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How I interned at a startup in San Francisco and went home

In the winter of 2013, Lady Fortune finally turned to me, the right place and smiled what is urine. The news gave hope for a bright future: a letter arrived from foggy San Francisco by wire straight home, to Kharkov. I was offered a summer internship in one of the promising start-ups, which is already rattling at full length in the American (and even slightly wider) Internet. It is hard to imagine what could be better in the life of an unemployed fifth-year student of correspondence courses than such a chance to declare oneself. Especially when you didn’t even expect such a turn of fate, but dreamed in secret.

After an internship in the fall of 2014, I returned to reality, I mean home. I got to know Lady better, but she waved a pen to me and disappeared into the air, leaving only the sweet taste of lipstick on my lips: due to the impending so-called work practice at the university and my graduation in the winter, I had to return. The terms of the visa were carefully chosen for the university, and the company itself did not consider it necessary to extend my participation in the startup (although I secretly hoped). It is hard to imagine what could be worse in the life of an unemployed student. I admit that this acquaintance was pleasant and in many respects useful.

Programming is a great invention of mankind. It allows you to travel in space and time across countries and time zones, respectively (physicists do not need these stupid abstractions and they travel directly in "space-time"). By the way, I love time zones. Jetlag is another great invention of man, under whose powerful influence this article is written.

And it addresses such serious questions:
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As David Beckham treated me with a milky neck or what to do before leaving


What can wait for a person who has never been not that abroad (including neighboring Russia), but even in the western part of his own country? What awaits those who are going to go to a country where no one even thinks to speak Russian in your presence? Of course, he is waiting for obtaining a passport. Bestow mesyatsok-another for the procedure of registration or accelerate the process of ruble (quietly, it is legal). Since I had plenty of time before the summer, I also decided to get a driver's license at the same time. Identity documents are not superfluous. Especially those that give you rights in a country where rights and freedoms are more right and free than in other countries. I will rush ahead and note that I managed to drive through the nightly Tsisko (short for San Francisco) only by bicycle. To the steering wheel I was absolutely impossible to admit. It turned out that only a Ukrainian driver's license is not enough, we must also draw up some additional documents. But the legs told me thanks.

Among other things, it was necessary to obtain an official invitation for an internship, which is issued by a third party specifically authorized to issue such invitations. Fortunately, it was not difficult, since the task fell on the shoulders of the inviting company. All I had to do was fill in some fields in the questionnaire, send a resume (Filkin's letter for Uncle Sam; no one even looked at him) and go through a short interview via Skype. The interview is needed to make sure that the test subject can link the words “Halloween” and “World” to the full meaning of “Koligz of the exequity committee, I’m late” ... well, then you yourself know.

The main condition for receiving such an invitation was to find a proof of a theorem on a student. Student card to a third party did not like the color, so they requested a certificate from the university. Alma Mater refused to recognize my international motives and issued a certificate in the Ukrainian language. I had to open the GIMP's packaging, redraw and translate. Already on the very first word I was stuck in Google. It turns out that they don’t have the word “help” (do not rush to check, Google Translate is also not up to date). Well, the same bureaucracy grandmother reached what, huh? It was difficult, but I am still proud of the seal, translated with love by Casanova and redrawn with Stradivarius accuracy. Almost do not distinguish! Unfortunately, no one distinguished. They say the best deeds go unnoticed.

Having received a passport, an invitation for an internship, a driver's license and moral satisfaction, I signed up for an interview at the US Embassy in Kiev (certificate and satisfaction, only a pleasant bonus; the rest is mandatory for a visa). I was interested in a J1 visa. Before leaving, I read all sorts of horror stories about interviews. People create entire sites with tips. Well, I think, just draw a wolf so scary, then we should prepare a little and memorize the answers to standard questions. Could not bathe. I drove to Kiev for 7 hours to talk with the ambassador for exactly 45 seconds. He probably served in the army. My secret is simple: pretend that you understand what you are talking about and at the same time show with your appearance that the ambassador is also in the subject. He asked what Ruby is and why it is cooler than other languages. I, casually, suggested that he also knows Rails and began to talk about all the charms. However, since he already knew all this (at least in my eyes), he was not interested in listening to the future intern's backing. On that and went. Once the job is done, now it was possible to see the city. On the Maidan, someone from Moldova accidentally treated me with a milky neck, because he liked my LA Galaxy trowel, in which Beckham had once played. True, then he clarified that their kiosk was experimenting with necks. Well, thanks to that. Beckham Nice small.

