I think we all have an idea of the ideal job for us in our heads and spend most of our lives wondering if we’ll ever be in this wonderful position. While it may be a little unrealistic that you’re going to jump right out of college and into your dream job, it’s very feasible to take a step in the right direction. Ideally I would like to work for a very dynamic company that has a vastly positive impact on our world. I’ve chosen to analyze some career opportunities at a little company by the name of Google.
I think we all know what Google is and the things they do. I feel Google has had one of the greatest impacts on our society and will in the future. I’ve always been interested in the way Google approaches business and their initiative to always be creative and inventive. I have a fear of ending up in a company sitting behind a desk doing the same thing day after day. One thing that appeals to me about Google is their initiative to nurture employee’s individual projects to promote creativity and new innovative products. I feel like Google empowers their employees to always add innovation to an ever changing company and an ever changing society.
Ideally I would like to end up working somewhere near one of the coasts of the US or even internationally. Google has sites all over the world and is mainly located in California. Being in the computer industry, working in California is a dream come true. California holds so many opportunities to anyone in this industry and is a great place to start off.
The specific job I decided to analyze is Google’s IT Field Technician Intern. It was one for the few I feel I would be truly qualified for at this point in time. There were plenty of other positions that appealed to me, but none that I would qualify for enough. Besides, I still have a year of school ahead of me left. The job gives the intern an opportunity to work with many different aspects of Google’s corporate computing environment.
The job requirements give a broad range of skills that I feel I poses. With requirements ranging from working with PC hardware, software, printing, LAN/WAN environments, and Microsoft networked environment, I feel I could easily tackle all of these technical requirements. I recently participated in a project where we actually created a mock corporate Microsoft/UNIX environment that entailed all of these responsibilities. Also, I have several years of working in the Helpdesk field. I have been an assistant manager at an ISP helpdesk for over a year now and deal with LAN/WAN issues on a regular basis. I could demonstrate many of these skills in much more depth by explaining the project deliverables of different projects I have been a part of and how we achieved completing those given deliverables.
As far as the non technical requirements, I feel just as qualified. Google seeks out strong problem solvers, and strong project planning and management skills. I have led several of the projects I previously referred to and feel the outcome was very positive. Once again in order to display my strong problem solving skills and project management skills I would go into much detail about some of the issues we ran into in these projects. Such as the one time we were working on our corporate environment and one of our dedicated servers completely failed on us. This exact example forced myself and many others to make sacrifices and come up with a quick and alternative solution. While it was a roadblock initially, we ended up producing a much more robust and somewhat better environment than we initially had produced.
I feel I would be a perfect fit for a position like this and that a company like Google would be more than a perfect fit for me. Besides who ever said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”? At Google there is such a thing as a free lunch after all. In fact they have them every day! Now how could anyone turn that down!
http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=58449
Instructor Feedback
You clearly have a strong understanding of Google and its fit for you. I think the language you use to describe might work well in your letter as well. They will want to know that you have more than just the basic qualifications: you will want to demonstrate that your values match theirs. Additionally, the specifics of your analysis will translate well into the letter itself. What you need to do now is to pick a few experiences that capture and demonstrate both your values and your skills. You want to avoid listing/telling them that you share their values and that you have these skills. You want to tell stories that allow them to see you at work and that allow them to feel your values. I know this language sounds odd in technical writing, but you need them "feel" and "see" you as a good fit. Anybody can say that they share Google's commitment; not everyone can describe their work in a way that demonstrates it. For instance, rather than saying you like Google's innovation, demonstrate how you have been innovative either as an intern or as a student. They will see you being innovation and that will go much further in making you an attractive applicant.