Who wouldn’t want to spend a day at Google? Many professionals are excited to meet a real Google employee and hear about his or her job, so you can imagine a group of students from Amundsen High School were eager for their chance to do the same.
Google did not disappoint them, either. Twenty-four high school juniors, who are part of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) College Prep Program, spent several hours on Monday, October 9, exploring the Chicago Google office and asking many, many questions.
Several Google employees led the students on a tour of the various floors, including the engineering floor, the game room, the video conference room and, of course, the café! Every floor had its own micro kitchen, which clearly impressed the students (and teachers).
After the tour, students were divided into groups to work on a Real-World Workplace Challenge, created by volunteers from Google. Students played the role of account managers for Google and were asked to address a glitch in a program.
The sample scenario: For several months, Google’s technology failed to track 20% of sales for several clients, including Acme, one of their largest clients. The teams had to answer a set of questions as to how they would handle communicating the issue, what details they would include and suggestions for mending the relationship with Acme. Then teams presented their ideas to the whole group.
“The question-and-answer session was my favorite part of the trip!” said Amundsen High School junior Freda Doni. “We had a chance to meet three different people who work at Google. Each one went to a different university, had a different college major and a different career within Google. I enjoyed learning about their lives and the options that are available to me.”
Special thanks to Bridget Welch of Amundsen High School for sharing her photos and contributing to this blog and Allison Wroble, lead volunteer at Google.