December 9th, 2024. First day!
I woke up at 5 AM because sleep was not happening. My manager Mike Burns sent a "Welcome Aboard!" email first thing. I set up my Noogler account (that's what they call new Googlers), got my credentials, and got my Google email. Seeing my name on a @google.com address was surreal.
The catch: to take this job, I had to move to Massachusetts. The team I got matched with is based out of Google's Cambridge office, so I got an apartment in Somerville, right outside of Cambridge. Holly stayed in Bayside, Queens, where she got her own place around the same time. Long distance. After being together for six years in the same city, suddenly we're doing the 4-hour drive back and forth on weekends. It sucks, but when Google says "we'd like to offer you a position," you figure out the logistics.
The onboarding is... a lot. Hardware selection, credential appointments, identity verification, Google Wallet, the works. Everything is organized down to the minute. And then you get access to the internal systems and it hits you just how massive this place is. The codebase alone is like nothing I've ever seen, honestly more like a city than a codebase. You could spend a year just learning where things are.
My team works on ad infrastructure, client-side stuff. I'm writing TypeScript and Java every day. The ramp-up is steep, but I went from Scratch blocks to C in a weekend back in 2022, so I think I can handle steep.
One unexpected perk of the Cambridge office: they have a weekly jazz jam! A bunch of Googlers who moonlight as musicians get together and play. I showed up the first week and ended up helping run it. The band teacher in me will never fully go away, apparently.
They gave me a Noogler hat. I wore it all day! No shame.