Glitter and misery of Cisco or what should I find a house


The matter remained for the small: to wait for the overseas to come by mail and get tickets for the plane, and then fly and conquer. The cost of my travel and the visa is fully covered by the company. I have never flown on airplanes before. So when we were in the air and something was loudly loud for the whole salon, I was one hundred percent sure that it was just someone's fallen handbag. Among other things, I realized that only brave people fly in the USA. I would not be able to sit in the chair quietly for 14 hours, so I tossed and turned to the toilet. Twisted more often. I recommend to take headphones and listen to your music, and not offered by plane. Rescues from boredom and screaming babies. But boredom can still be tolerated.

When I arrived, I was immediately lodged in a hotel, two minutes from the office. On the first day I was told that they could fulfill only three of my desires: to buy any laptop, monitor and input devices (ok, four: a keyboard and a mouse — these are two input devices). Since the entire team used the Paradise Apples polls, and I never even managed to drive Mac OS, I didn’t choose for a long time. I didn't immediately like Mac OS. I have more tangible things like xmonad. On the Mac, the window manager is simply no good. I had to install several applications that introduce some of the functions I need, which directly affect productivity. Once again, the cool: piracy, we do not indulge here - the company paid for the software.

The first two weeks, when he lived in a hotel, did not go anywhere at all. The task was to hold out all this time for Spartan $ 200, which he took with him. During this time period it was necessary to get your American ID code (popularly called SSN), since without it you are guaranteed to remain without a salary. Of course, the company would have provided financial assistance if I were already ready to join the naturalists and urbanists of San Francisco, who live in the fresh air 24/7. I didn’t want to live on the street, but I don’t like to borrow. Therefore, cruised only along the route hotel-office-hotel, so as not to succumb to the charms, hidden behind glass windows. True, one cold late evening feeling of hunger ordered me to go look for a supermarket. And here for the first time I fell for American spinning: instead of the planned forty minutes I wandered for two hours. The thing is that the street name plates show the street, which runs perpendicular, and not the one you are walking on. I gained this knowledge by experience. By the way, I warmly recommend the MapsWithMe application. Search, though not the best, but nevertheless there are the most reliable offline maps. In general, San Francisco immediately reminded me of the GTA computer game: quarters, a lot of expensive cars, restaurants, hotels, hordes of homeless people, beggars, screaming or psychos talking to themselves on the streets. Beggars always stand near supermarkets and ask for small change or small bills (they are always courteous and clarify exactly what they want). There are many more of them than in Kharkov. Maybe we just have more modest people? In any case, I hope they know that people already use plastic cards.

Areas such as Tenderloin are less prosperous, and the density of my WTF per square meter in those neighborhoods was slightly more than in other places. Mostly black people live there and it seems they all know each other. Usually they are frolicking at intersections, or along Market Street, as if protecting the rayon of their raychik from tourists. Some other areas, like Sia Clif, are luxurious in everything. A three-storey house with a courtyard, an ideal lawn and a view of the sea, where kids are carelessly running around - it’s in the order of things. Glitter and poverty in one bottle. Speaking of houses, one can not say about their inhabitants. All people have completely different looks. It is rather difficult to stand out from the crowd, since tattoos or lilac hair no longer vividly enough express individuality, and merge with a motley scale of the rest of the population. Assess the scale: I witnessed a group of seven men in black latex pants and with an almost naked torso (in the best traditions of the Blue Oyster bar) walking around and selflessly talking. Not that it angered me, it's just hard to imagine such a thing in our latitudes. As some man once said: well, they are *** s! Something the keyboard is stuck. Others say.

