Friday was the last day of my internship at Google. I had a farewell lunch at Cafe 150 that morning with my team, wrapped up all the last bits of work in the afternoon, and went for my exit meeting in the evening, where I received my last paycheck and a nice sweatshirt as a parting gift.

As I was traveling back to LA this morning, I just recalled what an awesome experience it was during the last three months. The project that I got a chance to work on was interesting and significant to the company, the people were great, and the Googleplex has one of the coolest work environments I've seen in the industry. Having the Google infrastructure at your disposal is also exciting stuff, because you get a chance to learn so much, and use tools that you would never have heard of as an outsider.

I remember having internship offers from a couple of other companies last Spring, and while I was in the process of making a decision, one of the questions running through my mind was - what really is it that makes Google so appealing to people in this industry? I was curious to find out. Now I know. It's all those little things combined. I had heard and read lots of good things, but experiencing it for yourself is something else. If I had to do this over again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'm going to miss the place...