Tech Club Summer Stories
We asked a few interns "How's your summer going?" 
​Here's what they have to say...​

Latest updates coming soon! 
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Alyssa Apolonia, '17
Google, San Francisco

Sunny during the day, “freezing” at night, busy, and bustling with techies catching their morning commutes bus to South Bay– San Francisco is a unique city.  I have never seen such volumes of tech in one place.  The past four weeks have been interesting, challenging, and fun, as I have begun my sojourn as a Financial Operations Intern at Google.

Originally from the east coast, I have made several moves over the past few years…from Baltimore, to DC, to Charlottesville, and now this three-month stay on the wonderful west coast for the summer. While San Francisco has been a big change for me, it has also been a delight. San Francisco offers the most beautiful coastal drives, fun red wood hikes, plenty of beaches within an hour drive, wine tasting rivaling Charlottesville vineyards, and the best Mexican food you’ll have outside of Mexico.
 
Google has been a super challenging and interesting MBA internship, not to mention the perks don’t hurt. Their unique format consists of interns solving some of Google’s biggest problems in the form of a question. For example, my project question is “How can we prevent Google from missing payments to suppliers and vendors?” These questions are usually open ended and ambiguous in nature with the intention that the intern will come up with a creative solution with as much breadth and depth as they see fit. They assign you one manager and a minimum of three mentors (most people end up with four or five mentors) to help you along the way. The internship is designed to ensure that the intern is thinking critically about how to solve real business problems while also offering as much support as you may need.
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As far as the Google culture, here are some things you may not know:
  1. Google is extremely transparent with anything and everything going on with the company to its employees. That means once you’re “in”, you’re really “in” even as an intern. We can talk to any employee about their projects, products, costs, etc. Every employee can beta test earlier versions of products and have insights to early releases. However, the flip side of that means we don’t share with anyone outside the company, sorry guys!
  2. The culture is super flat. My manager, his manager, all the way up to high level directors sit in cubicles with high accessibility. There are no private offices because they want to promote a collaborative environment. In addition, people who are newer to the company are encouraged to not be afraid to speak up. They think a fresh pair of eyes and that newer perspective can inspire innovative change – no matter how little experience at Google you might have. Some of Google’s biggest changes have come from people with less than three months at the company.
  3. The perks are actually not what makes the company. Yes massages, electric cars, haircuts, sparkling water, frozen yogurt, and baristas are nice to have. However, people are there everyday because they’re passionate about the work they’re doing and they believe in the mission of Google. They’re inspired by the growth and innovation – and that is really what keeps people here. 
The MBA is extremely valued at Google –a company dominated by engineers. They need us to have a holistic and big picture perspective. It is nice to see the type of value an MBA adds to a highly tech focused company. I’m excited to continue to learn and grow through this summer. I’m grateful for the opportunity and look forward to helping Google increase its Darden presence next year.

Jimmy Figueroa, '17
Google, San Francisco

Ok Google You Have Great Perks, But Does Any of It Matter?  
The short answer:  Yes.  The long answer: Probably even more than you think.
 
I’ll be honest, before I began interning at Google, I was a total skeptic.  Why do Google employees talk about their perks all of the time?!  Is it really that big of a deal?  I want a job that challenges me, I want career growth.  I don’t want a micro kitchen, or different cafes, or a standing desk.  

But I do, I just didn’t know it at the time.  And you should want it for yourself.
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Working in New York in various roles in the Financial Services industry for several years shaped my view of a job and what I should expect from an employer.  It was always a no frills environment where you work hard, work long and perform.  If you do well you’ll get paid rewardingly, but the idea of free cafes, gym classes and game rooms is a pipe dream.  Those companies that give away all that free stuff, they’re cool, but that’s not where the serious careers are.  So I thought.
 
I arrived in Mountain View with a “so-what, another cafe” attitude, and this lasted probably throughout the first week or two.  Over time though, it did make a difference.  I found myself increasingly venturing off to a cafe, or outside, or a library to do my work.  I worked out at the on-campus gym in the mornings, I rented a bike for the summer.  I hit the batting cage, took a spinning class with co-workers, grabbed Americano’s from the baristas when I needed it and desserts when I didn’t.  And so, I began to feel this sort of freedom I haven’t had before.  This mentality that going to work was actually fun and enjoyable, that I could actually look forward to it in the morning.  And now, with a clear head and positive frame of mind, Google gets my best self every day.  I’m eager to tackle problems, to do more for my team and to be a growing part of the community.
 
All of this has surprisingly made a positive impact on me, and this is before taking the culture itself into account (which is fantastic, embracing and empowering).  Altogether, this heightened level of output should lead to better performance reviews and then, more opportunities.  People stay at Google for years and it’s easy to see why.  Google enables them to perform well, mobility is encouraged, job opportunities are endless, and new challenges continually await.  
 
So don’t discount perks.  Look for them at your next job.  You’ll perform better and get farther in your career because of it.  

Linden Schult '17
Amazon, Seattle

What a whirlwind! I can’t believe I’m starting my fourth week as an RLD Intern at Amazon. In some ways, everything you have heard about Amazon is true – there’s only a day and a half of orientation, and then you dive right into your project. There’s a steep learning curve, it’s up to you to drive your project, and they expect results. However, the infamous NY Times article missed why Amazon is such an amazing place to work.
 
