Where you work is casting a vote for the kind of world you want
I remember vividly the day I landed in the United States. It was January 22nd, 2003. I had $400 in my pocket, which unbeknownst me at the time would have to last for eight weeks. My company could not pay me without a Social Security Number. I remember a night back in Colorado ( where I first moved) having to sleep in the freezing cold in an old almost broken down ‘89 Acura that my brother had sent me. I didn’t have a hotel for the night. I was still excited, exhilarated, and nothing was going to stop me from a brilliant career in Tech. I finally moved to the Bay Area in 2005 and I came here with a glorious full head of hair! Today a lot of my hair is gone and it has been replaced with wisdom. There are days that I open the news, read about what is happening in the tech world and I feel sick to my stomach. Today, dear reader, I’m going to tell you the story of what I wished I had known back then with the hope that you can learn from it as you embark on your journey either as a newbie to tech or as someone who is thinking about switching jobs
I came here as a database engineer and after many years of hard, painful work, I have been successful in my career. Working at the best companies that the valley has to offer, with great perks,benefits, and compensation, switching into Product Management which was my dream, getting an MBA from the prestigious Haas School of Business, I should be happy right?
I should. But there are days that I feel jaded and I want you to have the benefit of not making my mistakes as you think about the path you choose within what appears from the outside as a perfect world. All this is not to say that I do not want to work in technology. I love technology and I love the promise of technology to change the world. Think about what Tech has made possible for the human race all the way from the original Silicon Valley Pioneers to the great leaders we have today. I remember buying calling cards to be able to call India and it used to be expensive. Today we have so many ways to stay in touch with family – for free – thanks to all the good that technology has created. I remember printing maps from MapQuest so I would not get lost. Tech changed that, I now have a map of the entire world now in my pocket. There are of course places where tech has been bad. Having a smartphone all the time and not being able to switch off completely has caused additional stress and in the long run may reduce your lifespan
Tech like a knife can be used for good or bad. You can use it to cut up healthy veggies and nourish your body or you can use it to kill someone. I want to work for the good side, not the bad side.
The benefit of Silicon Valley and the hustle culture has enabled me to meet so many young, eager people that want to switch into Tech from other careers because it pays better. On days I have the pleasure of meeting such people, I feel great but I also feel a certain sense of deja vu and dejection. As Jeff Hammerbacker has said "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks” At times I feel Tech workers have lost their way and what they set out to achieve. Not all of them of course. There are wonderful founders, engineers, workers that show up everyday with noble purpose; not just to get rich at the cost of others. Me? I wasn’t one of them. I looked at every opportunity to chase making more money without regard to the consequences, both to my own life and the world we live in.
I wasn’t one of them, looking at every opportunity to chase an additional dollar without regard for the consequences to both more life and the extended world. Take a look at the most admired companies in the world. Google removing “don’t be evil” from their code of conduct. The Facebook files with so many different issues that cause human’s harm. Susan Fowler’s negative experience with Uber. I’m not saying that these companies are necessarily evil by definition and I think that such information coming to light gives regulators such as the FTC ammunition to fight back, create antitrust law. There is a fine line between legal and ethical and what is necessarily legal is not ethical. These are but a few examples and there are hundreds more daily. I am pretty sure that a lot of the employees at these companies are quite unhappy. One look at Blind, the anonymous professional social network will show you how tech workers are feeling. I don’t think working to become rich is not the issue. We are after all human beings and working for money is what we do but so many of us sell our souls to the proverbial tech devil. Let me tell you a story. In 2019 I was working at a startup, which got acquihired by Uber. I can vividly remember the day I joined Uber. A long Caltrain ride into the city and a twenty minute walk later, I stood outside a tall light brown building reflecting on my journey and life so far. My head had a million thoughts, my divorce was in progress, my life was in shambles, the life I envisioned seemed so far out of reach. I should have been elated but I was not. With trepidation I walked into the Uber office where I was greeted by the friendly staff. We finally went into orientation where there was a large breakfast with what seemed like a hundred options. And great coffee. Great coffee. I picked up a brown mug, poured myself a cup of coffee thinking I’d feel better about everything. It didn’t help. I still felt miserable.I felt I had sold my soul to the devil and I cringed. Plastering a fake smile on my face I greeted my new fellow Uber employees and I smiled, and pretended that I was on top of the world. I finished my full day of work and on the Caltrain ride back home I was feeling uneasy. At the end of the first week I realized that I had made a huge mistake and I waited for a week more to see if I could shake that feeling. I hated working there. It was not the people; it was the work and my inner conscience was just completely unwilling to accept the fact that their drivers don’t have basic benefits but I get this fantastic lunch everyday. I just didn’t see myself earning my money off the back of my fellow humans that I felt were mistreated. More than ever this is relevant today given what is happening in our world. I soon left Uber. I lasted 58 days.
