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UNO Student Spends His Summer With Google

Josiah Krutz didn’t really plan on interning at Google, but that’s what ended up happening.

A pair of UNO alumni and Google employees (Adam Anderson and Tory Cullen, who graduated in 2012) came back to campus to conduct mock interviews for students in the College of Information Science and Technology (IS&T). When they saw Krutz taking the most initiative out of a group of students, they recommended him for an internship.

Fast forward a few weeks and Krutz, a senior computer science major and student in the Honors Program, was in the Bay Area at the Google Mountain View office.

For the next 13 weeks Krutz, whose title at Google was Software Engineer Intern, wrote algorithms and supporting code for optimization systems. He says his work should save the tool about one-third of the computing resources. Not bad for an intern.

Working at Google also comes with a very unique set of perks.

Krutz got his own computer “with a ton of RAM,” employees enjoy free lunches, and there are all sorts of social events (think carnivals and cruises on the bay) planned.

However, what stood out to Krutz was something more intangible.

“It’s the autonomy,” he said. “(Google) has the resources to give their employees what they need. It’s not like you are forced into doing something a certain way.

“You are given the resources and are free to do the work how you want. Google cares more about working smart than working hard.”

You are given the resources and are free to do the work how you want. Google cares more about working smart rather than working hard.

 Josiah Krutz

Krutz hopes to return to Google next summer. His main area of interest he wants to work on is accessibility, or making technology more available to those with physical disabilities.

“If you’re blind its harder to see a screen, if you can’t use your hands, maybe you can get a keyless keyboard, or voice recognition software. So there are ways we can overcome these things.”

Despite being talented in his own right, Krutz still credits his school for providing him with the opportunity. His cryptography and data structures courses, as well as an internship through the IS&T Career Fair, were particularly helpful.

“The way I got to Google, UNO played a significant part,” he said. “It got me a foot in the door.”

If there are other Mavericks that aspire to intern at a tech giant, Krutz has some advice: “Don’t lump all the big tech companies together. Figure out what the culture is like and see if that is a good fit for you.”