Another sharing working experience
Last week was “Homecoming -week” a university tradition of welcoming back former students. Many former students came back to see me, so I arranged a special meeting for them to talk with current students. Following are the conversation between graduates and students in my class.
Ken Paddock graduated four years ago and currently working at Facebook. He told the students: “When you begin your career in any company, you do not know what to expect. What you learn in school may NOT exactly be what happen in the company, so you have to adjust. For example, most technology companies require long working hours. I often work ten to twelve hours every day to get the work done. Many students think after graduate and have a job; they can put in few hours of work and enjoy life. The fact is if you want a comfortable job, you should NOT work in the technology area. What you learn in school is only the basics, but there are many things you have to learn at work, and your first six months is about training and learning. There is pressure to learn as fast as possible so you can be productive. Your managers and senior engineers watch your progress to see how much you have learned before assign you to a project. If you think that you already have a degree and do not need to learn, then you are making a big mistake, if you do not learn fast, you will be “humiliated” by other senior engineers then may not be assigned to work on good projects. In most technology companies, getting to work in good projects is competitive. If managers and senior engineers do not think you are “good enough” they assign you to “support work” such as fix code for others.”
A student asked: “Why long hour of work when other companies only work about eight hours?”
Ken answered: “You have to work long hours because the product must meet the dateline and release to users on time. There are many challenges at work, so you have to learn fast, work hard, and solve problems quickly. But in exchange, you also get paid accordingly. Today software job is one of the highest paid jobs in the world. Just imagine, how many twenty-one years old are making over one hundred thousand dollars a year? How many millionaires are there in the technology industry? The wonderful thing about working in the Silicon Valley is you can make a lot of money if you have the right skills. However, you have to manage your career aggressively by taking responsibility for your skills to come out on top. Many students dream of working in Silicon Valley, and making a lot of money but do not know how to work and be success there. Iif they are lazy, do not learn fast, work hard, or keep up with new technology, they will never succeed.”
Another student asked: “Then how should we prepare?”
Ken advised: “First, you must learn quickly on the job. You only have a few months to learn under the observation of managers and senior engineers because they will decide which project to assign you to work. All good projects are competitive, so you have to be the best. If you think you are the top students in your school, you will be surprised. When you walk in these companies, you will see hundreds or thousand people like you. They are among the best in their school, and they come from all the top schools in the world. I was among the best at Carnegie Mellon and graduated with honor, but then I met the best students from Stanford, from Harvard, from MIT, from Berkeley, and they were very good. Then to my surprise, I also met the top honor graduates from Tsinghua, from PekingUniversity, from TokyoUniversity, from Singapore, From Oxford, etc. We are all competing for the best positions and to work on the best projects. My advice is you have to prepare. First, you must learn to read fast because when you go to work, you will have to read a lot of technical articles to build your knowledge. Second, you must learn fast because technology changes all the time and you need to keep your knowledge up to date. I read a lot of technical articles and when I see something “Hot,” I spend more time to learn it. I took additional courses from MOOCs to update my skills. I think MOOCs is the best way to learn new skills.”
A student commented: “I have friends who work in Silicon Valley but do not have to work that hard.”
Ken laughed: “There are top performance workers and average workers in every company. But working in the industry is not like the school when you can get a “C” grade but still pass the course. In the industry, you work in a team; you must keep pace with everyone and cannot be lazy. If you do not contribute, the team will eliminate you. I am not saying that everybody works hard all the time, but to be a top performer, you must work hard because you want to get the best wages and stock option. The company pays you according to your ability to contribute. Have you ever asked why some software developers make two to three hundred thousand dollars a year when others make less than one hundred? Why there are several hundred millionaires work and live in Silicon Valley? Why students all over the world dream of going to work in Silicon Valley? They all share a dream of being successful, and they are prepared to achieve that dream. There is no other place on earth that can make that dream come true, and I have seen many people have achieved that dream, regardless where they come from or what school they graduate from. The opportunity is endless…”
A student asked: “What else do we need to know besides being prepared?”
Ken advised: “As you are still young, some of you are not concerned with your health, but that is a mistake. Technology works are full of stress, and it affects your health as you are growing older. You need to exercise and find time to keep your minds off work. If you can do that, you will increase your productivity and be healthier. I work hard, but I also exercise by going to the Gym every day. I keep myself healthy by not eating “bad foods” and not “drinking or smoking” at all. You will find more than half of software people in the technology industry have a healthy lifestyle. Life is not just working but also enjoying and you cannot enjoy anything if you are not healthy. You need to keep a balancing life.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
