3 Lessons from My First Month at Google
It’s been a month since I joined Google as a business intern. I can say it’s a life-changing experience during my college journey. Being able to join this giant technology company is something I never imagined.
In this internship, I’ve been involved in 2 projects in Google Play: Gaming (super exciting although I’m not a gamer).
- The first project is doing market research about Indonesian gamers’ preference and behaviour in buying in-game items and developing marketing strategies related to it.
- The second project is designing and executing an incubation program for local game developers by bringing Google’s expertise and resources.
There are three lessons learned from this 1 month experience and I think it will be beneficial — not only in terms of working at this company — but also life lessons in general.
Being aware and embracing imposter syndrome.
When I got the offer in March 2021, I was super grateful and doubted myself at the same time.
“I’m just lucky”
“They made mistakes in the hiring process”
“I don’t deserve this”
The funny thing is: other Googlers also have these similar thoughts!
One day, we had a session called “Overcoming Imposter Syndrome” where we discussed this phenomenon and how to “be friends” with it.
If you are not familiar with imposter syndrome, here’s the definition:
“a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. Imposters suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence” (Harvard Business School, 2018).
There are several tips on overcoming imposter syndrome from the session:
- Conviction
Build and pursue long-lasting conviction rather than fleeting goals. Start to think what’s our identity — from inner self, not from external proof — then start believing our identity and worth. - Humility
To be humble and admit we all have flaws, then seek help rather than hide them. Find people who can help us, grow together, and thank them. - Confidence
Change the mindset: don’t assume that we know little compared to others, but there’s a great value that we could contribute to others. Find and specialize on that value.
Be humble. Dealing with “not knowing” and keep learning.
In the workplace context, there is overflowing information and knowledge which never runs out, or skills and abilities that we think we have not fully mastered.
In life as general, there are so many things that we haven’t figured it out.
It’s okay to not knowing everything, let’s be aware and deal with not knowing.
One day, we had a session with the Senior Country Marketing Director. She also shared the same advice:
“The feeling that you are drowning and drinking from a fire hydrant will never stop. Don’t think it will. Just get comfortable with it.” — Sapna Chadha, Google Senior Country Marketing Director of Southeast Asia
This statement also resonates with the statement from Ray Dalio:
“Whatever success I’ve had has been more due to knowing how to deal with my not knowing than anything I know.” — Ray Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates.
Read more on his book: Principle (By the way, I really love his book!)
Do not limit others’ potential impact just because of their titles or roles.
This statement above came from my personal experience, how my co-host (full time Googler I worked with in the project) treated me and my intern-mate.
I got an opportunity to become the speaker at Google’s event called Google Week — sharing with the participants and representing Google.
I said to the co-host, “I’m willing to become the speaker. However, I think it’s not proper that ‘intern kids’ become the speaker at this event. Maybe we can invite other full time Googlers who have more knowledge.”
Then he said to me “I treat interns the same as full time employees. Your status as an intern doesn’t decrease your value.”
It’s super heartwarming when I heard that statement. I realized that being treated equally and given trust to make an impact — whatever my title is — significantly influences my performance.
This working environment really inspired me to implement this culture in my current student organization (and you should too!). I believe that by fostering this sort of working environment — treat your team members with respect and don’t limit their impacts just because the titles — will make a positive impact to the organization.
To sum up, there are three key takeaways that I want to share during my first month at Google — and it would be beneficial as life lessons in general:
- Being aware and embracing the imposter syndrome.
- Gain humility by dealing with not knowing and keep learning.
- Treat team members with respect and trust, by believing and allowing them to explore and make impact, whatever their roles or titles are.
