From the first person: Russian about how to survive in Silicon Valley

Фото: Depositphotos

Thebigplans.ru website published story Maxim Matuzov, who 6 years ago moved to San Francisco. The author spoke about his experience at Google and Apple and gave advice to those who want to work in Silicon Valley.

About moving

My move to the States happened in 2009 when I came to the East Coast for the summer under the Work & Travel program. There was no particular desire to stay, I just wanted to spend the summer in the company of students like me, go for a drive around the cities and just relax.

Having returned to my native Murmansk six months later and having experienced a strong shock from what I saw, I firmly decided to change my tourist visa to a work one - and in the summer of 2010 I found myself back in the States.

About the first job

By that time, I already had several friends who lived in Silicon Valley on the West Coast and worked in high-tech.

According to statistics, in hi-tech Our region employs about 10% of the population. I personally think that this figure is very low, since almost all my friends and acquaintances are somehow connected with IT: IT marketing, IT finance, IT engineers etc.

Finding a job in the Valley is easy. You don’t have to be a hardcore programmer, the main thing is to be a specialist and be able to sell yourself correctly. I was always interested in system administration, I could assemble and disassemble a computer, but I never had anything to do with software. But there were no problems with English: I studied it from the first grade of the gymnasium, at a language college, and then I studied foreign language at a humanities university.

I started my career with a small company that worked on projects for various large clients (HP, Microsoft, Cisco). They paid a little there, $ 30– $ 35 per hour, but it was enough for life, and for me it was, first of all, an experience.

There I first plunged into project management in the field of software. He began to study methodologies, how the backend is arranged (the program code responsible for working with the server, data for further recording in DB or sending to the client, etc. - approx. “Big plans”), how reporting works in large companies, etc.

There was a lot of work in Excel, and then I started learning SQL (formal non-procedural programming language used to create, modify and manage data in an arbitrary relational database) and R (programming language for statistical data processing and graphics).

Most of the work was localized (software translations into different languages). All transfers are made by vendors (that is, suppliers, this is any legal or natural person supplying goods or services to customers. - approx. BP), which find translators, and those, in turn, are already translating.

Translators, most often, sit somewhere offshore, but the project manager is located in the office of the company that ordered the translation.

During this time, there were some acquaintances, I gained experience and began to look for a new job.

Jobs at Google

I worked in a small company for three years, and then I was called to Google.

Finding such a job is not difficult - you just need to communicate a lot, keep track of vacancies online, and submit your resume from time to time.

At Google I was involved in project management - I decided to leave systems analytics, that is, working with databases, as it is a very boring routine process. I wanted to communicate more with people, and not fill out tables. My tasks within Google Analytics included the same localization management and work with vendors, but the scale was completely different. More vendors (in my case about 500), more countries. I was assigned to deal with Latin America, and this has nothing to do with my origin.

Americans don't really care where you come from. They don’t even have a division of Europe into Eastern and Western, for them it’s all just Europe.

At Google, I realized that the same methods in different companies do not work: what is used in a small office is not good at a corporation - you need to be able to adjust.

Even the same positions in different companies mean completely different: one thing vice president Google, and another - vice president some a startup where it is generally not clear who is responsible for what.

In fact, it was a serious transition, the experience of the previous company was practically useless here. The structure of the company, the scope of work and the figures were completely different. As with any big company, Google takes a lot of time organizing and pushing projects. Any process change takes much longer than in any agency or in a startup.

Jobs at Apple

After a year of working at Google, I went to Apple. The proposal was, frankly, random. At one of the parties, I learned that they were recruiting a team for a new project. The project was interesting, besides, I was always a fan of Apple and hated Android.

The problem with companies of this level is to get an interview. There are always hundreds of open positions; another thing is that the number of resumes is measured in thousands.

Therefore, you either need to be a very cool specialist, or try to get “in the direction” (in Englishwhen a company employee advises a specialist, this is called referral) immediately to the short list of applicants. In any case, you have to go through a bunch of interview rounds and test tasks (depending on the position). But through a recommendation, the chances of getting a position are much higher.

Our field is one of the most multicultural, so there are many specialists from different countries. It is very important that you have the same worldview. If the team likes you, but you lack some technical skills, they will train you.

It is much easier to teach a person to use some working tool than to fight with his heavy temper.

Things like work schedule are not particularly important. The main thing is the result, and where you achieved it - at home, at Starbucks or in the office - no one cares. For example, I start work at 7–8 am at home, and by the time I get to the office (10–11 am), a lot of work has already been done. Why sit in a traffic jam just like that when you can spend this time more usefully.

At Apple, I became a product manager. He was responsible for one of the search engines on the site. The new project included the transition to a new engine, the launch of 50 new countries, a complete redesign of the backend. Work in bulk, do not have to miss. Moreover, at this time the transition from one methodology to another began.

If before everything was done in Waterfall (one-time product release with exact release date someday in a year), now most projects are switching to Agile (release, usually every two weeks).

This is very cool for software: you get frequent feedback, prioritize tasks, constantly release something - and as a result you get high-quality software.

But this is not very suitable for creating equipment. There is a small problem with Agile - it is very difficult to switch to. Especially giant companies where projects are planned years in advance. Old school programmers and business workers have a very bad attitude towards this. They are conservative people, accustomed to acting in a certain way, and it is difficult to switch them to new methods. And the market is constantly changing - what was popular six months ago no longer works.

It makes no sense to develop software for nine months, then release it and realize that people no longer need it. Or they still need it, but with a different set of features (features or functions). This is the beauty of Agile - you adapt very quickly, adapt, and at the same time, your customers love you (that is, they buy your product).

Cook works differently

Apple was the opposite. All processes are closed, in order to change something, you need 250 to get permission once, nothing could be said outside the building, etc. In short, North Korea.

Earlier, when Apple actively fought with Google, people were fired, if someone at a meeting with top managers blurted out: «But Google did it differently.”.

Now the market is peaceful, more is allowed, Jobs is no more. Cook works differently, it is noticeable and the latest products.

Tips from Maxim Matuzov

The valley is good because there is a lot of work here, but there are not enough people.

Learn English

Preferably starting from kindergarten. Required using modern textbooks. If by the age of 20 you still do not have a command of business vocabulary and cannot distinguish an English idiom from an American one, you will solve these problems on the spot. The main thing is to have a strong base. And watch American TV series without translation and Russian subtitles.

Starting a job better in a small company

There you will get the necessary experience and find out who the vendors are on the outsource and how the feedback differs from the backend. Just make sure that a small company is not a start-up with ambitious goals, a smart office, five vice-presidents and a complete lack of idea of ​​who should do what. In such a startup, you will not learn anything.

Believe in yourself

In Murmansk, Vologda, the city of Kameshkovo in the Vladimir region, in a Moscow apartment on Grokholsky Lane - anywhere. Americans don't care where you were born. They don't care what accent you speak with or who your maternal grandmother is. What matters is what you can do and how easy it is to work with you. (And also whether you have a work visa.)

See also:

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