Silicon Valley is such a unique place - Part 1

I have been thinking lately about the opportunity cost of leaving Silicon Valley (as I mentioned in my previous post) so I started contemplating the last 9 years that I have been here in the "Valley", as the locals call it.

I finished school in 2001 and started looking for a job right when the internet bubble bursted. It was a very tough environment especially for people without real practical skills (as was my case at the time, we'll get to why that was the case in a later Post). I landed two job interviews which resulted in one job offer which I accepted happily. I was about to design my own Printed Circuit Boards to be used to test Networking gear. A significantly complex project for a guy out of school. Good times for a couple of months as I learned a lot on the job.

Given that this job was at a networking company, the bubble burst did eventually hit the company's finances and layoffs ensued - a round every quarter with 10-20% of the people laid off. After 18 months of stressful times (still with a job though) and a couple of cancelled projects, I decided to start hedging against this uncertain situation. So I contacted some of the people I worked with who have been either laid off at previous rounds and joined other companies or who moved on deliberately. The engineer who was sitting in the cube next to me and with whom I interacted at times (but not that much), passed my resume to the HR person at the company where he was working. Turns out he was an engineer at a well known graphics processors (GPU) company. I had no idea how transferable my newly acquired skills would be but I thought that I had little choice but to give it a shot. There I went and I interviewed with a team of engineers who was looking for somebody who could build a whole environment to help them test their new Chip design. I eventually convinced them that I was a good bet and they hired me. I was lucky enough to get the offer letter a couple of days before I finally got laid off from my first job...

let's take a look at the underlying threads here :

• Hire "smart" people, that's the only way to success : Even though I didn't have practical skills coming out of school, somebody was willing to take a chance on an energetic well-educated guy. (no pretentiousness here ...)
• Empower yourself, you're in charge you're not a victim : I took my fate in my own hands and I looked for another job instead of having to do it after losing my source of income. This is a common theme in how people behave around here.
• Hire "smart" people - take 2 : Even though I had experience in one field, somebody was willing to take a chance on me in a completely different field with a clear 3 months ramp-up time.
• Prioritize hiring people who are recommended by people you already know : peer validation is a very powerful selection tool. When people have their reputation on the line, they won't forward you a bogus resume. That was the case when my old colleague recommended me to get in.
• Recessions don't last forever and there is always somebody thriving in a recession : I didn't feel discouraged by the fact the internet bubble burst was pretty significant historically, I looked around to find out where the opportunities are ...

The combination of people's spirit and business' willingness to value human capital makes Silicon Valley a pretty special place.

Part-2 of this series will show how the concentration of talent and professional networking can be a key part of ones Valley experience.