“My Class XII score was not enough to get me admission in SRCC,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai on being asked about his academics, during an interactive session at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) in Delhi University on Thursday.
Mr.Pichai, who was attending an interactive session #AskSundar with students from various schools and colleges of Delhi University, revealed his candid side. He answered various questions asked by students. From things like what he would have been if not the Google CEO and what kind of work place Google is, to when he bought his first smartphone, he answered it all.
“Google is a really fun place to work. When you are walking in the office, you see everyone is doing something interesting. When I walked into the Google office for the first time, I was like a kid in a candy store,” Mr. Pichai said.
Apart from talking about Google and the company’s expansion plans in India, he also encouraged students to take risks in life. When a student asked him how he felt when he started working in Google and everyone else around him was more experienced, he said: “It is always good to work with people who make you feel insecure about yourself. That way, you will constantly keep pushing your limits,” said the 43-year-old tech executive.
The India-born executive, who took over as the head of one of the world’s largest tech companies in August, also emphasised the need to encourage creativity and experiential learning as part of the Indian education system.
“I think the Indian education should allow a system of creativity, project-based, experiential learning. We should teach students to take risks and not penalise them,” he told an audience of over 1,800 people.
A candid rapid-fire session with star commentator Harsha Bhogle followed the #AskSundar session during which Mr. Pichai told the audience that he bought his first smartphone in the year 2006 and he now owns about 20-30 of them.
The event that was organised in SRCC in association with Google saw a huge response from students who gathered from around 10 schools in the Capital and some DU colleges, including the technical colleges.
A visibly excited school student who came for the event said: “It was enthralling experience to meet Sundar Pichai. In the entire session what I loved most was the rapid fire session where he answered some personal questions.”