The World Football Championship was already rattling with might and main, and I, in turn, was rattling the buttons on the keyboard, bombarding Craigslist with my letters in search of an apartment. The internship was paid and the agreement was that the company pays only for the hotel (which costs an average of $ 150 per day; prices change there daily). Let's go watch the first apartment. We (I asked the supervisor, the man who was responsible for me as a native trainee son, to go with me) were met by some bald Indian (which is at least suspicious because I thought he lives in Redmond), who asked to speak Be quiet, so that the neighbors do not hear (although I was completely silent, but he spoke mostly). He said that he was leaving for a couple of months somewhere far away. He asked for a pledge and warned that if they burn, that I live there, then the pledge will burn, and they will expel me in disgrace. How about no? He, naively, did not know where my chick came from. That's how I discovered what sublease is. As a result, I found a decent apartment (the so-called studio) for decent money ($ 2,200). There is no way around - they said that in Cisco the most expensive apartments in the United States. Either you live with three strangers and pay three monthly salaries of an ordinary Ukrainian, or you live yourself and pay six salaries. All the same, only once in this world we live. Therefore, I lived in a white house, and I slept on a bed with white linen alone. The bed was almost in the kitchen, so it was delicious to sleep. More from the pleasant: in my case, the rent was automated to the most tomatoes. When the push went on at night, I just filled out the form on the website, and I had already fixed it in the early morning. Beautifully crafted, gentlemen.

Mobile communication was provided by T-Mobile. Well, as provided. When he wanted, then he provided. He did not deliver, in general. For example, in the house where I lived, he absolutely did not catch. In order to talk, send or receive a text message, it was necessary to go down to the first floor, pray to the heavens and come close to the front door. It happened that in some places, even on the street caught. I do not recommend repeating my mistake. Take something more reliable, if it exists at all (AT & T? Ha! I also heard angry reviews about it).

California's Normal Natural Phenomenon: Earthquakes, Sex and Feminism


Speaking about girls, I can not fail to mention that here I first tasted feminism. No, I, of course, had heard of him before, but it was in the USA that I got into a funny situation. One week in the morning, I noticed that usually the familiar cheerful colleague somehow became sad. Well, I think, let me cheer her up and say something nice. Without a back thought, I say: "Something you are so sad today, come on, smile." To which she replied to me, so I stopped behaving strangely. And I'm not strange at all in life, so I stopped. In the evening of the next day, having completely forgotten about this incident (yes, I simply did not give it any special significance), I was about to leave, but my supervisor asked me to stay. It turned out that my colleague felt uncomfortable because of my morning wishes, and therefore told about everything to him. When I found out that this was considered something of harassment in them, I was slightly taken aback, as I had nothing like that in my thoughts. Fortunately, no one was angry with me, because everyone understood that even though we are all big democrats together, we still have cultural differences. In any case, I accepted their rules of the game and didn’t give reason to pass for a sexist anymore. Their question of oppressing women in IT is much more acute than ours, they can be understood. However, it made me think: how is it possible to get acquainted with someone for a relationship, who works in IT? And the compliment is already afraid to do.

Everyday work or why I do not like CEOs in the supermarket


The British and the Americans worked with me. In total, we were 7 people. The microclimate, as well as the culture of communication, is established at the highest level. Everyone treated each other with professional (from the word “profession”) respect. But at the same time, loved and fool around (sometimes too). People there are more liberated, or something. After work, and sometimes on time, they could afford to play a game of one of the many board games, Mario Kart on the Wii, or simply drink alcohol. In general, everything is like at all. My tasks included working with the zoo of technologies and languages. I had no clear big task. There were only I and another Madame Task, who politely asked her to solve (and for everything else there was a Mastercard). Since this is a startup that supports a lot of things, and the team is small, we all had to be able to do everything a little bit, but to do it well. The main difficulty for me was that I had to quickly switch between programming languages ​​and adapt to many things on the fly. Some technologies had to be mastered on the spot (damn you, GOPATH !). Therefore, I almost did not have fun there. I note that I was not allowed to reach the most important parts of the system. Probably, they were embarrassed that I confidently rm -rf $HOME on the build server when I wanted to delete a directory called $HOME that I had accidentally created with my clumsy script. Shellshock, speak? Haha, laughing in the face!

