4 min read
I finally got my project assignment today from my host and it's an interesting one. My task: whack-a-mole. Not like the game they used to have at the roller rink when I was a little kid, but the issue of finding "moles" or poor-performing tasks on machines in a cluster and "whacking" them by transferring them to another available machine in the cluster.
An adorable gif another intern sent in response to my project description
This has to do with scheduling and managing applications and making sure there is low latency and quick execution so jobs can complete quickly. It's a bit more detailed than that but not only do I not want to disclose much more information about it, but I still don't know all the nitty-gritty details myself since I was just assigned this today.
It's interesting because I already have some knowledge about clusters from my thesis but only about dispatching jobs to them and running/terminating my own jobs, not managing all the jobs and transferring them between the cluster nodes to improve performance. I'm excited to be learning 2 new languages to complete this project although all the interns I know seem to be using languages they're already proficient in.
I recall telling one Googler what team I'm on and he said that it would be difficult but that he had faith in me. The fact that I'm going at this project solo (although I do have the guidance of my project host) and using 2 new languages seems a bit daunting -- not to mention I have to worry about the conversion process at the end to be considered for a full-time position, but I've always liked a good challenge. "Well, we are at Google" the same guy said when I told him this.
One other thing my host brought up was my previous request to travel to Mountain View to go to the Google HQ -- Googleplex. He said he was going for 2 weeks and leaving this weekend but he invited me to go even though it was on very short notice. I excitedly agreed, stoked about the opportunity to finally leave the east coast for the first time in my life. After the meeting with my host I went back to my desk and tried to focus on studying.
After digging into some of tutorials about the technologies I'd be soon working with during the last hour of the work day, I went with a few other interns to Chelsea Market to look for yoga pants for a yoga class happening later that evening. Unfortunately we didn't find anything in our search, so instead we walked a few blocks to get cupcakes before heading to dinner at Hemispheres. We figured we can go some other time and maybe find suitable clothes before then.
I took pictures of Chelsea Market, but they didn't come out that great, so here's a photo from good old Google.
Later that evening, I spent literally hours trying to figure out travel plans for the next 2 weeks. Although I had plenty of helpful resources, it was nevertheless stressful trying to find a place to stay and flight on such short notice within the budget limit. My expenses are paid for within a limit but I had to figure them out for myself. As a result, I ended up staying until midnight at the office trying to figure out my trip.
In the end, I made plans to stay at one hotel for the weekdays of my first week in Silicon Valley only a couple miles from Googleplex. Then for the weekend, I was advised to go to San Francisco where there's much more to do than in Mountain View so I booked a luxury hotel in the middle of the city. Then, I planned to head back to Mountain View for the last week and stay in a different hotel. It's going to be hectic, but it should be an experience of a lifetime.
I didn't end up getting assigned a certain seat on the airplane I'm taking between JFK and SFO either way. As a result, I'm half expecting to get stuck between a screaming baby and a sweaty dude on at least a 6 hour flight. It'll all be worth it in the end to finally get to travel and see what the west coast is like. I'll have to take tons of pictures and be a mega tourist.
Until then, I need to study up on C++ and all of the cool technologies I'll be working with throughout my project.