Here's what it's really like interning at Google (GOOG, GOOGL)

While most major tech companies these days close out the summer by waving goodbye to another batch of interns, no program has enjoyed the limelight more than Google's.

The search giant set the standard for the kinds of employee perks that have spread through Silicon Valley and its intern experience even got the Hollywood treatment in the rollicking 2013 blockbuster "The Internship."

But what's it really like being a Google intern? 

A few current and former dished on their experiences:

Here's how you get the gig:

Most of the Alphabet companies offer internships for students, but the largest number of opportunities are with teams across Google. All you have to do is fill in an application online. 

"I applied on a complete whim — when my friend told me to do it I laughed because I thought there was no way they'd accept me," one rising sophomore who recently completed a summer internship told us. "But they did." 

Applicants get graded on their general cognitive ability, role-related knowledge (hence coding tests for engineers or questions related to Google's ad operations for people on the business side), level of leadership, and "Googleyness." 

That isn't to say that a blind application is the only way to get in.

Another summer intern we talked to, Emily Wicki, explained how she cold-emailed a Googler employee whose business card she'd gotten through a career fair. She was very interested in digital forensics and eventually ended up keeping in touch with a different Googler long enough that she felt pretty confident that she'd already sealed herself a spot before even filling out an official application. She ended up working as a software engineer on the incidents response team. 

If you're accepted, prepare for a cushy salary, lavish perks, and a whole lot of fun.

Google doesn't offer the highest of Silicon Valley intern paychecks, but the monthly salary is still crazy-steep, and comes with perks like free food and intern excursions. One highlight we heard about several times was when Google rented out a theme park for an entire day for all its interns. 

Google pays engineering students a median $6,666 per month (that would multiply out to $80,000 a year), along with a median $9,000 stipend, according to two interns we talked to. Non-engineering interns may make slightly less. That lines up to what's on salary website Glassdoor.

(For comparison, Facebook gives its employees free housing and salaries can hit $8,400 a month.)