“Just Google it” or “Let’s Google it” is a phrase all too familiar to society. While Google is just a search engine, it has been the solution to society’s day-to-day problems in life. Today, we got to visit the people behind the search engine. We got the opportunity to take a guided tour of the EMEA Dublin Google Headquarters. Walking into google was like walking into an adult playground. As soon as you enter the building, you can sense how the company embraces and challenges its employees to think creatively. Immediately, from the interior design of the building, you could grasp the difference between Google and Microsoft.
First and foremost, the tours given to us by each company were quite different. Microsoft presented a tour similar to how the company runs… “structured creativity.” The structure and design of the building appeared as if it welcomed open thinking, collaboration, and creativity, all within the realms of professionalism. On our tour, we got the opportunity to interact with a product, learn about the actual business operations of Microsoft and the internship program, and gain first-hand insight into the company morale. On the other hand, Google’s tour couldn’t have felt any more different.

If I could sum up the tour of the Google headquarters in a phrase, it would be a “real estate/interior design tour.” Today’s tour perfectly illustrated Google’s “easy-going” work environment. The site visit primarily focused on showing us cool features of the building that allowed employees to “escape from work.” Google’s recipe for creativity and productivity from employees incorporated a healthy work-life balance both outside and in the office by offering different amenities like free meals, a swimming pool, napping pods, games, themed floors, etc.

Ironically, our tour guides said they “never imagined themselves working at Google.” It was refreshing to hear that you don’t have to major in computer science or STEM to work at a company like a google. I think often; that college pushes the persona on students that their degree is a contract to a particular career path when that isn’t true in many cases. From this tour and with many other postgraduates that I’ve had the opportunity to network with, I’ve discovered that you don’t need a degree in something to necessarily have a career in the given field. Lessons as such have served as constant reminders for me as I begin to imagine my life post-graduation.