In June fifteen Bishop Luffa pupils went to Google Headquarters in London. The Google trip was very enjoyable, the coach wasn't too long but it was nice too stretch our legs on the streets of London outside of the Google building which had a large YouTube sign on the front. On the inside they had large panes of glass with post-it notes on them to make a picture of pop culture references. We met one of the Site Reliability Engineers, grabbed our ID tabs and got straight into the building. We were shown different offices and cafes where everything is free! Then we went on the roof of the 11 storey building and saw the whole of London. After this we went to a meeting room and found out about the 12 principles of innovation that Google employees are guided by. Lunch was a huge buffet for free with amazing quality food from all over the world, reflecting the diversity of the people who work for Google. After lunch we went into another room and working with three engineers - in teams we explored how to deal with a large app (we called it ‘Catpaws’) crashing and having errors and what Site Reliability Engineers would do to manage the situation. Finally we got to ask questions to a panel of four Google engineers who had worked for Google for over three years about what it is like there and what had helped them get their place in Google. Then we left the building, waved goodbye, got back on the coach and headed home!
Nathan Garda (10Story)