Alumni / Fall 2016

Alumnus and Google employee shares his experience with other Pioneers

Alumnus Sam Estenson works for Google as an operations coordinator on a global team that manages the company’s hiring systems and processes. Photo courtesy of Sam Estenson

Sam Estenson made his mark at DU, serving as president of Undergraduate Student Government, helping coordinate the 2012 presidential debate on campus and traveling to six countries on a Partners in Scholarship research grant. Estenson (BA ’13) also designed his own major at DU — intercultuaral globalization and foreign languages, which combined his interest in Spanish, German and Japanese languages with communications, economics, international studies and geography.

After graduation, Estenson’s unique course of study led him to Germany, where he took part in a 12-month U.S. State Department fellowship to study and work in international management, e-commerce and global leadership consulting. His next step? Going to work for Google, where he started in December 2015 as an operations coordinator on a global team that manages the company’s hiring systems and processes.

“Google now is incredibly international, and the team I run deals with how we find, interview, evaluate and onboard talent globally,” he says. “We have three hubs — San Francisco, where I’m located, Singapore and Dublin — and I’m constantly communicating with everyone there. My team is very passionate about the work we do because we see firsthand the experience of being offered the job at Google. We witness the cover letters going out, we witness the calls being made, and there’s so much excitement when you can tell a candidate, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been offered a job at Google.’”

Estenson hopes to share that excitement with some of his fellow Pioneers in the near future. In spring 2016 he reached out to DU’s new Global Networks team — which combines the offices formerly known as alumni relations and career services — to set up a video chat with current students interested in working at Google or other tech companies.

“I realized that I was helping coordinate so much of the process of how we find talent, and I had some real hands-on insight for current students and folks who are looking either for an internship or a full-time opportunity,” he says. “Maintaining a strong community, both professionally and in terms of Pioneers offering opportunities to other Pioneers — that’s how we will maintain a legacy of support as a University.”

 

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