What's it like inside Google? Comedy 'The Internship' may give a peek

New York: Actor Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson star in a buddy comedy about two 40-something salesmen whose careers have been torpedoed by the digital age. They find their way into a coveted internship at Google, where they compete with a group of young, tech-savvy, whiz kids for a shot at employment in Mountain View.

The movie, written by Vaughn, is due out in June, and has Google as the third star. The producers have shot some of the movie on Google’s campus. You can expect a lot of Google Glass and self-driving car jokes.

“Owen (Wilson) and I lose our jobs and become interns at Google. We get free food, we get to play ping pong and take naps…We find a way to get into the intern program and try to get a job there. It’s fun to go back and do some R-rated comedies again,” Vaughn told The Huffington Post.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

For the second year in a row, Glassdoor, a social jobs and career community, ranked Google as the highest rated internship program in America. The average monthly base pay for interns at Google totals $5,787 but software engineering interns can make as much as $6,432 per month.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Google receives a million job applications a year. It’s estimated that only about 1 in 130 applications results in a job. How does Google separate the wheat from the chaff? Expect to be stumped by brain teasers at Google interviews. One intern was asked: How many ping pong balls can you fit in a school bus?

[caption id=“attachment_679456” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn star in the film.[/caption]

According to the Journal, Goldman Sachs interviewers ask candidates the firm’s stock price, while J.P. Morgan Chase asks the value of pi. Morgan Stanley asks interviewees to name a recent story they’ve read in the Financial Times - apparently, a lot can’t.

Although Google didn’t have any reported financial investment in the film, the company has capitalized in ways beyond lending its sprawling headquarters in Mountain View for some shots.

“Googlers Sergey Brin and Hugo Barra appear in the movie, Google+ Hangout and Google Play are being heavily used for marketing, and there’s already online chatter about how much the movie got right about life at Mountain View,” reported The Huffington Post.

“What makes this movie so marketable is its connection to Google, and people’s obsession with the search giant’s secrets. Chances are that this fictionalized (and comedic) take of what it’s like to be competing at Google won’t demonstrate any new revelations about how business is conducted there. It doesn’t matter, though. People will flock to theaters just for the backdrop,” it added.

Google has been keeping the pipeline of innovation going by tapping its employees and creating an atmosphere of creative ferment. The Internet search giant not only doled out free food and 1,00,000 hours of subsidized massages last year. This year there are three wellness centers and a seven-acre sports complex, which includes a roller hockey rink; courts for basketball, bocce, and shuffle ball; and horseshoe pits.

“Net Geners like how Google requires that you dedicate a portion of their work week to pet projects. That’s a fantastic way to spur innovation in the workplace,” Don Tapscott, author of “Grown up Digital,” told Firstpost.