Inside Google Chicago

By Jean-Baptiste Cornali

The Google's logo in the Google Chicago offices - @Flickr Google

We had the chance to visit a part of Google headquarters in Chicago. Or at least, the former headquarters because they will move very soon because they will move very soon, to the Fulton Market, area of the West Loop.

At Google Chicago, we met Matt Jones from the Team Lead area. He explained what Google is, in different parts.

Basically, Google is....

Google is now one of the largest multinational technology companies in the world. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University, in their garage.

In fact, Google has a parent company called Alphabet ABC. Google has more than 70 offices around the world, with more than 54,000 employees  called "Googlers" and this increases more and more.

Google is also specialized in Internet-related services and products. In this way, it develops several digital and technologic products. As for example, AdWords or Bookmarks. But as you may already know, its first product is Search.

Inside Google Chicago....

The "Game Room" in the Google Chicago Offices - @Flickr Google

First impression. The office seems very relax and pleasing. As I saw in many documentaries, the office space is open and contains lots of things, lot of details that can make people more creative and efficient in their work.

There are places where people can work quietly, hold meetings, doing sport, eat.... For example, we saw a man walking on a treadmill while he was working on his computer. Also, we saw a space with hammocks where people can just relax, or another room where people can play to Ping-Pong or to foosball. Funny.

In the headquarters of Chicago, we can count around 700 employees, working on the sales side, on the tech side. They work with lots of companies in the world and create a wide range products and services, mainly focused on Search, Ads, and Technical Infrastructure. Matt Jones insisted about the fact they work a lot to keep users’ information safe and ensuring privacy.

Google and the mentoring....

"Google is a great opportunity to gain experience".
According to Matt Jones, mentoring in Google is the key to build and develop a professional experience. Google provides different favorable aspects to improve its mentoring. First it is a Leadership opportunities, for example there are more and more women and Google develop several leadership coaching. Then, It is a global rotation program. Every program is made to be the more attractive as possible. Also, inside there are team work working on special events. They work in depth with agencies and clients, to always enlarge their product list. Google has also established for the employees one day "off" per week, during which they don't have to work or doing something in relation with their work. So we can say that Google establishes a good mentoring process. Nice.

Basically, mentoring can be summarized in a single mentor-mentee relationship, exchanging advice, help, questions and learning. But the mentoring in Google is not only based on work, it is much more. For example, they organise holiday parties, visits to museums and team activities for their employees. And this is in like with the different installations in the offices. The objective is to make more creative and efficient the work. In this way, employees can go to the "game room" and play to several games.

To conclude, I would like to say that Google is a great place to work. There are great installations and the conditions seems perfect to work. But as Matt told us, it is not easy at all. You have a lot of works and it takes a lot of your personal time. If you work at the office, you often have to work at home. This visit of Google Chicago was interesting because it allows us to know more about how works a big multinational company as Google and how fun the offices can be arranged! Although, we felt that Google wanted to stay relatively "secret" of its operation. Matt Jones couldn't tell us everything. Besides, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the building. Also, I would like to say that Google built a global professional network, since its creation to today. And it will continue. This is the key of its success because this permits a process of developing and use contacts to increase business, knowledge, expand the sphere of influence or serve the community. That is why the community of Google is huge, and is considered today as one of the largest companies in the world.

Now, here is a a virtual tour of Google headquarters in Chicago, found on Youtube.