Tech Like Us: The Jimenez Story Part 2
The California Gold Rush
During the mid 1800s, a wave of Americans risked everything in search for precious gold and to make a name for themselves. Like those Americans, I rushed (by plane instead of horse or train) to hunt for wealth and to become a great software engineer. This is a quick overview of my first year alone in California.
Becoming An Adult In A Month
During the first month, I was to find an apartment, feed myself, set up PG&E (energy & gas), and gather my basic needs. My first challenge: become an adult, alone. To put the situation into perspective, I recently graduated and didn’t have any money saved for moving out. In fact, I was not expecting to move from out of state. The original plan was to live at home with my parents, while I worked in New York City. After accepting a job offer from TuneIn, I was granted a generous relocation package that was just enough for a month.
Home Sick
Walking at night, from downtown Redwood City to my apartment, hidden emotions were always triggered. At every block, there was a household where I could hear laughter, smell steak on the grill, or even see children running around. The ability to cope with loneliness was my second challenge.
I always missed my family, friends, and my girlfriend. The only way to beat it was to keep my mind busy. So I found different ways to keep me busy and stay connected with my family and friends. Facebook Messenger kept me up to date and connected with my friends. In order to keep in touch with my family, I had to get into the habit of calling during the week. My weekends were dedicated to road cycling and riding my fixed-gear bike.
Another way I went about dealing with being home sick was going back home. During the first year, I went back home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Mother’s Day. After a while, traveling back home began to feel less of a vacation and more of just being back. This made me realize that I didn’t really miss home. Instead I missed the experiences that I had with my family and friends.
The Homies
As a an extrovert, I needed to build a new crew. Creating a new network of friends takes time and patience. If you find yourself trying to create new friends, do not rush it. Rushing friendship will come off to others that you may be needy, crazy, or even desperate. My third challenge: making friends.
Friends don’t fall out of the sky. You have to look for them! The good thing is that you are not alone, there are plenty of people in the same or similar situation. Some outlets where I have met my friends are at work, meetups, conferences, parties, and through other friends.
Guap Management 101
Save, invest, and forget about those uptowns (Nike Air Force 1s) you wanted to buy. Entry level software engineers are paid well here in Silicon Valley. Depending on how much your rent is, each month an engineer could have a good amount of pay left over. Challenge number four: money management.
Learning about how to invest in a 401k is confusing and a bit stressful at first glance. Figuring out how much money to stash into a savings account can be overwhelming. Deciding to put money into long term stock options is a mental trip itself. However, these are important decisions that can better prepare you in the long run. My first goal was to pay off credit card purchases and create an emergency net. At the same time, I made sure that I was contributing to a 401k plan while I had a job. After I completed my first goal, I then began saving a piece of my paycheck into a savings account.
Staying Hungry
Just having a job as a software engineer didn’t satisfy my hunger. If anything, being in Silicon Valley grew my hunger to become a better engineer. It feels as if everyone you run into either works for a tech company, has worked for a tech company, or knows someone that works in a tech company.
Here in the Bay Area, there are plenty of hackathons and meetups. You will learn from the events you go to and from others that are also attending the event. My first hackathon was at the Wix.com office in San Francisco. At the overnight hackathon, I arrived alone and left with a full wolf pack. I built my own team by convincing others that my idea was worthwhile. I learned a good amount about Wix’s developer tools, and I also learned about the Firebase (a real time database library).
Meetups are hosted by different tech companies and by engineers ranging from different skills. Usually, serving pizza and beverages, you get to surround yourself with like minded individuals looking to learn and broaden their knowledge about new technology and overcoming hard problems.
Closing Remarks
Those are my tips for surviving the first year in California and staying on track to find that lump of gold. I hope that from reading this you are able to either connect with my experience or have gained some type of awareness of what it is like to be on your own and reaching for your goals.
Next on my agenda is to convince my long distance girlfriend to move in with me and join me on this West Coast adventure. Wish me luck!
