Google’s Eric Schmidt gives exclusive look at NYC offices

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaJgw62intI]

Google’s Eric Schmidt was recently featured in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett giving a rare behind-the-scenes look at Google’s second largest World offices in downtown Manhattan. While giving a tour and an exclusive interview, Schmidt explained that one of Google’s strengths is their “lack of direction.”

Schmidt also described the building that holds about 3,000 employees, and he said its staff is split “half and half” into sales/marketing and high quality engineering. He called the office the “world’s best engineering center.” Viewers got a glimpse at the desks of programmers, including some of the Google Docs team, cafeterias, hallways with fake subway grates, meat locker conference rooms, and “huddle rooms” designed to look like New York City apartments.

Viewers also learned some of Schmidt’s views on North Korea, and China’s “horrendous censorship laws”. When asked whether or not “the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs” would be born in China or the United States, Schmidt responded:

“I think that the next one of those people will be born in America, and will be a successful American entrepreneur. Because it’s not just the person, it’s the system that they’re part of… Of all the crazy rules in our government… we take the smartest people in the world, we bring them to America, we give them PHDs in technical sciences, and we kick them out to go found great companies outside of America. This is madness.”