Inside Yahoo!
Working at Yahoo! is the ultimate experience. The amazing campus, engaging activities and great people definitely made an impression on me during the past two days. Everyone I’ve come across at Yahoo! is eager to meet new people and get to know them; yes, even the coders are sociable! Unlike other places where my friends intern, Yahoo! interns don’t make coffee and send out letters. For one, every building (there are 7 on the Sunnyvale campus) has a Starbucks-type caffeine vendor and the drinks are free! Yahoo! interns are part of a project that makes an impact and people on the internet will get to see their work (with the exception of internal engineers, sorry). Today I found out more about what I’ll be doing during my stay and I can’t wait to get things rolling… and I bet you’re eager for me to send out the link too.
After a long day of orientation on Monday, my hiring manager Havi Hoffman led me to my workspace. To my amazement, I found out that I’m working next to popular bloggers Jeremy Zawodny, Chad Dickerson and flickr co-founder Caterina Fake.
In addition to free caffeine for Yahoos, there are lots of perks such as the great food in the cafeteria dubbed URL’s (pronounced Earl’s), the foosball, air hockey and pool tables in building C, as well as free access to many Y! services like flickr pro (the gym is nice too!).
I think a large part of the joy that comes from working at Yahoo! stems from the fact that the work isn’t really perceived as work. It’s challenging, unique and not at all redundant. I can’t believe I already sound like a Yahoo! spokesperson. All of my co-workers are accessible through Y! instant messenger - not too many people use the phone around here. I’ll do some posts like these every so often to keep you updated but you can see what’s going on in real time with constantly updated flickr photoset.
Sure looks like fun… bet you’re having a great time. Say hi to Dustin if you see him around :)
Awesomeness = a new word I made up for you!
Do you have any choice of workstation? Are you able to bring your Macbook to work or are things pretty tied down to what plugs in and out of their network?
Hmm… Enjoyed your trip paul.I’m wish was at your place,i wishing to be in that comapny for years.Anyway have fun…
Yahoo is doing like Microsoft. The main thing is environment
Ohh, I’m so jealous! That’s the sort of place I want our office to be. When we have an office, that is. And when we have more than 2 employees :)
I’m completely jealous now. Thanks. ;)
As for bringing personal computers, it seems as though things are restricted to the provided for computers as they are preloaded with lots of network-specific software. However, people can bring their own personal laptops and use the guest wifi.
Oh man Nick Douglas just fisted your optical drive bay ;)
Hahah, I saw that - but it’s all in good nature and I got some nice traffic off it to. Was on techmeme earlier as well.
Be sure not to tell about all the perks ;). You want to keep people in suspicion. One thing’s for sure though, if you want to get the ultimate barrista experience, head over to building G - there lies the head honcho world-cup of bean trees coffee.
As far as bringing in your own puters, there’s not much of a need if you’re handed a G5 with a 24″ monitor or set up with 2 x 17″ duelies.
You are the definiyion of luck, Paul!
Way to go Paulo,
Add some Greek spirit to Yahoom it sure needs some.
Mpravo, kai eis anotera …
Congratulations Paul!!
wow. lucky u ;) guess what is gonna be when you guys brainstorm together ;)
Looks like it is going to be a great time for you Paul. Be sure to let us know where you are going to be blogging from on Yahoo.
http://www.valleywag.com/tech/yahoo/yahoo-intern-shows-why-google-is-more-fun-than-yahoo-183895.php
That is just funny.
Eric Wilson
As a fellow intern, I have to echo everything awesome you say about the place (minus the coffee - I hate that stuff). Everything there is in the best interest of the customer, the employee or both, and that’s quite a refreshing thing. I wrote a bit more detailed summary of my thoughts (spurred of course by your and ValleyWag’s little blog-battle). I’ve gotten to know Chad pretty well through Hack stuff, so its a wonder we haven’t met at all. Look me up sometime.
Man, that sounds like a killer internship! (if internship is even the word) I wish I could just go over and hang out! Congrats and have fun :)
So, just out of curiosity, did they make you write this post? :p
I am so jealous of you. That sounds like an incredible experience and have lots of fun!
Congratulations Paul! I think that you deserve it! Keep blogging! :)
Btw is it your name day today! Happy name day! [ or in Greek "Xronia polla!!" ]
Yeah! Hronia polla (in Greek) or.. Happy Name Day (in English) !!!!
The man speaks the truth! I began at Yahoo! as a summer intern for the first year of their official intern program in 2004. Fortunately I was invited back and am now a full-time Yahoo! I hope you enjoy your experience Paul, I’m sure that you will learn a ton and work on some cool projects.
Paul, you do live on the sunny side of life.
really awesome… im goin to start studin perl..php..unix..whtever it may be… n gonna join Yahooooooooo!!!!!!!
thanks for yahoo its great
Hi,
I’ve just accepted a position at Yahoo! and was looking around for info on what it’s really like to work there. Thanks for the blog. Sounds like a great place and I feel like I make the right decision.
D-
PS this list shows Yahoo! @ #44 on the Forbes list, not #73 as mentioned in a previous post:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2007/full_list/index.html
Whow likes mangoes anyway?