On May 30, 2013 in Silicon Valley, there was a "Google Developer Technologies" seminar for developers of local startups. The event was organized by Google. Bay Area entrepreneurs and Google employees were invited to the Googleplex headquarters. The agenda included technical talks, news in the development technology followed by discussion with the Google Developers. Transportation, lunch and a tour of the campus were provided by the company.
I was lucky to attend this very informative event and network with interesting people. The main topics of the session as listed on the website were: YouTube API, Maps API, App Engine, Android/Play Store, Google Drive API, Google+, Chrome, Dart, Commerce, Google TV and then breakout session with the speakers.
I was so excited to be at the Googleplex, because I had dreamt about visiting it since I moved to the Bay Area. When I first found out that one of the founders of Google is Russian, I was pleasantly surprised. And when Google has grown so fast from a startup to a multinational corporation, I started admiring Sergey Brin even more!
The Googleplex is a set of buildings that are located in Mountain View, a city in Silicon Valley. Google is well known for its unique corporate culture and environment. For example, employees move between buildings on special bikes that decorated in Google colors.
The astonishing work environment indicates that Google is a successful company: there are plenty of cafes with different world cuisines, vending machines providing snacks and drinks. Google offers its own gym and swimming pool as well as a variety of games organized for Googlers including foosball, tennis, billiard, volleyball, Ping-Pong and video games.
On the campus there are both quiet secluded spaces and recreation rooms in addition to space for collaboration.
And what most impressed me is that all of these facilities are available to Googlers for free at any time! I had a feeling that people live on campus permanently. It seems to me that working at Google is such a pleasure.
Last, but not least, the entire campus is bright and innovative; there are sculptures of Google products and even a private garden and park. And for the visitors of the Googleplex there is the company’s official store where you can buy different things with the Google logo.
P.S. If you want to know more about the company's unique culture, I highly recommend you to watch "The Internship" - the new comedy about two 40-ish guys who have no technical background, but get internships at Google.
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