Our people are about working in top companies in Silicon Valley

Russian-speaking specialists have taken a strong position in Silicon Valley. Google, Apple, Facebook, and hundreds of smaller companies speak Russian. “The Forum” collected five stories about how our people got to work in the most famous companies in Silicon Valley, what impressed them and why some of them did not stay there for a long time.

Google for a year

For many job seekers, working at Google is their ultimate dream. Maria Shulgina could not even think that she would be able to work there. Maria is originally from Novosibirsk; before coming to the USA, she lived in Canada for three years. Since 2011 - in America. The girl received a specialty in logistics and has ten years of experience in this field.

In the summer of 2014, Maria worked in food logistics at an American company and did not think about looking for a new job. But one day she received a call from a recruiting agency and was offered a vacancy in a new Google project. The girl became interested and was scheduled for an interview. However, at the last moment there was an overlay - at the same time she had to be at an important meeting at work. Maria asked to reschedule the interview until the morning. She still believes that it was because she was interviewed first among three other candidates that she was chosen.

“The interview lasted 45 minutes,” says Maria. — First, a girl talked to me a little, who, as it later turned out, turned out to be my colleague. She said she liked me and called my future manager. He had very little time, so he asked me to quickly write on the board the key indices by which I would evaluate the warehouse’s performance, and the formulas for calculating them. The interview was quite simple, but this was the first time I was asked to write formulas on the board.”

Maria Shulgina worked in Google year. Photos from the personal archive

After a couple of weeks, Maria entered the new position of project coordinator in the logistics division. She signed a contract for a year. Maria began to coordinate the work of warehouses and the organization of the transport of electronics for Google Play. She admits: out of work, the contract servicemen communicated more among themselves, and the permanent employees held on to each other more. But it had no effect on the working process, in the office no one paid attention to the form of employment.

Maria considers the company’s culture to be one of the main advantages of Google: “At Google you can work anywhere, anytime. No one tracks how much time you spend at your desk. The main thing is that the work gets done. Since we also worked for the Asian market, naturally, we had to adapt to their working hours, and this is not at all a standardized “nine to six” schedule. I had to work from home early in the morning and stay at work until night.”

Impressed Mary and the meeting. In the company they are trying to make the most effective. The meeting room needs to be booked for a certain time, after which you will be asked to vacate the room, because the next reservation begins. With this approach, employees plan their time better and become more specific in discussions. Generally, in all offices there are calls to be “googley”, that is, to think not only about yourself, but also about others. For example, in the halls of each building there are racks with umbrellas that can be taken to move from one campus to another in the rain, but it is assumed that an employee will leave him at the entrance to the office, and not take it for his sole use.

Maria as a contractor used many corporate benefits of Google: this is a cafe where all the employees have lunch and dinner, and a gym with trainers and group classes, and laundry facilities and, of course, Gbus is a bus that rides employees in the mornings and evenings. All these services are free for employees.

“I actively used the Google shuttle, it’s very convenient. They have wi-fi and folding tables, so you can start working on the bus without wasting time in traffic jams. And to travel between company campuses, you can use multi-colored corporate bicycles. This way you can move much faster than on foot, and you don’t have to look for a parking space, as is the case when using a car. Well, needless to say, this is much healthier?” Maria jokes.

According to her, there are much more pleasant bonuses for regular employees: free use of an electric car during the working day, English courses and other educational programs, various discount programs with partners (for example, when buying cars), participation in TGIF - a weekly “educational and entertainment” Google event, where representatives of different projects tell about the achieved results or made discoveries.

A year later, the contract in Google ended, and Maria found a job in another company. She gratefully recalls Google and the experience there that adorns her resume.

At the dawn of Facebook

It is now the Facebook company is considered a giant of the IT-sphere with more than nine thousand employees in the state, and the number of its users exceeds one and a half billion people per month. Nick Belogorsky worked on Facebook in 2010-2011 and found the time when the company employed about a thousand people, and the network had one hundred million users. Nick himself was born and raised in Ukraine, then graduated from a university in Canada, and has been living in Silicon Valley for ten years.

