Top takeaways from 3 generations of Google APM interns

The opinions stated here are our own, not those of our employer(s). 

We (the co-authors!) are Ami, Jenny, and Christina. We all interned at Google as Associate Product Manager (APM) interns in the summers before joining the full-time Google APM program in, respectively, 2021 (planned), 2020, and 2017. We learned a lot in those jam-packed three months; in this article, we’ll each share an impactful lesson that we’ve taken forward, even into our full-time roles.

Ami’s takeaway: building meaningful relationships helps you feel more confident and create a lasting support system – even virtually

This past summer, I interned on the Google Lens team from home  — my first fully remote internship experience. Google’s perks of free food became my family’s cooking, Google’s gym became the two 5-pound dumbbells I had at home, and the Mountain View campus became the desk in my bedroom.

One of my internship goals was to meet people from my team and across Google to learn from their experiences and build relationships that would last beyond the course of my internship. I soon came to realize that building relationships was even more important in a virtual environment. 

While I quickly became comfortable with my direct team through one-off calls and almost daily team meetings, I found it harder to connect with my extended team. I imagined what life could have been like in the office — I might have recognized my team in the cafeteria during lunch, sat next to them while I worked, or had quick chats while walking across campus. But in a virtual environment, I only saw my extended team weekly for 30 minutes, meaning potentially missed opportunities to build rapport, share my ideas, and ask questions. So I found it a lot harder to speak up in virtual meetings, as I didn’t feel like I’d established connections with my team (or had much to contribute as a newcomer).

Instead of speaking up, I silently smiled on camera or sent reaction emojis on video calls as a way to break the ice. But I quickly realized that this wouldn’t be enough to establish connections with teammates that I was going to be seeing for the next 12 weeks. And to add on to that realization, Christina (my manager!) gave me early constructive feedback to show my teammates I was engaged and ready to contribute to the team by speaking up more in meetings.

So, I decided to reach out to my extended team, even those I wouldn’t necessarily be working closely with during the summer. Identify your extended team early on in your internship — I checked meeting invitees on my calendar and scheduled one-on-one calls with those I hadn’t met yet. During those calls, some of my go-to questions to get to know each other better were:

• What has been your favorite project in your career so far?
• What is the biggest challenge you’re currently tackling?
• And unrelated to work questions! With video calls, questions about the cute puppy in the background or a new quarantine hobby were my personal favorites.

Scheduling one-off 30-minute meetings to get to know my extended team definitely took more time and preparation than 5-minute catch-ups while passing by team members in the office would have, but it helped me build the confidence I needed to speak up during meetings. And it helped build trust among teammates, so even making decisions and setting timelines became easier. Plus, I also learned about Australian slang, aerial acrobatics, the British school system, and the therapeutic ability of indoor plants! 

Beyond learning from my team, conversations with PMs across Google gave me opportunities to ask about key decisions made on some of my favorite Google products, learn about what a 10-year career in product management looks like, and feel more connected to the Google community in a virtual environment. And knowing that I have a strong support system backing me across the company makes me even more excited to return to Google next year.

Jenny’s takeaway: a team-first mindset, instead of a return offer-first mindset, can help you have bigger impact

In the summer of 2019, I interned on Google’s Augmented Reality Platform team. I was VERY intimidated: not only was this a product I had never heard of, but I knew nothing about computer vision in general. It was also my first work experience as a product manager, whereas the engineers on my team were experts in their field, many with PhDs in computer vision. Yet, by the end of the summer, my scope had ballooned. I was regularly representing my team in meetings and driving multiple in-flight features. I was able to reach this level of responsibility because I saw myself as a real employee with a team-first mindset.

Many of the APM interns from my class were completely fixated on getting a full-time return offer, which is totally understandable – there’s a lot of pressure to do so, and landing a full-time role is desirable and important. But this tunnel vision can sometimes distract people from putting their best foot forward. For example, let’s say your tech lead gives you negative feedback on a proposal. If you’re thinking only about that return offer, your response might be: “Oh no, this reflects poorly on me and I’m worried my tech lead will give me a negative performance review. What if I can’t recover from this, given the internship is only 12 weeks?” But if you have a team-first mindset, your response could be: “How should I adjust my product strategy?” The latter response is more likely to help you have an impact similar to that of a full time employee, which ironically also improves your chances of getting a return offer.

The team-first mindset has two components. First, I viewed myself as having the potential to be an equally valuable member of my team, not just a temporary summer intern. I realized that my job wasn’t to discuss nitty gritty implementation details with the genius engineers on my team, and that our different skill sets complemented each other well. My insight as a normal user who didn’t know that much about computer vision actually made me an asset, and the engineers on my team had little interest in creating a product strategy and the logistics of driving our launch forward. My team would benefit from having a PM fully dedicated to them, and it was my job to give them that. 

Second, my top priority was to build a great product. As a result, I filled in the necessary gaps on my team. Instead of focusing on what would look best on my conversion packet, I was able to zone in on executing the product to launch. This meant that I made a real impact toward business goals – and was subsequently given more responsibility. This in turn reinforced my mindset that I was a real team member – a positive reinforcement loop.