I'm not pereborchiv in food, but at the university it was possible to pretend that you are sitting in the dining room and violently gnawing along with all his piece of science granite, but in fact it is only so that you sluggishly bite. In real combat conditions, I had to look for this granite myself and gnaw it from Aunt Pasha's viscous paws (from the word “plow”). You know, it was not always her granite. I chose the attacking scheme and came to the office one of the first, and always left the last. I have never worked so hard in my life. According to the textbook covenants of many gurus of internship, I took the initiative and climbed into those tasks in which they did not wait for me to triumphantly pull out the rabbit's ears from there and surprise everyone. For board games, Mario Kart, booze and women preferred not to be exchanged.

I liked the payment method they use in the USA. In Ukraine, I had to beg for a salary (which, moreover, was delayed by at least a month) from the general director and caught him at supermarkets across the street opposite the office, while he was sitting at home and supposedly was ill. Here it was not necessary to run after anyone. Grandmas themselves flew a tight string on a bank card. Of course, some of them decided on the way to me to turn in the direction of the tax collectors' pockets (from the word “blissful”), but in the USA, multiculturalism and society teach us to be tolerant, so I was tolerant to taxes. I even on the title of the brochure of Bank of America portrayed politically correct business people. By the way, when I said that I used to work in an informal job, no one understood me at all. I had to explain the shocking truth about the ways of employment in my country. In short, it is very nice that now I had to worry only about work, and not about the various distracting, twisted general directors.

For the rest, we did not use any revolutionary ideas or methods in the organization of work. Everything rests on the motivation, professionalism and vast experience of managers. And no bureaucracy - complete freedom. Just my dream.

I heard about the existence of the weekend. Is there life outside the office?


Here you are not France with its towers, so you will not need guides. In my humble opinion, the best conductor of branchless Cisco is Yelp. He is looking for restaurants, shops, hairdressers, laundries and other establishments. However, be careful: on my androidophone, mobile Yelp did not want to install. Google Play did not recognize my American visa: he still believed that I was in Ukraine. Dealing with this was too lazy, so I used only the site.

It was not yet in my life that my belly would confess to me of love. During the period of my internship this has happened many, many times. First, the company provided free lunches. This means that it was possible to experiment with food endlessly and painlessly for both the wallet and the abdomen itself (mother transferred activated charcoal, but it was not useful). Secondly, restaurants in San Francisco are in almost every home. There are cuisines of the world. However, some of them are strongly Americanized: I once went to a “Vietnamese” restaurant, where you can't buy anything other than ordinary sandwiches. The Vietnamese thing that was there was the Vietnamese on the seller. I waited in the Russian restaurant there. Would you like to try 11 taxicat chicken dumplings for $ 11? How about a bird portion of Olivier salad for $ 9? But kvass and borscht were cool, everyone liked it. Thirdly, some food just tasted better on its own. For example, orange juice. With us, as usual, this is not juice, but simply sweet sugar concentrated slurry, diluted by the manufacturer’s imagination. There's also a real squeezed juice. Or maybe they just advanced preservatives? I warmly recommend cold raspberry and pomegranate mate (Yerba Buena Mate) in glass bottles.

In San Francisco, the developers seem to be more or less aware of each other. It seems they don’t drink so actively in those parts. How do get acquainted? They probably know each other because the offices of the companies literally coexist with each other, and the employees, when changing jobs, simply cross the road to the other side of the street and wave their hands from the windows of the offices to each other. Some people have friends on Twitter and some have a guy in Github. This is the norm and it does not cause any surprise to anyone but me. Employees from different companies often spend their leisure time together or go to thematic parties. In this regard, it came to me the realization that there are exactly the same people there. Maybe a little bit luckier. And if we have the same luck, then maybe our world would have its own Cisco. Oh, dreams ...

But San Francisco is not only the place where IT people from all over the world gather. It is also a great city for hiking and cycling. Rather, not the city itself, but the so-called Gulf of San Francisco (Bay Area). For hiking, dozens of artificial routes in many parks and forests have already been worked out. However, for lovers of adventure, the peppercorn is lost, since almost nowhere can be turned into artificial capitalist forest trash. With us, as usual, no one ennobles the forest, so going out into the forest is a real quest. Though I like hiking, I have always appreciated bikes more. Driving along Kharkov roads is scary. You know how you drive. And there the drivers are very gentle and caring, so riding around the city is fun and safe. So I realized my old dream: I went to work by bicycle (let it be 10 minutes a day in total). Many interesting cycling routes go in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's hard to convey delight when you rush at high speed from the Golden Gate down to Sausalito. For those who prefer longer trips, I recommend to go to Tiburon and back. Some neighborhoods make you remember good old Fallout.

