Year Up Bay Area Visits LinkedIn for InDay
By Glenn De Luna, Year Up Bay Area Student
Today was finally the day for our site wide trip to Linkedin for InDay — 80 students would visit the LinkedIn headquarters in Sunnyvale and 120 students would visit the LinkedIn office in San Francisco. As I prepared for the Sunnyvale visit, I could tell my fellow colleagues were anxious with excitement. We were dressed even more sharply than usual with Nima as a prime candidate, showing up in the freshest three-piece suit I have seen in a long time. Soon we heard the buses arrive and we headed straight over. Good vibes and excitement filled the bus as everyone got seated for the short trip from San Jose to Sunnyvale.
When we arrived to LinkedIn, we were greeted with smiles and the warmest of welcomes. Outside it seemed like a pretty normal office, but as we entered, we were amazed by the vibrant colors, the cool badges everyone wore, the wonderful smell coming from the kitchen near the entrance, and the overall joyous energy of the company. I stood in line eager to check in and see more of what this place had to offer. We even got complimentary LinkedIn swag — tote bags, notebooks, and pens! Next up for me was the opportunity to take a professional LinkedIn profile picture and as I walked down the hallway to take mine, a surreal feeling started to hit me, I wondered to myself, “How did I even get here and how did I get a chance to experience an event like this?”
Next, we all walked into a gigantic seminar room, I could only imagine the important meetings and decisions that get made there. It felt like I was going to see a TED Talks presentation because of the sheer professionalism of the room. There was a camera guy taking pictures of everything and from that point on, I knew it was official. LinkedIn presented an agenda for the day that started with scavenger hunt tour of the office, then a career panel, and lastly an opportunity to network over
Scavenger Hunt Tour of LinkedIn
For the scavenger hunt we split up in groups, like families of fish, circling around the campus trying to figure out where to go next. We eventually reached our destination, getting slightly distracted by all the cool things that surrounded us like the very blue bikes, and the smell of breakfast from the kitchen, oh it was a wonderful savory aroma.
We visited the game room and the first thing you see is an entire wall filled with LinkedIn branded ping pong paddles, naturally, we had to take our group picture there. On a bit of a time crunch, we explored as many rooms as possible including the awesome weight room where Angel Lopez quickly demonstrated his pull up capabilities and the Batman conference room.
It was awesome seeing the genuine joy in everyone’s faces, I think the design of the building made us feel comfortable and yet inspired for innovation and creativity. The dress code seemed casual compared to our group — we were the only ones wearing ties, but of course, we had to represent Year Up to a high standard. As the scavenger hunt ended, it was then time for the LinkedIn career panel with all of us eager to gain insight especially on our track specialties.
LinkedIn Career Panel
Christian, Linda, Lakshmi, and Riley were the four very confident looking LinkedIn employees who sat in front of us for the career panel, proudly ready to our answer questions. As my Year Up colleagues asked questions one by one, I was specifically interested in gaining insight from Linda because of her experience as a data analyst. Thankfully, Gerald asked about her experience and as I scanned the crowd, each one of Data Analytics students were furiously taking notes as she spoke. She provided great tips about learning how to visualize data and striving to present data successfully even to a person not familiar with it. She also mentioned working with Tableau and LinkedIn related tools, which reminded me to practice more with Tableau and to update my Tableau public with more projects as well.
It was really great to hear from Christian who is an alum of the Year Up program, he was very proud of his background and where he is today. He encouraged us to not take this experience for granted, saying that not many people are able to get this level of training that leads to an internship like this. He stressed to give it your all, remember your “why”, and to strive for your own success and happiness. It was inspiring to hear his story because he was once in our shoes and to see someone who worked hard and is happy in his field is so amazing to see. This gave me more motivation to continue working even harder and achieve my goals.
Lunch & Networking
We ate within our scavenger hunt groups and a young man approached our table, sat down and introduced himself as Ricky, a system administrator at LinkedIn. He talked to us in a very conversational manner and told us his backstory and how he ended up at LinkedIn. He was originally in the biology field in Iowa and he realized it was something he didn’t want to do anymore, instead, he taught himself how to code. Ricky mentioned how it was a struggle while he was building these skills and he worked as a bartender just to pay for rent and make ends meet. Soon his hard work paid off and he was offered a LinkedIn contract position and he made the move to California. It was great hearing his story and it just goes to show that hard work does pay off and you get back what you put in. After connecting with him in person, I was also able to make the connection on LinkedIn.
As the day ended and we headed back to Year Up, I felt inspired and grateful to have has this opportunity to experience an event like this and to meet great people like Ricky and Linda. This visit was a great motivator and reminder for me to keep working hard, to remember why I started this journey in the first place, and to keep my eye on the goals that I have for my future.
