two upper floors in the center of St. Petersburg - panoramic windows open a beautiful view of the city.
In the St. Petersburg branch of Google employs only 20 people. Cabinets are more like small living rooms, bag chairs and fitballs are scattered everywhere. Scooters are offered for movement around the office. You can drink coffee at any time - there are three different coffee machines for this.
There is a good selection of tea, three types of milk (including soybean), a juicer and a basket of citrus fruits in addition, trays with snacks - bars, bread rolls. All food is free.
And so, for example, the rest room looks like:
Communication with Google employees The
St. Petersburg office is not very different from other Google offices scattered around the world. Is that a little more comfortable. Therefore, the orders here are the same:
At work, you can wash, sleep, play sports or yoga, play table tennis and xbox, sing along with the guitar and fight chess. In general, after that I did not understand how to call her work.
Discussions and reports
The official part was woven into a series of events unobtrusively and was extremely curious. Employees made stories about a particular product, some experts connected via video via Hangouts, and some specially flew to St. Petersburg to conduct reports.
We talked about both the current functionality and what will appear in the next month, six months or a year (oh, tell me, I signed a non-disclosure paper) - from prototypes of specific applications to discussion of Google advertising campaigns in Russia. For example, the Leading Participants knew about the same Inbox launch in advance.
Everything is very informal and without unnecessary officialdom. An example of a dialogue with one of the department heads:
Each Participant had with him a list of sore questions, and the fervor of each discussion was not at all like a meeting of volunteers. They didn’t 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 searching for a solution to this paradox all weekend. Perhaps the magic is that Google is still a big startup, which, like a puzzle, consists of the personal initiatives of the people working there. And even if you are an employee outside the state, but you have a good idea, there are no barriers to having it grow into a product tomorrow, which will be used by the entire golden billion.
Background
It all started quite unexpectedly: the invitation came to habrapost to take part in the second summit of the Leading Participants of the forums on Google products. The company took charge of the flight and accommodation. This was tempting in itself, and after I found out who the Leading Participants were and what the weekend program was, I boarded the plane without hesitation and flew to St. Petersburg. And, looking ahead, I’ll say that I almost regretted it.
Leading participants
However, first things first.
I think many will agree that work in technical support could lead the ratings of the most difficult and ungrateful . Now imagine that Google technical support people work for free, do it in their free time from the main work and, most importantly, get real pleasure from it. Presented? So I could not, until I met with them personally. Yes, the Leading Participants - these are the very freelance volunteers who patiently help the users to figure out what's what every day.
In total, the Russian-speaking branch of Google has 53 such volunteers scattered in 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 their choice - adsense, drive, search, analytics - depending on what the soul lies in and who knows what more. All the needs for members Google publishes on its website, there is also the opportunity to apply for becoming a Leading Member. For its part, the company provides the Participant with all the necessary information support, and as a reward once a year arranges a general meeting in one of the cities with its office. For example, last year it was Californian San Jose.
Leading Member Professional Portrait
Most of all I was afraid to be in a circle of gloomy introverts or frantic fanatics, but the guys were not like that at all. Young (from 25 to 35), many family, successful. One more thing in common is an excellent sense of humor and high loyalty to the company: even late at night after the fifth beer, all the conversation revolved around 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 appears a large oval table with mineral water and a number of boring ties. Google tears these patterns to shreds. The Google Summit is more like a weekend with friends: an evening in a pub, an excursion to the office, lunch at a restaurant, informal conversations, collective selfies. The leading impression of the meeting was that the company lacks subordination, all with each other on “you” and only by name. It is customary to share knowledge, experience with colleagues, ask questions, together look for a solution, discuss achievements, release a new product and meet new team members. The degree of friendliness and general drive rolls over.
Office, food and leisure
The office occupies the two upper floors in the center of St. Petersburg - panoramic windows open a beautiful view of the city.
In the St. Petersburg branch of Google employs only 20 people. Cabinets are more like small living rooms, bag chairs and fitballs are scattered everywhere. Scooters are offered for movement around the office. You can drink coffee at any time - there are three different coffee machines for this.
There is a good selection of tea, three types of milk (including soybean), a juicer and a basket of citrus fruits in addition, trays with snacks - bars, bread rolls. All food is free.
And so, for example, the rest room looks like:
Communication with Google employees The
St. Petersburg office is not very different from other Google offices scattered around the world. Is that a little more comfortable. Therefore, the orders here are the same:
- at the device, candidates are interviewed not only with the boss, but also with colleagues;
- the work schedule is not fixed - like working at night - for health;
- 20% of the time can be used on your own projects;
- for an internship, everyone flies to one of the main offices, for example, to Dublin;
- food is free (there are also vegan dishes on the menu),
- and there’s no dress code (they say that bankers, neighbors in the business center, complain).
At work, you can wash, sleep, play sports or yoga, play table tennis and xbox, sing along with the guitar and fight chess. In general, after that I did not understand how to call her work.
Discussions and reports
The official part was woven into a series of events unobtrusively and was extremely curious. Employees made stories about a particular product, some experts connected via video via Hangouts, and some specially flew to St. Petersburg to conduct reports.
We talked about both the current functionality and what will appear in the next month, six months or a year (oh, tell me, I signed a non-disclosure paper) - from prototypes of specific applications to discussion of Google advertising campaigns in Russia. For example, the Leading Participants knew about the same Inbox launch in advance.
Everything is very informal and without unnecessary officialdom. An example of a dialogue with one of the department heads:
- 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 sore questions, and the fervor of each discussion was not at all like a meeting of volunteers. They didn’t 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 searching for a solution to this paradox all weekend. Perhaps the magic is that Google is still a big startup, which, like a puzzle, consists of the personal initiatives of the people working there. And even if you are an employee outside the state, but you have a good idea, there are no barriers to having it grow into a product tomorrow, which will be used by the entire golden billion.