On Friday, 20 Boston University students toured Google’s Cambridge office space. Immediately upon entering the building, attendees noticed a fire pole situated in the middle of what looked like a typical office space — probably just for decoration, one might assume.
That is, until a Google employee rode down the pole, surprising everyone.
The event was organized by BizTech, a student-run organization at BU dedicated to helping students with future careers in the field of business and technology. While the club runs a Google campus tour every semester, Sunny Zhao, BizTech’s director of finance and a junior in the Questrom School of Business, said he was surprised by this semester’s turnout.
“In previous years, it’s always been around 13 or 14 people,” Zhao said. “This year, we’ve gotten a lot of interest, so we kept it at 20 people. We wanted to give the first choice to people that have shown an active interest in this type of event in the past.”
The tour led attendees through facilities and spaces in the office including a gym, game rooms and a massage service available to Google employees.
Friday marked BizTech president Dennis Karpovitch’s second visit to Google’s Cambridge office. As a junior searching for opportunities after graduation, Karpovitch said he paid specific attention to Google’s work culture on his Friday visit.
“In my freshman year, I was more ‘wowed’ by all the different rooms and the fire pole we saw yesterday,” Karpovitch, a junior in Questrom, said. “But now I’m really considering the people that I want to work with. When we were walking around, we saw a lot of other workers relaxing with each other and just having fun. I think seeing that side of the work-life balance was important.”
Working at Google’s Cambridge office, Karpovitch said, would be a dream.
“If you’re curious, you’re someone who others can bounce ideas off because you can think on the spot and critical thinking comes along with that,” Karpovitch said. “Curiosity does kind of come from experience.”
Experience, Karpovitch said, is something BizTech strives to provide its members with.
“I think that’s a big part of what we’re trying to do here, in BizTech. We’re trying to expose students to different options in the technology industry,” Karpovitch said, “then from there, let them explore their curiosity in that field.”
Maggie Liang, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, attended the campus tour and was impressed by the amenities available to employees and the enjoyable working environment at Google, which she said motivated her to want to be a part of the company.
“I want to work at Google, but I’m not sure which part I want to join,” Liang said, “This tour gave me a sense of what it is like to work in Google. And the only thing I’m sure right now is that I really want to work in this company.”
