Category Archives: Italy

The Day I Interviewed At Google

Getting a job at Google might not sound as cool as it was ten years ago, straight after their Initial Public Offering; but, although this company has become a corporation, the lifestyle that you gain by working there is pretty amazing. Yes, I interviewed at Google in London for a summer internship as an Associate Product Manager.

I actually had a first phone interview, where they asked me a “behavioural question”, a “product” one and finally an analytical. It was pretty straightforward and also amazing, because you don’t get “normal questions”, but it’s more a race to determine if you are crazier than the interviewer, and if you are, you move to the on site interviews.

After a few weeks, before new year’s eve, I received an email saying I had passed the phone screen and I was moved to the next stage “on site”. This is something similar an Assessment Centre run by banks. You spend the whole day at Google and you get between 3/4 interviews. In my case, I went through 4 interviews, 3 with Product Managers and 1 Technical.

Two assessed my “product” skills, one was “analytical” and the last one was purely technical. For the first three, the advice is to be crazy, understand Google, lead the conversation and show off as much as you can. As soon as they asked me the first question, I got the marker and told the guy I was going to the whiteboard. We also talked about strategy and the future, so an advice is to read TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Verge, on a daily basis and understand companies’ moves. You are not interested in what happens but why.

I just received an email by the recruiter who told me she would let me know next week, probably on wednesday. If I have passed this stage, I move to the next one, a 3 page essay to be written in 48hrs. I feel like I did good in the first three interviews and underperformed in the technical one, even though I should suppose to be a “Computer Scientist”.

This wasn’t an in-depth post about what really happened. The reason is because Google doesn’t let you tell everything publicly and also because I am not sure I passed this stage, so I’d rather focus on my own things, wait, reflect and let you know what is going to happen in the next few days.

If I go through this stage and the essay one, I’ll probably describe in detail everything and even blog during the summer; but it’s an hard guess and the APM program is probably the hardest program to get in. Keep in mind that for a Software Engineering Internship you just have to pass 2 interviews, I already went through 5. lol.

Stay Tuned!

I Think I am A YouTuber

Well, yes…I needed to find something to take my mind off things.

I was supposed to work on or, at least, think about my third year project; but I have decided to take a long summer holiday break to reflect on what I have done in the past 2 years. September will be the month to code and program 24/7 in order to deliver what I think might be an interesting product. Yes, I haven’t chosen my project within the list given from the staff, but I have made my own submission, because I thought I had an interesting idea.

I’ll try to cover its development as much as possible throughout this third year, which is my penultimate year at the University of Manchester. In the meantime, I am studying what YouTube is and can be. It’s interesting to see all the trends that this awesome platform covers and how people react to them. I thought writing was a noble thing and that’s why I have been trying to publish long essays on GreatPreneurs every single day to attract more people; but when you find out that the most watched YouTuber is Pewdiepie with 29M subscribers, you start thinking why he is so popular.

Does he make videos about his hot girlfriend?

Is he a football player who records everything he does in life?

Is he Dan Bilzerian?

Nope.

He simply uses a webcam to record his face while playing a game, so basically people watch his gameplay and the jokes he makes while playing. People might think he’s a loser and probably he’s a weirdo (as are many of us), but this guy is bringing home something between $1.5M – $15.3M a year, according to socialblade.

In a single month, he makes what we can hope to make in a lifetime, just by uploading four or five videos. He was one of the first and now there are thousands of people trying to achieve what he has achieved. Is this the right time to open a YouTube channel? No, we are already late. 2014 is too LATE! Why didn’t people tell me these things  6 years before?

We are late in the gaming trend, but if it’s a matter of comedy or pranks, no one is late. In the pranking channels, the guys who win are not the first who started, but those who make us laugh more. That’s why I have decided to open a channel (EdTV93), someone already had EdTV -.-‘. The idea is not to turn into a millionaire by making videos, (please make it happen!), but to get more comfortable in front of a camera.

I have noticed I am good at sitting behind a laptop and making my friends laugh when I speak Italian; so trying to be good at sitting in front of a camera while speaking English could be the next big challenge. Why? I am still not sure, but I believe in what Steve Jobs said, at some point, all the dots will be connected.

I am about to record my third and then fourth video and I think I’ll focus on my strongest point, the fact that I live in UK, but I am Italian, so talking about things I know, might be kind of interesting.

With this said, have a look at my channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

I Quit

Yes, I quit.

This is the sentence that I’d love to say in a few years, because the ability of quitting always leads to better and bigger things. However in the past months I have decided to quit something else, Great Preneurs. The online magazine, which has completely ruined part of my second year is about to close. I didn’t quit because I had to focus more on my studies, but because I have realised that doing things is much better than writing about what others are doing.