You see, dear reader, technology is competitive and so you meet the smartest and fastest minds in the world but there is a cost to keeping up with that. Sure companies have “unlimited vacation” and “mental health days” to help you recover and while these are great perks a lot of us don’t use them.I spent more time working hard at the cost of a family and ultimately a very painful divorce. I prioritized the wrong things – all to make that extra dollar, which I ultimately lost. I can’t go back and change my past, but you can change your future.
Here is my recommendation on what you should think about :
As Anna Lappe has aptly said “Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want”. Taking those wonderful words, here is how I think it applies to careers
“Where you choose to work is casting a vote for the kind of world you want”
What does that mean? Tech can and has done a lot of real good in the world. And we need more of this. We need more of the idealists working in Tech at all levels. We need more diversity, more points of view, and more compassion. You don’t need to become a whistleblower but you can voice your opinion by deciding how and where you want to spend your career. Here is what I would tell a younger version of myself.
Understand your core values and what is not negotiable as I can tell you that slowly over time your NOT negotiables will slip and you will tell yourself “Just this one time, how could it be harmful?” We live in the age of abundance so before you join a company, make sure your inner deep seated non negotiable values are aligned with the company. Don’t just go by the mission and vision; think a couple of levels deeper; review their Glassdoor ratings, try to meet someone from the company and talk to them first hand. Use tools such as Linkedin that are at your disposal to dig deeper. Most of us are so excited by the prospect we just say “yes” and later regret it but we stay on because of the golden handcuffs (stock compensation is a huge part of your comp and that holds you back). Years pass, then you look back and you wonder “Was it worth it?” Oftentimes it's not.
Working in Tech can be fun, and can be deeply satisfying if you find something that aligns with your values. You’re probably going to retort back with “but it's just a job right?”. You work at your job 8 hours a day (and likely more in tech) which is at least 25-30% of your life if you consider a lifespan of about 80 years and assuming you started when you turned 20. Think about that for a minute. 25% of your life being miserable. Sure you can change companies but the more you do that, the more it will start looking like you’re a flaky candidate. This seems unfair right? When a company lays you off and hires more people 3 months later that is not flaky but when you leave that is? Are all technology companies like this? Definitely not. But technology companies in a lot of ways can be in a situation of “all that glitters is not gold”. Trust me, I've been there. I’ve changed companies a few times in the past. Firstly, because I knew I wanted to “hack” career growth and secondly because I was not happy with where I was working and what I was doing.
Don't work at a job that will compromise your family life and if it does, pull the trigger. You will find something else that works better for you. They say that “Everything is for sale”. Your life however is not and should not be. The price is way too high. Way too high.
Better yourself. Always be learning and looking how to improve your own skills. A hack I use is every 3 months to look back at what I learned, did it push the envelope, why or why not, and what should I do to change that. Never count on always having a job so always be upskilling both at and outside work.
Find mentors, build relationships and spend a lot of time nurturing those relationships. The inside secret of Tech in general is that most people get their next job via a contact or friend or referral. Applying online hardly works (blackhole problem)
So dear reader, if you’ve come this far, I’ll leave you with the following food for thought. I urge you to think about how you’d cast your vote for the kind of world you want. I urge you not to get fascinated by the glitter (perks, free food, all that good stuff). I urge you to step back and ask yourself when you are 30 or 50 years older than you are today, how would you like to see your life? I urge you to find more balance whatever that means for you. I urge you to forge a fulfilling career in technology versus one marred by dissatisfaction even if you turn out to be richer. I urge you not to run after that extra money and fancy titles. I urge you to form solid bonds and friendships with people you work with (and this does not mean that they are “family”). I urge you to work in tech and help us do what we do best. Change people’s lives for the better. I urge you to do what I could not do. As for me, I will always love tech and will never leave even if it means that I have to spend another cold night sleeping in a battered up 1989 Acura. I look forward to having more of you work in tech for the right reasons.
