Software Engineer What I'm Most Looking Forward To About Moving To Silicon Valley
In a couple weeks I will be moving clear across the country from Ann Arbor, MI to San Jose, CA to begin my new job at Google. It will be a big change for me, because I have never lived outside of Michigan and never had so much distance between me and the rest of my family. Thankfully Google has an all-star relocation package so I have very little responsibilities between now and when I start work, so I've been reflecting on my life in Michigan and I thought I'd use this post to jot down the things I'm most looking forward to, and also some things I'm not looking forward to, about my move to Silicon Valley.
Companies that appreciate and cater to talented individuals
It's no secret that I was lured by the siren song of big money and big perks. I wrote about this extensively in my documentation of my software engineering is the best career choice. But it goes deeper than material things, because money only keeps me interested until I've spent it. What I'm looking forward is a complete new attitude toward talented workers that rewards people based on what they accomplish and not how long they've been at their job. I worked in the automotive industry in the greater Detroit area for a few years, so I think I've seen the worst of office politics and poor talent management. That is what I was trying to escape when I left automotive and got back into software development. It's at least better when you're a software engineer in Michigan, but it's still nothing compared to the way they treat you in California.
The weather and climate
Anyone who lived in Michigan the past few years knows what I'm talking about. I lived here my whole life so I thought I was used to bad winters, but the past couple winters have been very unpleasant. Not unbearable, but bad enough to the point where I started to wonder why I had to put up with that anymore when there are beautiful sunny places elsewhere in the world. I am ready to kiss snow goodbye and never de-ice my car again!
The National Park System
Another cool thing about living out West is the National Park system. There are tons of them within a day's drive away, and I'm looking forward to visiting them all! I have very fond memories of visiting some of the parks with my family when I was young, but I can't wait to experience them all in my own way.
San Francisco
Even though I've still never been to the city (only as close as the airport), from what I read it's a remarkable place. At least I'm sure it will be much cooler than Detroit. I also like that public transportation is a much bigger deal there, so I can actually get downtown by train if I want to. I will have to adopt a new baseball team and learn to love the National League, which is not a big deal because I love baseball more than any individual team.
San Francisco Opera
Anyone who knows me knows I am obsessed with opera. Since I live near Detroit I'm stuck with whatever they produce at the Detroit Opera House, which is okay but not anything close to great. I am forced to travel to see great live opera, and I go regularly to the Lyric Opera in Chicago (a 3.5 hour drive if weather/traffic are good) and once I even flew to New York City to see one of my favorites at the Met. Early on when I was just getting curious I had the privilege of seeing a couple operas in Stuttgart when I traveled for work. This experience changed my life and showed me how amazing Wagner's operas were (although very, very long...) What a treat that I'll be living less than an hour away from perhaps the second best opera house in the country, and I'm arriving just in time to catch all 3 shows of their Summer season! Yeah I know I'm a total geek about this, and I'm even that guy who goes to them by himself most of the time. I know I'm weird, but I got over that a long time ago.
What I'm Not Looking Forward To
I am a realist at heart, so now I'll temper all those good things I talked about with some of the less fortunate aspects of living in the bay area. Overall there are lots of more good things than bad, but some things are worth mentioning.
The Drought
The big elephant in the room is the current drought that's getting worse every year. I saw glimpses of it when I was in Santa Barbara for GHS (some restaurants closed on certain days of the week to reduce water consumption) and it was always in the news when I was in the bay area interviewing at Google, but I have never experienced a drought first hand and that concerns me. Like I said I grew up in Michigan where water is plentiful. Not to say we wasted water, but we just never thought twice about how much we were using - use as much as the job requires. Now I am suddenly going to have to be conscious of how much water I'm using at all times, and who knows, maybe I won't even be able to shower every day once they start rationing. At least I've decided I'm going to start doing "military showers" once I get there, until the drought ends.
The part that reassures me, at least for now, is that I'm sure we'll solve the drought in one of several ways. Maybe the drought will end at some point. I know that's what everyone is hoping, but nobody fully understands the processes at work so we're all just guessing. I know droughts can go on for extended periods of time, even hundreds of years, but I know how much fresh water there is elsewhere in the US and I think it's just a matter of ingenuity to overcome the dilema of water in the desert. The Romans built an aqueduct, so we can build a pipeline, or even move entire rivers if we have to. Let's hope the drought ends before it comes to that, but I think there's still a future in California even if it doesn't.
The Cost of Living
It sucks, but it's something I've been prepared for right from the beginning when I started searching for jobs in the bay area. I'm fortunate enough to have gotten an offer from Google, which alleviates certain pains of living there. I mean, the base pay doesn't blow anyone away, but it more than covers expenses, and the generous individual bonus incentives and other miscellaneous perks of working there (like free food) offset some of the other costs. I won't be able to live like a king, at least not yet, but there's tremendous opportunity for my salary to grow over time as my career develops inside the company.
Traffic
Traffic is something that I also deal with in the Detroit area, but from what I read it's probably nothing compared to bay area traffic during rush hour. At least from what I saw when I was there it wasn't too bad, and I liked their approach to "metering" traffic onto the highway and having carpool lanes. It showed me that they're pragmatic which is something that is lacking in Michigan. I also noticed their U-turns were more efficient to ones in Michigan. It was strange at first, but if you want to turn around on the Camino Real you do a U-turn in the intersection next to the left-turners! It felt illegal the first time I did it, and I had to watch several other people do it before I had the courage to try. Now that I think about it, I think it's much more efficient than the Michigan U-turns, because they don't require any extra construction in the median, they make use of the existing intersection and just dedicate a late for U-turners. Maybe the reason is how many trucks we have on the roads in Michigan; I think they would have trouble making these kinds of U-turns everywhere if they had to.
Earthquakes
I'm sure that people in the area might find this concern laughable (oh silly out-of-towner...), but in Michigan earthquakes are not even something that crosses our minds. I have experienced a couple throughout my life, but it felt like nothing more than faint nudges. It will take some time for me to adjust to the fact that earthquakes are far more frequent and intense in California. I'm not worried so much that I'll die in falling rubble, because I'll be working and living in modern buildings, but I'm concerned about the aftermath of a large earthquake because it's a disaster scenario I have never had to prepare for. Large thunderstorms and tornadoes I can handle, snow storms suck but I know what I'm doing there too. I feel I don't even know what to do if/when a large earthquake strikes and there is no fresh water and the stores have all been looted. I will just have to cross my fingers and hope that Google will come in to the rescue, and from what I've seen so far they seem like the kind of company that would. However, this is not something that keeps me up at night, because large earthquakes are still rare and I'm an optimist so the risk is not enough to deter me from the greatest opportunity of my career.
