Google’s CIO on how NYC compares to Silicon Valley
It’s no surprise that Google is expanding, and one place where they are growing is New York City. The company’s offices, which are located in the downtown Meat Packing neighborhood, feel part warehouse, part office building, and part elementary school.
Chief Information Officer Ben Fried joined Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson for a tour of Google’s East Coast headquarters and to discuss how its culture differs from Silicon Valley.
On the competition for talent:
Fried: “The quest for technology talent is really a global one. Great engineers, great product managers, great technologists, great sales people, are in short supply. And creating a workplace that’s appealing to them is really important.”
On the difference between a career in finance and tech:
Fried: “There are a number of differences that I think are all worth calling out. They largely start with the idea that Google is designed to become a product engineering company. And that dedication to building great products and doing great engineering, it drives so many other elements of the culture, wanting to be a place that inspires needs, develops great engineers. Morgan Stanley and finance were great places where computer science was incredibly important, but they weren’t the business of the company.”
On New York versus Silicon Valley:
Fried: “New York is an interesting place because there are so many industries that are so big here, and technology has a role influencing all of them. I’d like to see New York develop as a city with a technology industry that can harmonize with the other industries that are successful here and at the same time have all this great product.”
Click on the audio player above to hear more about Google’s New York offices.
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