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Google, and How Thacher Got Me Ready for The Big Time

by Bel :: Saturday September 17, 2005

Over the course of the last few years, I have had the opportunity to work in many unique and exciting settings – all of them enjoyable in their own right. For instance, I have interned with Merrill Lynch, I have played a part in a number of Internet start-ups, and I have done a little bit of freelance programming. But trust me when I say that all of these positions are very unlike the position of working for the search engine giant.

In the short twelve weeks I have worked for Google, I have picked up four new programming languages, built a number of tools that played supporting roles in product releases, and have developed what I feel to be an excellent grasp of database design. With so much to do and so little time in which to do it, I am not quite sure when I learned it all.

I do know that attending Thacher (and taking the AP Computer Science and Java & Engineering courses) certainly helped the process along. I cannot begin to stress the importance of being able to manage your time efficiently—and the workload at Thacher goes a long way in teaching you to do exactly that.

I will be staying on with Google as I matriculate to Stanford this month. The way I see it, what I learn in the classroom will allow me to more effectively complete Google projects and vice versa.

So, what else can I say about my summer? Well, before I move onto that, I just want to say that I worked an unbelievable stretch of hours every week. This is why the only other activity that deserves mention is my training for an upcoming race (a half-marathon). Needless to say, my summer is not quite yet over, but give it another week, and I will probably be in a crowded but no doubt informative Economics seminar. I expect I’ll miss the dynamics that result from having only ten students in my class—the Thacher way.

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