Meredith Whittaker

And I was like, hey, Michelangelo, can you get me an invite so I can make a Gmail address so I can appeal to this recruiter? And now my spam-filled Gmail address dates from that moment. So I was hired as something called a customer operations associate. And I didn't know what that was. No one knows what that is. It's just a bunch of words. But it sounded I was like, that's a business job.

And I was like, hey, Michelangelo, can you get me an invite so I can make a Gmail address so I can appeal to this recruiter? And now my spam-filled Gmail address dates from that moment. So I was hired as something called a customer operations associate. And I didn't know what that was. No one knows what that is. It's just a bunch of words. But it sounded I was like, that's a business job.

It sounds like a business title. I had no idea. It was a basically a customer support person who wrote technical documentation, who are kind of user documentation, some technical documentation and answered questions. inquiries about Google's free products. And I was doing that for rightly, which was an acquisition that Google made that then they rebuilt to become Google Docs.

It sounds like a business title. I had no idea. It was a basically a customer support person who wrote technical documentation, who are kind of user documentation, some technical documentation and answered questions. inquiries about Google's free products. And I was doing that for rightly, which was an acquisition that Google made that then they rebuilt to become Google Docs.

It sounds like a business title. I had no idea. It was a basically a customer support person who wrote technical documentation, who are kind of user documentation, some technical documentation and answered questions. inquiries about Google's free products. And I was doing that for rightly, which was an acquisition that Google made that then they rebuilt to become Google Docs.

And this is at a time when the entire The business of Google was just search. So search was all on the main campus. It was where the money came from. And then there was this dinky little building where everything else, like Gmail, Blogger, Rightly, whatever, Reader, all of them sat and they were kind of experimental projects. And that was called apps.

And this is at a time when the entire The business of Google was just search. So search was all on the main campus. It was where the money came from. And then there was this dinky little building where everything else, like Gmail, Blogger, Rightly, whatever, Reader, all of them sat and they were kind of experimental projects. And that was called apps.

And this is at a time when the entire The business of Google was just search. So search was all on the main campus. It was where the money came from. And then there was this dinky little building where everything else, like Gmail, Blogger, Rightly, whatever, Reader, all of them sat and they were kind of experimental projects. And that was called apps.

uh did you ever have exposure to actual customers or did you just write documentation i well they would email in like i only did this for a second because i kind of figured out i wanted to do other things and that's part of the story um there's a part of the story actually so i i did answer like

uh did you ever have exposure to actual customers or did you just write documentation i well they would email in like i only did this for a second because i kind of figured out i wanted to do other things and that's part of the story um there's a part of the story actually so i i did answer like

uh did you ever have exposure to actual customers or did you just write documentation i well they would email in like i only did this for a second because i kind of figured out i wanted to do other things and that's part of the story um there's a part of the story actually so i i did answer like

inquiries sometimes and there were like auto responses like hot keys you'd use and this like really janky ticketing system and this is back like we didn't have laptops there was no such thing as a smartphone like our desktops were chained to the desk and when you went home you went home and if you needed to do something now you had to check out this like clunky Lenovo or something I don't remember exactly but it was you know I remember I was like okay I get rewarded in my job based on how many tickets I close and

inquiries sometimes and there were like auto responses like hot keys you'd use and this like really janky ticketing system and this is back like we didn't have laptops there was no such thing as a smartphone like our desktops were chained to the desk and when you went home you went home and if you needed to do something now you had to check out this like clunky Lenovo or something I don't remember exactly but it was you know I remember I was like okay I get rewarded in my job based on how many tickets I close and

inquiries sometimes and there were like auto responses like hot keys you'd use and this like really janky ticketing system and this is back like we didn't have laptops there was no such thing as a smartphone like our desktops were chained to the desk and when you went home you went home and if you needed to do something now you had to check out this like clunky Lenovo or something I don't remember exactly but it was you know I remember I was like okay I get rewarded in my job based on how many tickets I close and

But I don't know the engineers who have to close these tickets because I'm reporting bugs. Right. And I need them to fix the bugs I'm reporting. And if they don't fix the bugs and I'm not getting reward. And I was like, this is really silly. So I went over to the apps building because I was sitting in another building and I like met the engineering team. I was like, hey.

But I don't know the engineers who have to close these tickets because I'm reporting bugs. Right. And I need them to fix the bugs I'm reporting. And if they don't fix the bugs and I'm not getting reward. And I was like, this is really silly. So I went over to the apps building because I was sitting in another building and I like met the engineering team. I was like, hey.

But I don't know the engineers who have to close these tickets because I'm reporting bugs. Right. And I need them to fix the bugs I'm reporting. And if they don't fix the bugs and I'm not getting reward. And I was like, this is really silly. So I went over to the apps building because I was sitting in another building and I like met the engineering team. I was like, hey.

I'm that person who keeps sending you these emails that are annoying you. And I was able to convince one of them to go out to Costco, which is this big warehouse store, kind of a Walmart-y store in the US, and put a giant couch on his personal credit card and bring it into the apps building so I could sit with them.

I'm that person who keeps sending you these emails that are annoying you. And I was able to convince one of them to go out to Costco, which is this big warehouse store, kind of a Walmart-y store in the US, and put a giant couch on his personal credit card and bring it into the apps building so I could sit with them.

I'm that person who keeps sending you these emails that are annoying you. And I was able to convince one of them to go out to Costco, which is this big warehouse store, kind of a Walmart-y store in the US, and put a giant couch on his personal credit card and bring it into the apps building so I could sit with them.