>> My name is Jordan Pedrosa [assumed spelling]
and I am a senior program manager at Google working on education.
So basically it means we bring all of our products to market, to schools and universities
around the world that want to use things like Google Apps,
Chrome Books, Youtube, Android for education.
I love that it's very multidisciplinary.
I love bridging a gap between the technology and what's available but also making tangible
and relatable to all kinds of people and inspiring and empowering the education community
to realize new learning models and experiences for students with all these tools now.
>> Excellent.
>> Number one, mentors are really important.
When you're still young and figuring out things, it's helpful to have someone
who has a little bit more experience and can kind of, you know, signal milestones
or guideposts or goals for you that you wouldn't be able to identify on your own.
So that's number one.
Number two, I think making sure you have a really well-rounded skillset is
really important.
So, you know, if you notice you're kind of more about qualitative work, you know,
maybe you want to take a little bit more kind of quantitive courses to balance that out.
So that way you're just really prepared and kind of can, you know,
package yourself for whatever opportunities you're looking for next.
Google actually recruited me.
I sent out -- I think I completed an application back in senior year and didn't hear anything
for a while so didn't really pay much mind to it.
And then, about a year later while I was at Mathematica,
a recruiter from the education team reached out.
Well, rounding yourself out, you know, kind of taking stock of these are the skills I have,
this is where I'm really good, this is where I need some work, and identifying classes
and internships and projects where you can develop those skills.
And then I think this might sound a little cliche
but following your heart, too, is important.
And that's why I chose to study what I did.
You know, I think there's a lot of pressure out there to choose kind of more established,
stable fields and I respect that, that makes sense.
But the danger there is that if you're really not excited and passionate about something,
you're just not going to apply yourself as much and it'll be harder to fake as time goes on.