A 6-month ride with a Silicon Valley Giant
I am not much of a blogger, but recent events have inspired some creativity within me. The last six months of my professional life have been a blast, quite the opposite of a menial 9 to 5 job. It is a testament to the fact that if you enjoy what you do, time flies. So, here, I am taking a moment to reflect upon the last six months and collect my thoughts about my journey.
A quick recap. I graduated with a Master’s degree in Computer Science in May 2019. Needless to say, by the end of it, I had become an expert at juggling multiple tasks, barely managing to complete any of them. My day consisted of some early morning leetcode(interview prep), projects, more leetcode, classes, some Instagram (a lot actually), some soccer and obviously, more leetcode before going to bed. This lifestyle, in itself, was a big step up from my earlier self; who basically juggled between eating, partying and sleeping. Perhaps, that’s a story for another time.
Soon enough, I started to see my efforts pay off when I started getting job offers. Uber was one of the few companies that saw some value in bringing me on-board and offered me a job as a Software Engineer. Surely, I spent some time deciding which company would fit my career goals the best. It was a no-brainer though because Uber was located in San Francisco and was the only company that offered free food. It fit into the Silicon Valley dream template like a jigsaw.
Jokes aside, I can’t stress enough about how lucky I feel to be part of this incredible company. I work in the Nemo (New Mobility) org which deals with Jump Bikes and scooters. We aspire to disrupt the ecological micro-mobility space (sub 3 mile travel) and we are already changing the way cities travel. Since Jump launched in Paris, the government has changed regulations and city infrastructure to accommodate this huge explosion in social bicycles. This sense of disruptive innovation is deeply ingrained within each person at Nemo. The drive and commitment that every single contributor shows towards creating global impact are unparalleled and truly inspiring. Such an attitude is way more contagious than coronavirus, less fatal hopefully. I was caught into it from day 1.
My team offers an amazing confluence of an innovative startup and an established tech company. On one hand, the crazy pace at which development happens and the interesting problems that we get to solve on a daily basis feeds our excitement and motivation. On the other, we enjoy the stability, infrastructure, tools and the capital to drive our projects towards success on a global scale. All in all, can’t complain.
Now that I’ve flattered my work-life enough, let’s take a look at what my experience till now has taught me. It goes without saying that I am still very early in my career and I have a long way to go. So, I don’t mean to preach anything, but just showcase my observations so that someone who is starting their career in tech can get some value out of them.
1. Learning ability > Knowledge
As far as I know, 90% of tech companies use internal tools and systems which a new employee can’t possibly know before joining a company. I learnt from my time at Uber that my technical learnings at school weren’t as important as my curiosity. The ability to pick up stuff quickly is way more valuable than knowing stuff. That validates one more belief of mine–you don’t need to know anything, as long as you can learn it quickly enough.
I’ve observed that most software tasks involve 3 steps:
a. Research/Learning
b. Design/Thought
c. Implementation
Surprisingly enough, the first two steps take 80% of the time. It is obvious that if we can optimize this time, it could do wonders for our productivity. A good engineer is one who does more stuff in less time. Engineering efficiency can, quite directly, be linked to the success of the business. There are times where one might not understand stuff. But there is one agent who’s always at your disposal. Google! If you look through the internet hard enough, you might even find god. So true genius lies in finding stuff quickly.
Besides, the prevalent technologies in the market keep changing faster than Tesla’s stock price. A technology that’s used everywhere right now might become obsolete at the first sign of something more efficient. It is hence, in an engineer’s best interests to be adaptable.
2. Challenge = Opportunity
The main recipe for career growth is a positive attitude. There will always be bundles of tricky problems, clashes of opinions, long helpless nights and moments where you’d question yourself. The trick to surviving and hence, enjoying these moments is to look at them as an opportunity to learn and grow. You may struggle, but you should never let yourself be defeated.
It might sound like a motivational speaker rambling on clichéd sayings, but I’ve actually observed this change in perspective do wonders for me. One trick you could follow is to treat your tasks as a game and challenge yourself to do better. You either win, or you learn.
3. Good team + manager > Company brand
I’ve seen a bunch of friends working at great companies complain about their managers and switch teams if they don’t like the team culture. 80% of your time at work would be around your teammates, 80% of your interaction with the company and other teams would be through your manager. Your team could make or break the quality of your experience at work. Evaluating the team evidently seems more important than the company name or compensation.
4. Work-life blending > work-life balance
Work-life balance is one more thing I’ve observed people complain about. In my opinion, working in a bay area tech company is actually pretty relaxed. Most companies offer flexible hours, work from home policies, unlimited paid time off, etc.
Working 40 hours a week actually gives ample free time for “life”. People still feel entitled to a better work-life balance and feel stressed if they need to put in some extra time and effort once in a while. I believe that initially in your career, willingness to put in more effort and time actually pays off later. It speeds up your learning ability, helps get more work done and you can achieve more than what is expected of you.
Obviously, it isn’t a piece of cake. The trick here is to find a Flow state–a state of optimal consciousness, where you achieve maximum motivation, concentration and enthusiasm. This can be experienced when your work aligns with your interest and offers a perfect level of complexity-not too complicated, which could stress you out or too easy, which could get you bored. It is a beautiful experience, and everyone should seek it.
5. Underrated choices
a. Food at work
Having food at your workplace is an absolute blessing. It saves a hell lot of time and effort (mental + physical). Through the week, I do not need to browse through places, options or worry about the cost. Grocery shopping is a rare chore and cooking becomes a hobby and not a daily job. This plays a part in giving me more free time at and outside of work. Also, my mind can fully focus on the work instead of making dinner arrangements.
b. Office proximity
I can’t stress enough how life-changing it is to live close to work. I literally wake up at 9.15 am and I am in the office before 10 AM. It is just a 10 min bike ride (0.9 miles). No need to plan my trip, do multiple jumps between public transport and Ubers like a few of my colleagues do. No need to get stuck in traffic and lose your mind before the first meeting of the day. Additionally, the ability to stay late in office without any dependency. It adds an entire layer of flexibility and gives you so much more time every day.
c. Dog-friendly Office
Well, I think the picture says it all.
6. Have Faith
Grad school in itself is quite hard. Shove in rigorous job search on an immigrant visa, it turns into a nightmare. Imposter syndrome is real! In my case, most peers in my University were from esteemed undergrad backgrounds with multiple years of industry experience. On the other hand, I had no work experience and an ordinary undergrad degree, the relevance of which is questionable. It was easy to feel inferior, but hard to accept it.
There’s literally no alternative to working hard and keeping a positive mindset. A similar feeling presented itself when I joined Uber. I literally felt under-qualified, not educationally, but in terms of being smart. People were working passionately on cutting edge tech, discussing mind-bending ideas, whilst I was struggling to do basic setup. This was the first time I felt that all others in the room were way smarter than me. I’m sure everyone has felt that at least once in their professional career.
I saw three rounds of layoffs in my first month, multiple push backs and outages that were caused because of some bug in my code and many more things that would easily shake a person’s confidence. But pushing through these things and having faith in myself helped overcome these issues and come out stronger.
The same things that haunted me in my first few weeks at work feel like a cakewalk now. I feel much more in control, now that I’ve spent a significant amount of time training myself technically and mentally. I lead an entire end-to-end product now, with worldwide users and stakeholders. I help onboard new employees and impart my learnings to them. I saw a real difference when I started answering more questions about the product and tech, than asking. Besides, I’m part of the Uber-Nemo soccer team. Basically, I love how things are going for me, couldn’t ask for anything more. And quite frankly, if I can make it, so can you!