stationed on the west coast of the United States, flanked by the blue hues of the Pacific ocean, is a city that is home to some of the largest companies in the world -. 700 miles south of San Francisco which is
I moved to San Francisco two years ago to work for a startup called Padlet. I like it a lot here. It's like Hollywood, but with less good-looking people. You celebrities, scandals you, you have the media frenzy. My friends at home are full of questions:
"Is it fun?"
"You think I should get a job there?"
"How is Vegas?"
So, here is my experience. I hope this brings more readers around our little valley where we build the future *.
My day starts with a 30 minute commute to work. I take the subway. SF subway system is called BART, short for Bay Area Rapid Transit *. I like the BART because it is always full of surprises. For example, yesterday I was at the station and bam! the train has come to time.
Many drive to work. Driving in SF is like a theme park ride - cars moving bumper to bumper, the terrain is alpine, and the people around you have the character 10 years
.Here's a pop quiz - Which is a SF road and that one is a roller-coaster
Those with a cycle of death wish to work. It's easy to spot a cyclist. If you see a guy with a side of his jeans rolled up to the shin, he is a fool; if you see a guy on a bike, it is a cyclist.
SoMa is a vibrant area with a variety of establishments such as Starbucks, local coffeeshops, the grab-and-go coffee kiosks, and coffee trucks. It is a pity that I do not drink coffee. It's not that I do not like drinking. I just prefer not to consume anything at temperatures liquefy my alimentary canal.
Why so hot coffee in SF? People are metal-welding with her? The only time I asked a barista (expressed more politely, of course), I was criticized,
"Good coffee should be brewed at 200 ° F for full flavor."
Odd! Good bread must be baked at 400 ° F, but I do not see me bakeries selling desiccant paste bricks.
Now you have to think - "? Is not it silly to judge a company by name" No. It's not. Most companies in the Bay Area have obvious names:
- Evernote makes taking applications notes
- Optimizely allows you to optimize your websites
- Google allows you to google anything on the Internet
Our office, as most modern startup offices, has an open floor plan. In an open floor plan, the offices are organized as tables in a university cafeteria. However, instead of food and noise, you have computers, food, and noise.
The noise mandates that you wear a helmet while working. Be careful, though. Your choice of headphones reveals a lot about your character:
- Beats :. You lose the benefit of your life on the mode, desperately trying to look like a cool teenager
- headphones that come with your phone: you appreciate a simple life. Buddha smiles at you.
- noise giant helmet-like electric shock equipment :. You're Chuck Norris
A diverse collection of desks and chairs adorn our office. People reflected on their lack of fitness and concluded that the blame was squarely on their choice of furniture. So some people have permanent offices -. Such a high office you have to bear to use them (or people as short as I want them, all the other stations call)
markets are chockablock with these hybrid desktop + gym - permanent offices, an office treadmill, cycling Office. That's why I feel optimistic about my office pool idea - a large water tank with an infinity pool and a computer bolted to one side. Noise suppression diving masks, snorkels and fins come as standard equipment.
My favorite mutant furniture, however, is the "balance ball chair." This chair has an exercise ball instead of a seat cushion. Let me repeat that: instead of a seat cushion, this chair has a giant ball. It is a great way to lose weight.
Outside Chobani, you'd be hard pressed to find a place that talks about the culture of Silicon Valley. We want to create an environment where employees are happy, motivated, healthy and productive.
Since people are the happiest in the company of friends and family, we make sure that you have work-life balance. This means you can work from home; week ends. A notable exception is Yahoo. They allow you to home-to-work by allowing you to bring your baby to the office.
Of course, we realize that everyone has friends. So we let you bring your dog to work. Our office has a dog too. His name is Moses. It is sensitive to sunlight.
The unlimited vacation policy is a another advantage to most good companies. Travel, after all, is an important part of the human experience. All we ask is that you do not leave at a time when your presence is sacrosanct for the company. It can be difficult to judge that, sometimes, so here's a handy table to help you decide when you can go on vacation:
most startups provide lunch. Given the wide range of food preferences of people in SF, it is a difficult proposition. It is quite common to have someone who is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, paleo on, and the detox juice in a three-person office. Let me explain these plans:
- Vegetarians do not eat meat. I love vegetarians. I take comfort in the fact that if I'm stuck with them in the Atlantic, ethically, I'm a little more to eat them than they are for me to eat.
- vegans do not use anything that comes from animals -. Such as milk, leather, meat, and Comcast
- Gluten people do not eat the glue, which is a stupid diet to be on, because no reasonable person eats glue. Based on this logic, I am a Painten-free diet because I do not eat paint.
- The people of paleo eat only food available for Paleolithic humans, such as mammoths and Megalodon sharks.
- Juice detoxers eat other neurons because they locked him to be on the detox juice.
First rule to work in Silicon Valley - keep your short emails. If the recipient is rude, he / she needs a lesson in productivity. Here's a good email:
Ignore the signing of the length of the novel; the brevity of the rule is not applicable to him. Put something there - legalese, a call to save trees, a motivational quote. Few people know that Twitter started as a message service for professionals in Silicon Valley, but did not take because it allowed too many characters.
We do not have meetings; Meetings are startups that kryptonite is to Spiderman - out of place. So we have all-hands, one on ones, stand-ups, and snuggles. Ditto for calls - we do not make phonecalls. We synchronize-up, touch-based, or simply connect. Make sure you set up the right, or you can give people the impression that you lose their vocabulary.
The most sacred of the psalm-startup bible, however, is -
"Do things that do not escalate."
This is why our first hire was an ugly mountaineer.
One last thing - start in life is not limited to work; it affects your personal life too. For example, if you work at a startup in San Francisco, you're like the guy who sells plastic souvenirs to the Eiffel Tower. Everyone at the Eiffel Tower sells plastic souvenirs. So you find yourself having the same conversations with people similar. Here's an example:
Alex : I have a startup. We Yelp for entrepreneurs
Ben :. I have a boot too. We are entrepreneurs for Yelp.
[Pause]
Together business model ... yada yada yada ... Paul Graham Series ... lorem ipsum Google sucks
This, in itself, is not a problem; I enjoy these conversations. The problem is that they make you often incapable of any other form of communication. E.g.:
The father of Girlfriend :. Great weather today
Ben : Yeah. He is handsome.
[Pause]
[Longer pause]
Ben : I see you're using an iPhone. Android sucks, huh
Software is eating the world.
This explains why software is so crappy. Many things in the world - like Kanye, curling and kale - are hard to digest
.However, the technology is changing how we live, how we love, how we work. And much of this technology is being built here in San Francisco.
If this sounds exciting, come on board; Padlet hiring, and so are bazillion other startups. If you do not live here and can not move, do not worry; many startups to rent remotely. (Reddit is no more, FYI.)
If you are already a part of this world, why did you just lose eight minutes? Why are you not working? Stop procrastinating and go ship things
Read more: See San Francisco reimagined as a start card
Image credit: Shutterstock
This post first appeared on Medium.
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