Today, I woke up from a good night of sleep and went on a tour of the Dublin Docklands bright and early. Our tour guide, Darren Kelly was magnificent as his story and journey to where he is now currently is very inspirational. I learned a lot about the history of the Docklands and how the area was recently gentrified with high rises and corporate buildings where top companies are now headquartered. I was also able to grasp the differences between Old Irish educational schooling compared to traditional American schooling. For the Irish, there was no middle school and at the end of high school you had to take a test whether it be at the regular level or higher standard level and at the end you obtain points. These points essentially rank your level of education so that you can be placed in higher level learning and college for the future.
After the tour, I was able to take a site visit to the Google headquarters. They have many global offices and headquarters around the world and this was one of their bigger offices. They have 9 buildings in the clustered area with other company headquarters. The amount of new technology they have along with their amenities such as food, mental health centers, fitness centers, pool, message centers, conference rooms, etc, make the work culture and environment a unique warm-hearted place where employees are able to happily work at. From the presentation and the speakers, Google seems like a very friendly and welcoming company to all of their employees with many benefits such as the work-life balance. The employees in the Dublin headquarters come from many different backgrounds and cultures and from the ability to collaborate with different sectors and projects seems like an amazing opportunity to build your personal brand.
For me, personally, I would not want to work at Google because it does not suit my future career path goals. Even though I am double majoring in Finance and Business Information Systems, working at a innovative technological hub is not something I want to pursue. I am leaning more towards working more with financial services such as Banking and working within venture capital and private equity. My entrepreneurial and investment mindset wants to work as a consultant and service to early-stage and startup companies. Even though Google is a great company with amazing opportunities, it sadly does not align with what I would like to do in the future.
