Yesterday I went to a Google Open House/Recruiting event. It was refreshing. I must say, I enjoyed having "empty" conversations with incredibly intelligent employees at Google for the sake of mingling. Because, the purpose of this event was not to have a deep conversation or build friendships, but rather to get your face known around Google. Since I was one of 3 girls in a room of about 60, I had an unfair advantage over the guys here. We had three talks, two about google maps, na done about Google analytics. Google analytics sounds like a fascinating service which I hope to put on this very site in the near future. Afterward, we mingled some more and ate more unappetising appetizers (the desserts, however, were phenomenal. You can't go wrong with lemon tarts and small chocolate glazed cakes), and it was time for the raffle. Some guys won google memorabilia, and two won Nintendo DS lights, and then the party was over. People kept milling around for a while, but eventually the party died down and I left with a nice little goodie back complete with Google pen, notepad, and shirt.This was the first time I realized the power and purpose of talking about things you probably won't remember past the next day. Because you might not remember what you talked about, but you will remember who you talked with. And that's just as important.
2 comments:
It's really too bad, how important social skills and "mingling" are in getting a good spot in the academic pecking order. At least it's not quite as important in math...
I don't think it's a bad thing. Academia is all about interacting and sharing ideas. If you're a genius and you can come up with ideas on your own, then great, you don't need to be social. Otherwise, you need to talk to others to get good ideas, and get grants and all that jazz.
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