Over fall break, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on an Explorations trip to DC provided by the Luther Hodges Scholars program. This experience included networking with tri-sector leaders, government officials, and alumni of the Luther Hodges program. Many parts of the trip were very insightful, from touring the capital to visiting museums in DC. One of the special opportunities we had was to visit the Google DC office to learn more about Google’s public sector practice and what role policy and government affairs plays in a tech firm.
Seeing how public policy interacted with Google was an eye opener for me that aligned two of my passions, technology and government. From the public sector practice, we were able to talk with three different professionals on their roles and responsibilities. I learned that working in policy at Google involved being a mediator between the internal innovation aspect of Google combined with the external regulatory aspect of laws and policies. Lots of market research is required, which is then followed by communicating that research to product development teams to ensure ethical product innovation and deployment. This can scale up to a global level, where it is important to understand how the variations and differences in policies and regulations from country to country have different implications for Google.
The biggest skills that were emphasized during this conversation were communication and empathy. At big companies, especially tech firms like Google, the product and innovation side may be isolated from the government side of things. Being the mediator that can bridge the gap in lack of understanding and trust between these two sectors therefore requires empathy and communication. The Luther Hodges Scholars program emphasized this as well with becoming a cross-sector leader that can understand the problems and context behind the private and public sectors, giving scholars the tools to be great communicators and empathizers.
Overall, the experience was incredibly insightful and I look forward to discovering more career intersections with the program. Special thank you to Ashley Friedman at Google DC for providing us this impactful opportunity to learn and grow!
