While in Cali for the second half of winter break, I had the great fortune to dine at Google. Well, it wasn't so much luck as Kris telling me that he could have 2 guests a month for (free, gourmet) lunch, and I insisting I have that honor.
As mentioned previously, Google has free breakfast, lunch, and dinner available for employees in 7 or so different eating venues. Kris selected the largest cafeteria. First, I will agree with him that the Google campus in Mountain View does resemble a college campus, and as people can imagine, the cafeteria was packed. That would be the only minus, but an expected one.
This cafeteria was set up in a standard fashion: different stations representing different cuisines with massive salad and sandwich bars in the middle. The first special of the day was some shelled seafood. Another station had duck. The cuisines I noticed included indian, american grill, italian, chinese, and mexican. I will admit that I was overwhelmed by the options and went with mexican. They were offering enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos, burritos, etc with whatever fixings you wanted. I also had a beautiful salad with an amazing variety of toppings.
In addition to food, drinks included as many teas and sodas as you can think of, plus what looked to be fresh squeeze juice. For dessert, there was a selection of small servings of fancy cookies and cake, plus two freezers with wrapped ice cream treats.
On our walk back to Kris's office we passed a pair of eating venues, one that served sushi and another that was vegetarian. We also passed many mini-kitchens with nice juice coolers (Naked and Odwalla), fridges stocked with soda, and a selection of snacks. (Every day Kris would bring home Honest Tea for me, and when I visited I took a juice for the road).
Yes, I would definitely gain the Google 15 if I worked there. Maybe my skills could be applied to one of Google's needs? Help understanding different cultures? Kris said they have 4 staff doctors on site (Malinda, see you could work there) -- maybe they need a public health planner/health educator? Last week, the New York Times had an article about Google's shifting hiring tactics -- looking for candidates that are well-rounded or have unique skills and interests, not just people who with computer skills at the top of their class. There was also an article about how Google thrives on the edge of chaos and disorder, which would suit me (but is frustrating Kris). Any anthropologists or Mary Douglas/Victor Turner fans looking for a research site?
Maybe we can all work at Google.
A 3 minute video via CNN from Fortune: "A day in the life of a Googler" - with a tour of the campus and the cafeteria: http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/business/2007/01/08/fortune.best.cos.google.employee.cnn.cnn
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2 comments:
umm yeah I would definitely work there were there an opening for a Google fertility specialist! Seriously...free food...how could I resist?
Sign me up! I will see how they treat pregnant women and what their medical leave policies are etc. While eating free food!
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