Working in U.S. technology industry
Last year when teaching in Asia, I asked students why they are studying technology. To my surprise, a majority of students said: “Because I want to make a lot of money.” Or “I study technology, so I can come to the U.S. and make a lot of money.” No one says anything about helping their family or their society. It seemed that money is the ultimate goal or obsession of students who study technology. When Asian students think of working in the U.S., many often have a lot of misconceptions of what working life actually is so I shared with them some information based on my experiences.
I began: “Having a Bachelor degree in computer science and get a job in the U.S. industry, you could make between $75,000 to $90,000 (2015 data) per year. But you will have to work long hours. Although each company is different, on the average, most technology workers spend about ten to twelve hours per day and sometimes longer, when needed. The typical “eight-hour” working does not actually exist in the technology industry. If you can do that, months after month, and year after year, then you will do well.”
A student raised a question: “Besides salary, what 's about the stock options and sign-in bonus?”
Again money and benefits are the main concerns of these students. I answered: “When technology company hires you they will give you a sign-in bonus. The bonus is different depending on the company but the average is about $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the position and the need of the company. If you have the high demand skills such as Cloud computing, Big Data analytics, Internet of Things, and Cybersecurity, then you may get $30,000 to $50,000 bonus immediately after the first month of working (2015 data). Most companies also give you stock options. For top established companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft the options could be between $25,000 to $200,000 depending on your positions, but you have to work there for three to five years before you can sell the stocks. However, for startups, the stock option could be much more and could even go to several hundred thousand dollars.”
The whole class seemed excited. One student laughed out loud: “We have no problems working long hours. I can even work twenty-four hours if needed!” Although most students were happy about the prospect of making a lot of money, no one asked about the working environment. I continued: “Of course, to get a job with these company, you must have strong technical skills. Coding and programming are the basics, but you must know more about development lifecycle, the software processes, and specific high demand skills such as Big Data analytics or Internet of Things. Do you think you have those skills? Does your school train you in these skills?”
The class seemed a little quiet. I continued: “Besides technical skills, the most important skills are soft skills such as communication, presentation, and teamwork. If you do not speak English very well, you will have difficulty passing the job interview. Even if you get hired but do not communicate well, you will have difficulty in advancing your career. There are many people remain in testing or programming jobs for many years because they do not communicate well. Today, most technology companies have moved away from the “cubicle environment” into an “open-collaborative” environment where people are working in a teaming atmosphere. An open environment allows workers to immerse themselves into an “innovation culture” where communication is encouraged, and knowledge is shared freely to create new innovative solutions. If you do not communicate well in this open environment, you may be labeled “Incompetent.” If you do not have teamwork skills, you may be called “uncooperative” and could be eliminated by your team. In the technology industry, either you are part of a team, or you are not. There is no place for people who like to work by themselves or individually. Because all teams compete with others to get the best projects or the chance to work on the latest technology, the working environment is very competitive. Even within a company, teams compete with others to deliver better solutions and to get the best projects. If your team cannot compete well, the team will often be assigned to lower level works and eventually could be eliminated. Therefore, among team members, there are pressures to work hard. If you do not contribute or have higher productivity, the team members will reject you. My question is are you prepared to work in this type of high pressured environment?”
Most students seemed surprised because they did not hear much about the competitive nature of technology works. I added: “The company pays a lot of money for your knowledge and skills and they have high expectations. If you think you have excellent skills in school, you will meet hundreds or thousands of people with similar skills like you in these technology companies and all of them are competing for the best positions and salaries. However, the issue is not about what you have but what future skills you will learn. Technology changes fast, so you always have to keep up by continue to learn new things. If you do not develop a lifelong learning habit today, in a few years you may be left behind. When your skills are obsolete or no longer needed, the company will fire you. The fact is in the technology industry, everyone has to compete to keep their job. Getting a job is easy, keeping the job is much more difficult, and to do that you must focus on continuous learning. My question is, do you have the lifelong learning habit? If you do not keep your skills up to date, you will not survive. Today you can pass tests and get a degree, but when you go to work, there is no test to pass or the degree to get, and everything is depending on your knowledge and skills and how fast can you learn, how well can you update?
A student hesitated: “But you can always change job. You get a big raise at your next job based on the shortage of skills in the market.”
I explained: “One of the most common misconceptions, specifically in Silicon Valley is that workers will get a big raise at their next job. This is typically based on the shortage of skills. The fact is all companies have sets of salary ranges for each position and pay workers based on what skills they can bring to the company and how they fit into their working environment. If you have worked only for a short time at a company then switch job, it is an indicator that either you do not have the needed skills or do not fit in the working environment. Hiring companies are very caution with people like that. You must work at least three to four years to be considered experienced enough to change job. There is much stricter interview for experienced people to focus on the technical skills because they do not want to “hire then fire” workers, so you are competing with people that have both current skills and experiences for the top salary. My questions are “What skills do you have to work in the technology industry?” Are you prepared to work hard? Do you have the lifelong learning skills? Do you have needed soft-skills? Are you competitive enough? As technology graduates, you will get an excellent job and high salary, but you have to be prepared, and without appropriate preparation, it is only wishful thinking.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