In a world full of opportunities such as this, there is no sense in sitting on the stands and watching the game. This is a once in a life time opportunity and I think it’s time to play the game and score. That’s why in the next months, I’ll focus on my third year project, which will be a location based social network. I still think there is some hope behind the interesting world of location, which hasn’t been able to form a decent startup in the last fifteen years.

In the same way, I have just launched my new YouTube Channel. I have made a video about Italian Gestures, because they are one of the things which I can relate the most. In the next few weeks, more videos will follow, with the hope to have thousands of subscribers. Yes, sometimes life is about trying to do things you would have never imagined to do.

I haven’t been able to update this blog that much because I was busy with the Great Preneurs Conference and then with the exams. I finished my second year with a poor 2.1, which hopefully will turn in a first next year. If you are reading this, you’ll probably hear more about me in the next few months, since I have got tons of spare time.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBD5RZjY-Nc]

Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE!

 

Gallipoli, Creamfields and 2nd Year Approaching

As soon as I have finished my activity at the Italian Low Chamber, I went to Gallipoli, in the South Of Italy, for a week. It was my first camping experience, in one of the best places of the South. A great location for relaxing and enjoying a wonderful sea, it has become the first destination for raving and partying. Although I didn’t go for clubbing much, I have enjoyed both sides of the city during the trip.

Afterwards I moved to Uk in order to be at Creamfields, one of the best festivals in Europe. This was an Experience, with a capital E.

I am now approaching the start of the second year without remembering anything of what I have studied in the last year. However I know it is going to be a great year, not for what I have planned to study, but for the things I have planned to do.

Regarding the studying, I am obliged to get a first in any case or my parents won’t pay for my living costs anymore. 🙂

I will keep you updated about the options I have chosen and the ones I have discarded.

Full Immersion Into Italian Politics

I thought it was going to be a nice and quiet summer, but in the end I worked ten times more than I was expecting. I didn’t plan anything for this summer, because I wanted to relax and enjoy my country for the first time after several years. However I got involved in the National Observatory for Gay Rights, driven by the Five Star Movement. What it was supposed to be just an easy task by managing their social accounts, it has become a full time experience.

Even though I am doing this as a volunteer, it is one of the best experience that I have ever had in the last twenty years. At this moment we are following a law in the low chamber (Camera Dei Deputati) against Omofobia; so we are working face to face with several members of parliament in order to have the best law.

My main aim is to manage the communication of the Observatory. I am becoming a true Social Media Manager and I guess that I could turn this into a job or a company at some point. Further we are working with the members of the Regional and City council, who have proposed several different laws for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) rights.

The Parliament closes on the 8th of August, so my job has almost finished; but it will come back at the beginning of September, when we will have to fight in the Senate (Senato) in order to emend the law against omofobia in the best way.

Although I am not Gay, I have found the excitement to fight for something that doesn’t belong to me, which is really good from a personal point of view, and at the same time I have discovered a new way of thinking, which was really unknown to me.

The Best Is Yet To Come

This is just a quick update. I have been working on my own startup for the last month, but the work hasn’t gone as fast as I wished. On the other hand I am trying to involve more people in what Great Preneurs is today and will be in the future. Further I am taking my political activism to the Zenit. I have been able to meet a lot of interesting people in the last two weeks and I hope this will keep happening.

I have recently turned 20, so I just have 10 years left to make something good for myself and society.

Guess who I have met in Rome?

ps: if you want to be part of something and write for greatpreneurs, email us at info at greatpreneurs.com

Two Weeks Left

Quick Update: I am currently in the exams period and I can easily say that I have performed well in the first three exams: Java, Math and Computation. I just need to do two other exams and then I am out of this country. I will leave in two weeks time. This is what is waiting for me:

Yes, I live in Rome.

ps: If you have any questions about the exams, just leave a comment below.

Italian Politics What A Great Mess

When you are miles away from your native country, it becomes weird to look back and see that your country is screwed. You feel powerless when you see what it is going on from a political and economic point of view. You can not do anything, you can not join the people who are protesting for freedom and a better country, you can not support the people who are trying to make things better for everyone.

You can just watch and comment.

That’s what most of the people think, but it’s not like that. When you live in a different country you can look at Italy from a different point of view, you can analyze its problems and find ways of fixing them. Further with the use of the internet you can coordinate thousands of people, just with one click. At the same time, reading Italian newspapers has never been so easy as it is today.

You can still contact your local Italian political activists in the place you live or everywhere in Europe and you can keep you active on every side. There is still another politics that you can run from England, which is the one that affects the Italians who are living in other countries; because when we have elections, there are also seats reserved to Italians who live in the four main regions of the world: Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Further with the use of social media, in my case, Facebook and Twitter, you can run your own campaigns about the problems you care about and people listen to you! The power that the internet has given us is so immense and even if we are thousands of miles away we feel at home.