Google Joins AdieCon as a Gold Sponsor
Google has been a strong supporter of Adies and Ada Developers Academy since the relationship started in 2016. Google now employs 14 full-time Adie alumns across Developer Relations, Software Engineering, and Technical Program Management in product areas of Cloud, Core, and Geo.
Supporting Students
Google hosts 2 - 4 interns a year, focusing on placing interns with teams that have resources to provide a supporting and compassionate environment as well as dedicated headcount.
Beyond internship, Googler’s support students by signing up to be TAs, tutors, and industry mentors. Googlers spend time tutoring weekly at Ada utilizing Google’s 20% projects, where up to 20% of your total work time can be used to work on something other than your primary project. 16 Googlers currently volunteer at Ada.
Adies at Google also have prepared meetups and workshops with free computing resources to help students learn more about Google, alternative roles such as Developer Relations engineering, and gain hands on experience with cloud computing.
Bringing Adies to Google
Internal Adies work with recruiters to identify friction in the application process common to diverse applicants. Google recruiters have put together panels for Adies to learn about different roles, life at Google, and the application process. The ultimate goal is to create long-lasting relationships between Ada alumns and students, so at any point in their career they will have an advocate ready to go when the time is right to apply.
To support applicants even further, Google provides candidate coaching calls before on-site interviews. This allows applicants to interact with an engineer of the specific job function to ask questions, review interview questions and gain real-time feedback.
Supporting Adies at Google
Google recognizes the strengths of Adies with established experience in other industries and empowers Adies to take the initiative to follow their passions, enter ambiguous areas and tackle problems.
Flexibility to explore teams and interests is the main way Google support Adies. Adies also highlight the many opportunities for mentorship as important for their transition into the tech industry. Managers have been valuable in identifying opportunities, developing skills, and acting as champions for Adies.
Quotes from Adies at Google:
“I also appreciated the emphasis Google puts on learning for new employees, as opposed to being productive on day 1. During Noogler orientation, we were told that most Nooglers won't start making significant contributions until 6 months on the job, and that really helped motivate me to use my first year to just learn as much as I can.”
"I'm so happy to have landed at Google. I remember during my first month here my team got together and wrote out guiding principles for who we wanted to be as a team. I was expecting things like "striving for engineering excellence", but instead we ended up with things like "everyone should feel valued", "psychological safety" and "creating space for learning". I felt at home immediately. "
Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Google has been one of the few companies transparent about diversity reporting and their commitment to DEI. Externally, Google is focused on growing the next generation of tech leaders through supporting CS education programs and STEM access for underserved communities. Seattle’s community engagement lead has secured a $50K grant, separate from our ongoing intern partnership, to recognize Ada’s adult STEM education and racial equity work.
Internally, Google wants to create sustainable equity by increasing representation at senior levels and defining accountability across all areas of experience, from recruiting and hiring, to performance management, to career progression and retention. Learn more at https://diversity.google/.