With the rapidly developing project, Nick brought a happy accident. At a security conference in San Francisco in 2010, he met with Facebook managers. They spotted a high-quality computer virus expert in Nick. A couple of months later they contacted him and offered him the position of the chief virus analyst in the security department, in which five people worked then. Nick was interviewed out of competition, interviews with him were informal, which in general is not typical for a company in which there is always very high competition for open positions. Nick was responsible for security on Facebook, was the main expert on viruses and helped law enforcement in combating cybercrime.

With a smile, Nick recalls the team he made: “I was the only Russian-speaking employee in my department. In general, the team gathered very young. At almost thirty, I felt like an old man, because the overwhelming majority of employees were at the age of 22-23 years. ”

Nick Belogorsky was responsible for Facebook safety for two years. Photos from the personal archive

Every week a hundred new employees poured into the company. And in the summer, with the arrival of the next party of interns, the number of people generally doubled. People were ready to sit at work for days and showed simply unprecedented productivity.

“We felt special, chosen in a sense,” says Nick. “After all, we saw the influence of Facebook on the world and felt involved in it. I witnessed how people, thanks to the social network, begin to be closer to each other, how Facebook becomes the engine of democracy in some countries. Even then, no one had to explain where I worked and what kind of company it was. Everyone knew her.”

Nick participated in traditional Facebook hackathons - a kind of developer forums where any Facebook employee can join a team and, within one night, find a solution to a problem or come up with a new functionality for the social network. The next morning, Mark Zuckerberg selects the best solutions - they are finalized and implemented. It was thanks to hackathons that, for example, “Like” buttons, chats, videos, photos, tags and other network features appeared.

New employees were attracted to Facebook by a good salary and the opportunity to receive company shares. Nick admits that thanks to his work on Facebook, his financial situation has improved significantly. However, the competitive atmosphere prevailing in the company and the race for the result often led to a quick burnout of employees.

“I didn’t understand these youth and student things, when from ten in the morning to ten in the evening a person was incessantly programming something, with his head glued to the screen, and after that he played video games for half the night. How long can this last? - Nick is surprised. “It wasn’t close to me, and perhaps it seemed too much.” I had other interests.”

By the end of his second year at the company, Nick realized that he was getting bored: the viruses had been caught, the hackers had been neutralized, the security system was stable. He left Facebook and co-founded a new startup Cyphort, which is developing a new generation of antivirus with the algorithms to predict the future.

Nick Belogorsky was also actively involved in social activities - he organized Euromaidan in San Francisco and founded the non-profit organization Nova Ukraine. His team collected and donated more than $100 thousand to the needs of Ukraine.

The reverse side of Apple

Karina Zakharova arrived in the US from Russia 18 years ago. Having been educated as a marketer at the University of San Francisco, she worked in a specialty for a couple of years. Then went into a long decree. After the break, finding a well-paid job in the specialty of a marketer was not so easy. While still at university, Karina attended classes of software testers, so she decided to try herself in testing web and mobile projects. After a while, she was found by a recruiting company at one of the job search resources.

“I met with a recruiter over a cup of coffee, we had a nice chat, she asked a couple of questions, testing my knowledge in the field of software testing,” says Karina. “She liked everything and sent my resume to the Apple manager. A week later I was called for an interview. The interview was conducted by two people at once, and it lasted no more than an hour. They didn’t ask me to solve any problems, they asked mainly about my previous work experience, tested my ability to work in a team and resolve conflict situations. When I received the offer from Apple, I was over the moon! I will work in such a prestigious company!”

Karina signed a contract for a year. She became involved in ensuring the quality and accuracy of displaying the company's Internet resources for different countries. Pretty quickly, she realized that the corporate atmosphere of a large enterprise was not for her.

“After working at Apple for two weeks, I noticed that no one even gets to know us, that is, those who work under a contract,” Karina is surprised. — Apparently the company has such a high turnover that they don’t usually remember the names of “contract employees.” Then I took the initiative into my own hands and began to get to know my neighbors in the cube.”

However, the team spirit among the employees of the department Karina never saw. Most of her colleagues did not look for communication, even during lunch they tried to quickly run to the cafeteria, buy food and quickly return to the monitor. In addition, the relationship with the department manager was not very smooth:

“Sometimes employees of famous companies behave arrogantly. But I thought that this could only happen here, in the former republics of the Soviet Union. Much to my surprise, we had such a manager at Apple. And, to be honest, for the first time in eighteen years of living in America, I encountered people raising their voices at us,” shared Karina.