There’s a steep learning curve – it’s almost hard to comprehend how much I’ve learned in three weeks. Amazon is a tech company first and foremost. It’s incredible to learn about neat initiatives the company is working on and the ways in which employees drive innovation.
 
It’s up to YOU to drive your project – you’re given your project topic and some key stakeholders, and it’s up to you to figure it out. You setup meetings, you dig into the data, you come with ideas. And it’s awesome. You get to structure your schedule and balance meetings and work in the way that is best for you. I’ve found that I enjoy getting to the office very early, working on my own for a few hours, getting lunch with friends, and then having back-to-back afternoon meetings.
 
They expect results – My final deliverable will have real business implications for Amazon. The projects you are given are real business questions that people are asking. I get to work with people across different teams every day. On multiple occasions, I have scheduled a meeting with one person, who has then invited a few others who also want to talk about my project. I know the bar is high for my final deliverable, but I know that I’m working on something important and that Amazon values my recommendation.
 
My favorite part about working at Amazon? The people. I work on the Kitchen team, and it’s wonderful. Even though I’m an intern, I sit with the team and learn about the different roles, responsibilities, and projects. Most importantly, everyone makes a point to stop by my desk, say hello, and offer to sit down with me if I have any questions. There are no stupid questions. You’re encourage to ask questions and dive into things, whether they are specifically related to your project or about working full time at Amazon. People are approachable, helpful, and friendly.
 
I’ve enjoyed my first three weeks and I’m excited for the next eight!

Peter Bergen, '17
Microsoft, Seattle

Making Data Meaningful Through Socialization
This summer I'm a product marketing intern on the Office 365 team, focusing on assessing "market fit" for a new data analytics product called Delve Analytics (DA). DA has really gotten me thinking about self-quantification and what people actually do with data, so instead of talking about how my internship is going I wanted to pour some thoughts out on this topic. I've been working in tech and data analytics for over six years now and do lots of self-quantification so feel pretty well qualified to do this.
 
Companies are pumping out products that track and quantify everything. Wearables are all the rage, and I can now track things like sleep quality and heart rate variability without needing a doctor. Delve Analytics tracks what you spend your time on at work (more on this later). You can even get analytics on your dog now (the screenshot below is from a company called Voyce).
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This is a thing.
I often wonder how far this craze will go. What is my body's max threshold for Chipotle in any given week? What is the optimal response time to my mother's phone calls so that she doesn't worry too much? Which angle in my OkCupid profile pic gets me the most likes? More importantly, how can I do anything at all with all this effing data to actually make my life better?
 
One way to make data actionable is to set thresholds, i.e. some level above or below which you need to start worrying. At Whereoware, the digital marketing company I spent 4 years at before Darden, we sent a lot of emails out on behalf of our clients (like millions per day). Periodically some bad email addresses could get into our lists, and this could kill our deliverability rating. So naturally it was pretty important to track this type of deliverability data regularly, which the dashboard you see below helped us do. Over time we figured out that a deliverability score below 90 would indicate that we need to fix something lest we get placed on a dreaded “blacklist.” Without that threshold, we'd have no standard for when and how to take action, and the data would have been meaningless.
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Thresholds can make data actionable in clear-cut cases like email deliverability.
The challenge is knowing what to use as your thresholds. There are some scenarios in which thresholds are clear-cut, like the deliverability case above. In other cases this is not so straightforward. For example, I track my sleep with my Microsoft Band and it tells me I wake up around 10x per night on average. Is there a certain specific number above which I should freak out and run to a doctor? (If so, actually let me know, because 10x does feel kind of high).
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A pretty average night of sleep...
Socialization is one way to make data meaningful in the absence of simple absolute thresholds. The basic idea is that you take some metric and compare it with a relevant group of peers (note the use of the word "relevant"). These comparisons can help companies set benchmarks and tell stories to themselves and their stakeholders about how "average" or "not so average" they are. These types of metrics won't tell you how to achieve "above average" status, but human psychology seems to inspire us to action in more immediate and substantial ways than any other type of metric I've encountered.
 
At Whereoware we were constantly pressed by our clients to provide industry averages on website and email activity. Fortunately our marketing automation vendor, Silverpop, published these averages every year, and it proved extremely helpful: for clients that had far below-average open rates, for example, we were able to upsell subject line A/B testing or distribution list cleanups. We also, of course, use industry averages all the time in finance - "comps" are just industry averages, and the art is all in picking the right companies to include in the average.
But socialization is even more powerful amongst individuals. Opower, for example, is a utilities technology company that tracks how much energy you use, then shows you how you stack up against your neighbors. They've found consistently that people are far more likely to reduce their energy consumption when they see how much more they use than their neighbors (read more on this here).
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An Opower direct mail piece. Note the judicious use of the word "neighbor."
Omada Health provides another great example of socialization, this time in the field of chronic health management. Omada worked with the NIH to conduct research on reducing risk factors for pre-diabetics. They found that, through a combination of smart wearables and online social communities, individuals could achieve incredible health outcomes - in this case, an average 4.7% weight loss after one year in the program, a sustained drop in markers of blood sugar levels, and an unusually high 80% program completion rate (more on this here). Social groups were a fundamental element of these results. Each participant was paired with an online peer group based on age, BMI, and location. These groups were formed to maximize similarity amongst group members, again demonstrating the importance of 'relevance' when choosing comparable external metrics.