Free Meals Or Flexibility? My First Impressions Working In Tech As An International Student
Growing up in Taiwan, I heard many family members and relatives talk about sending their children to the United States to receive a better education. In fact, if you ask Taiwanese what they think of working in the United States, most would answer that America is a “paradise for startup companies.”
I recently traveled to California for the first time and had the chance to visit the heart of the U.S. tech industry — Silicon Valley. I had a strong feeling that it was a place full of opportunities. Visiting the Googleplex didn’t disappoint. I learned that Google employees can take shuttles to and from work. They also have free meals, laundry facilities, and a gym, which all made it seem to me like one of the best places to work in the world. One interesting thing that I realized while touring Google is that the company does what most startups are also doing — being creative.
Creativity is a key element in a startup. That is, you have to have ideas. Ideas are everything. Last semester, I took New Product Development, a course about coming up with a digital product and creating a business model for it. I learned about market research, competitive analyses, how to build a prototype, pitch deck, and a business plan for a new digital product.
From my perspective, it would be exciting to work at a startup because it is like a “future giant tech company.” As everyone knows, the industry’s biggest brands, like Apple, Facebook and Google, originally started as small companies. These companies have proved that, if a startup has a good business plan, funding, and a great team, it can achieve unbelievable things.
As an international student studying journalism at Syracuse University, I had the chance to work with PowerToFly through Newhouse Alumni Partnership Program for a week in January. PowerToFly is a startup, founded by Katharine Zaleski and Milena Berry, in 2014. The company’s goal is to match women to top tech jobs, no matter where they’re based globally. By helping companies to hire and retain more women, PowerToFly brings real solutions to solving the tech industry’s gender gap.
I like how PowerToFly sets its mission: connecting accomplished female talent with companies that recognize how diversity and flexible work fuel innovation. There is no other company like PowerToFly. Their unique goal helps give women more access to the technology field.
PowerToFly adds to their uniqueness by not having a physical office. Employees can work from anywhere, as long as they have Internet access. Working remotely is really a good way to work. As a matter of fact, the first day I talked to my editor, Marie Elizabeth, via Skype and I felt like I was talking to her in person. Remote working not only eliminates a long commute but also helped me become more productive, as I had fewer distractions. Plus, remote working helps fulfill a greater mission — allowing women in technology to work from anywhere, which gives them more opportunities to stay in the workforce.
Although I was only with the PowerToFly team for a week, there are several things that I had not expected before actually working with a startup. I learned a lot from doing research on how tech companies and startups deal with issues around gender diversity. I even had the chance to interview a representative from HackerRank and write an article about it. I gained valuable experiences by working with PowerToFly and saw how a remote startup can work efficiently. I had group meetings with my team using tools like Skype and GoToMeeting and worked on documents, which we edited together in Google Docs. I never imagined that I could be as productive as I was while working remotely. Although I can’t deny the allure of working at a company like Google, working with PowerToFly made me realize that flexibility and diversity are just important as free meals and laundry.