Working towards the same north star goals as your team, and not your own north star goal of getting a return offer, will lead to you being more aligned with your team, doing the work that matters, and gaining your teammates’ trust – all things that create impact. Treat yourself like a real employee and team player – it’ll make your coworkers (and the Hiring Committee!) view you in that same light.

Christina’s takeaway: look for opportunities that will empower you to succeed

Several months before my upcoming summer 2016 internship, I sent my recruiter an email. It was a list of my stack-ranked team preferences, and it read:

1. Augmented reality products, such as Project Tango or Google Glass
2. Virtual reality products, such as Google Cardboard
3. Internet of Things projects (such as Brillo or Weave)
4. Self-Driving Cars
5. Android Wear
6. Android
7. Google Now

The list was based on a single criteria: my interest in that product space. (You can tell that I was very interested in emerging technologies!) I ended up on my first choice team: Project Tango, the now-defunct Augmented Reality platform. I was ecstatic and nervous about a summer spent working on one of the “coolest” pieces of tech. Luckily – and thanks to no due diligence of my own – I was also fortunate that the Project Tango team would empower me to succeed and have a fulfilling experience:  

• My manager had thoughtfully designed a project that was achievable, a learning opportunity, and allowed demonstration of the key skills for conversion. Yeah, I was stressed – it was the first time I’d written product requirements, and I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to write them to the Google standard. But the product problem (a technical proof of concept for AR walking navigation) was the right size for me to actually understand and drive progress on. By summer’s end, I’d demonstrated that I could make product design decisions and (some) strategy recommendations, and that I could influence my design and engineering counterparts. Both were necessary to receive a return offer. 
• I had a strong support network who were present, invested, and had the right expertise. My team cared about me and my project, and multiple full-time APMs from different teams were my mentors. Most importantly, I could commiserate with, bounce ideas off, and learn from ~40 intern “classmates”, many of whom are close friends today. 

In retrospect, I was really lucky. I hadn’t thought to ask if any of my preferred teams was going to give me a project that would stretch me while still being tractable. I hadn’t paused to evaluate if I’d have a strong support network for the summer. I’d chanced into an environment that empowered me to succeed — but I should’ve done better than chance. 

After hearing my fellow PM interns’ experiences – and later becoming an intern manager myself – I’ve become familiar with the roadblocks that can come up. A few examples:

• Unachievable goals: to complete a project, the intern has to convince a partner team that has really different incentives. This is impossible without better VP-level alignment – which is pretty out of scope for an intern to drive.
• Can’t demonstrate key skills: an intern completed their assigned project by managing their team’s tasks against an existing roadmap. But they didn’t get to define any new features, so they can’t convert because there wasn’t enough evidence they can make product decisions (a core part of the PM role).
• Support network not present: the project was deprioritized right before the intern arrived due to larger shifting company priorities, so there aren’t any engineering and UX teammates to work with them anymore. There’s no one to actually design or build this.
• Support network not invested: there’s a team assigned to the intern’s project, but they’re busy on a different stressful, high-priority launch. They don’t have time to answer questions or provide feedback.

Roadblocks like these would’ve left me feeling frustrated and hopeless — and unable to convert. I wish I’d known to be able to detect them ahead of time by screening potential teams – when possible! – with questions like these:

• How are intern projects chosen? 
• What does project success look like by the end of the internship?
• What skills should I most expect to grow during this project?
• How closely do interns work with the overall team?
• What kind of support is in place to help interns meet or exceed expectations?
• What does the process look like for converting from the internship to full time?
• What are some of the skills interns need to demonstrate to successfully convert?

The answers – or lack thereof! – would’ve clearly shown whether I was being intentionally empowered to succeed. Two caveats: first, you sometimes can’t get these specifics at the team level, but you can still determine how the internship program as a whole is approaching these questions. For example, a program could enforce that all eligible intern openings have sufficiently thought about these issues. 

Second, there may also be times that you don’t have the luxury of avoiding situations like this. Perhaps conditions on the team changed, the answers weren’t truthful, or the alternative was no internship at all. In these cases, a good option is to advocate for yourself. You can seek the project(s) and support that you need:

• Help your manager see unachievable goals as such – and ask them to change the goals or step in to help remove unrealistic roadblocks.
• Proactively identify and ask to take on opportunities that will let you take on the key skills you want to demonstrate.
• Build your own support network, by convincing teammates of the importance of your project and seeking out mentors from across the company (like in Ami’s case!).
• Explicitly ask for time from your support network – sometimes, teammates might not realize how valuable their time and feedback can be – especially to an intern.

My APM internship was a pivotal moment in my career. If I’d ended it feeling frustrated, hopeless, and without an offer in hand, I wouldn’t be a PM at Google today. It’s scary to consider that I didn’t even know what to look for to give me the best chances at reaching my goals. Now, I do know (a little) better. And when I’m looking for full-time opportunities nowadays, I’m looking for teams where I’ll be empowered to succeed in addition to being passionate about the product. 

And just so we’re clear – the takeaway isn’t to run away from challenges, which are often situations where a PM’s individual impact matters. Rather, it’s about intentionally considering a positive team environment as a factor in choosing opportunities, and taking fast action to set yourself up for success if you land in a less-than-ideal environment. And on any team that you might choose, create, or fall into, Ami’s and Jenny’s takeaways still stand: the relationships you build and the team-first mindset you cultivate will determine the quality – and success – of your experience.