Bike! Once in a conversation I mentioned that we have a lot of things done to pull. Asked to explain what it is all about. I took time out for reflection, as it is rather difficult to explain the meaning of the word immediately. He began to explain, but they immediately guessed that I was talking about corruption. I thought again and agreed.

Another bike. On the street quite often heard the Russian language. One middle-aged woman, even without an “excuse”, came to me like that from the back and recognized me as a Russian speaker. She asked in Russian to suggest how to get to the library. It seems I never managed to merge with the city. Probably there is something in me that gives out with giblets (I suspect that not only the face, but even the back of the head!).

My first and last conference GoGaRuCo 2014




Not to mention the incalculable number of meetings and conferences for all tastes in Cisco. Once, a couple of blocks away from me was matz - the very creator of Ruby. Although I decided not to go to his speech then, as the work was more important, but I was lucky to attend one of the conferences. My company was on the list of the main sponsors of GoGaRuCo - the annual conference for rubists. Thanks to that, I got there for free. We had a table with a swag there (swag; so they call the good with the company's logo, which is distributed free of charge to everyone). We handed out a lot of things, but now the portable charging for the phones scattered like pancakes on Maslenitsa. I, in turn, scored free T-shirts from the tables of other companies. The conference took place two days and every evening there was a party.

Hint for Twitter: Want to get more followers - go to parties and conferences. I've made one! So what? But this is not a bot. Through verbal communication and the magic of hypnosis can attract a lot of people. In addition to promoting the symbolism of my own company, I also worked in the name of Holy Open Sorcia and distributed to everyone stickers of the popular Pry jam, to which I have selfish interest.My typical monologue: “I heard you use Ruby? Have you heard of Pry? Would you be interested in having this sticker? ”. It almost always worked. Just slip a sticker into your palm and make your feet. So why this is my last GoGaRuCo? It's simple.This conference is held for the sixth year in a row, so she was "tired and gone." But seriously, the organizers did not explain the reason (or maybe I overslept).

What causes excess of initiativeosterone in the body


Unfortunately, fairy tales always have an end. My fairy tale has come to an end. I did not manage to become a full-fledged employee. Although the company was pleased with my results as a whole, my lack of experience affected real production. They needed strong people, and I haven't gone to the gym for a long time. At times, too, took too much initiative. I had a very big charge of motivation and an excess of initiativeosterone. This manifested itself to such an extent that a couple of times in the support I allowed customers to tell something that I myself had no idea about. And once a very important client (I already found out later) requested some change, which, in his opinion, improves some functionality in our service. We have been discussing this issue within the company for a long time and have come to the conclusion that spending time on this is inappropriate. So, I,being completely self-righteous, based on our kitchen gathering, right off the bat and blurted out to him that we have no time for his idea. That is the meaning of my message can be described capacious "WONTFIX!". Such antics could affect the company's reputation. Sending beautiful is also art. I do not own it, so the Internet recommended that you read the book “Perfect Support” by Stepa McConnell. Advice to interns: do not trust everything that you read on the Internet.therefore, on the Internet, they recommended reading the book “Perfect Support” by Stöpa McConnell. Advice to interns: do not trust everything that you read on the Internet.therefore, on the Internet, they recommended reading the book “Perfect Support” by Stöpa McConnell. Advice to interns: do not trust everything that you read on the Internet.

So drew an option to find some other place to work, right on the spot and extend the visa. There was a dilemma: work or university. The choice was hard, but I decided to return to finish my studies. I think this is the right choice * crossed fingers * .

Conclusion


It is said that every mathematical formula reduces the number of readers by half. I want to check. I am not a mathematician, so I will write a conclusion by code. On javascript!

 '  '; function () { var  = ',  ,      ' + '.   ,         ' + '    Ruby   Pry (      ' + ').           ' + ',   .         ' + ' ,      ,    . , ' + ' , Open Source  .      .'; var _ = '  .    " ",     ' + '  "".   " ".'; return  + ' ' + _; } (); //   JS ;-)

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/285666/

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