Unable to withstand such a working atmosphere, she retired from Apple, without waiting for the end of the contract. And she was pleased with her decision. Karina admits: at Apple, she felt impersonal working unit. Now she works in a small startup. According to Karina, the company is dynamic and lively, and the people in it are sociable and friendly, thanks to which the girl feels at ease.

Intel: from Russia to the USA

Julia Tell’s colleagues never tire of joking that with such a surname (consonant with the English tell - “to tell”) she was simply destined to work either at Intel or Dell. Nine years ago, Yulia began working in the Russian office of Intel, and still remains in the company, although now in California.

In the last year of university, Julia got a job as an intern in the Moscow branch of Intel. I changed several subdivisions and positions, advanced well up the career ladder. Then Julia's husband was invited to work at Apple in the United States. Julia tried to do everything to transfer to a temporary position in the Intel office in California.

“I didn’t have many ways to prove to the manager that I was worthy of this project - email and phone. In addition to me, ten other people from offices in the USA applied for this position, so I really had to be the best to be believed in me. I was very worried before the final presentation, which determined whether I would be accepted for the project or not. But everything went great!” - says Yulia.

Julia went to America. She had three months left to prove herself.

“When you work in Russia for a long time, you gradually acquire useful business connections, your colleagues know you, you have a reputation. Once in the USA, I was faced with the fact that they knew nothing about my merits, and everything that had been so diligently developed over the years remained there, in Moscow, and everything had to be built in a new way,” shares Yulia.

Now the girl works as a technical marketing engineer in the Intel software division - she prepares for conferences, meetings for developers, presentations for users, and also interacts with the company's partners.

According to Yulia, the company has a friendly atmosphere. The girl speaks warmly about her colleagues: “People here are very open and responsive when you ask them for help. Perhaps, it was in California that I understood the meaning of the phrase that asking for help is not weakness, but strength. Many of my colleagues motivate me to become better. If a person is ready to develop, then Intel is a good place for this.”

The company advocates a healthy lifestyle, so one of the pleasant bonuses for Yulia was a free large fitness center with group classes during the work day, as well as the opportunity to use the services of a personal trainer. In addition, Intel's “Great Place to Work” program is popular in, for example, private films, discounts on attractions, picnics, and so on.

Oculus Virtual Reality

Zarema Asanbekova from Kyrgyzstan has been living in the USA for three and a half years. Before joining Facebook, Oculus, she worked in the testing department of the Sony PlayStation online store. In May of this year, headhunters found her and offered a place in a company that develops virtual reality glasses. The girl at that time was just going on vacation, so she left her resume and flew to Mexico. She was called and invited for an interview right during the holidays.

“They found me sitting on the beach, basking in the sun. I urgently needed to go to the company’s office and talk with managers,” recalls Zarema. “I answered that I simply physically could not do this. I was then told that there were many candidates for the position and it would be closed by the time I returned from vacation. I didn’t even have time to get upset, I just thought that if this was fate, then a new job would definitely find me.”

Two weeks later they called her again and made her happy - there was a vacancy especially for her. The girl carefully prepared for the interview and thoroughly studied the information about the company. It turned out that it was not in vain: during the interview they asked her what she knew about Oculus products, and also tested her testing skills and ability to think logically. The girl was hired as a software quality analyst, signing a contract with her for a year. For five months now she has been working on testing and optimizing the “Virtual Reality” project, being responsible for the quality of the finished product.

Zarema calls his team cozy and sincerely considers him a second family:

“We are very friendly with each other. Approximately 70% of my colleagues are Russian-speaking, their age ranges from 20 to 60 years, so everyone in this “family” has their own special role. We go to lunch together, help each other, including on work issues. Thanks to such a warm atmosphere, I enjoy going to work.”

Zareme loves Oculus corporate culture. She admits that she always feels support from the management. The management is open to discussion and does everything so that the workers have comfortable working conditions.

Oculus provides three free meals a day, and the cuisine is very diverse: Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Chinese. Thematic parties are periodically organized for all company employees. Another nice bonus for those who work under a contract is a one-time payment of $4000 upon the birth of a child. For permanent employees these bonuses are even greater.

When asked how one sentence can be used to describe the company in which she works, Zarema replies: “The place where you are accepted as a person and where you can realize yourself.”

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