Google Visit

Computing and Business Students Visit Google’s European Headquarters in Dublin

 BTEC Extended Diploma IT & Business students were extremely privileged to visit the European headquarters of Google in Dublin. The Dublin office employs 2500 people and is the largest office Google office in the world apart from the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The students were warmly welcomed by Karen Fitzpatrick, Administrator for Engineering Operations in Google and taken on a tour of one of the buildings. They visited the social areas including the library, games room and the sky lounge. The students were offered refreshments in the sky lounge and enjoyed a panoramic view of Dublin and the Aviva stadium.

In the state of the art auditorium the students were introduced to Eugene Knowd, Corporate Operations Engineer, who gave them a very interesting introduction to encryption. He pointed out why encryption is necessary and how it works. The students then participated in a challenge to crack an encryption code and the winners received prizes.

Lunch was then provided in one of the many Google restaurants and a wide variety of options, desserts and drinks were available. After lunch we returned to the auditorium and Karen Fitzpatrick gave the students an overview of Google, it operations, culture, leadership, motivational techniques and products.

The students had a wonderful experience and were very impressed by the working environment and the perks that staff received. They were amazed at the many different nationalities that worked in the Dublin office and they commented that the staff seemed to be very happy and motivated and that the working environment was relaxed and motivational. All of the students wanted to know "When can we start?" and it gave them an insight into potential career opportunities for the future and the possibilities for career progression.