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

In the winter of 2013, Lady Fortune finally turned to me in the right place and smiled that there is urine. The news gave hope for a brighter future: a letter flew from the foggy San Francisco by wire straight home to Kharkov. I was offered an internship in the summer in one of the promising startups, which is already booming in the open spaces of 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 by correspondence course than such a chance to express themselves. Especially when you didn’t even expect such a turn of fate, but secretly dreamed.

After an internship in the fall of 2014, I returned to reality, that is, home. I got to know the Lady better, but she waved at me with a pen and disappeared into the air, leaving only a sweetish taste of lipstick on her lips: in connection with the impending so-called practical training at the university and going to graduation in the winter, I had to return. The duration of the visa was carefully selected 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 ways useful.

Programming is an excellent invention of mankind. It allows you to travel in space and time in 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 the powerful influence of which this article is written.

And it addresses such serious issues:

• how David Beckham treated me to a milk shake or what to do before leaving;
• the splendor and poverty of Cisco or what I should find a house;
• California's normal natural phenomena: earthquakes, sex, and feminism;
• working days or why I do not like CEOs in a supermarket;
• I heard about the weekend. Is there life outside the office?
• my first and last GoGaRuCo 2014 conference;
• what leads to an excess of initiativeosterone in the body.

How David Beckham treated me to a milk shake or what to do before leaving

What can await a person who has never been not only abroad (including neighboring Russia), but even in the western part of his own country? What awaits someone who is going to go to a country where no one even thinks to speak Russian in your presence? Of course, he will receive a passport. Save a month or two for the registration procedure or speed up the process in rubles (spokuha, this is legal). Since I had plenty of time until the summer, at the same time I decided to get another driver’s license. Identity documents are not superfluous. Especially those that give you rights in a country where rights and freedoms are more right and freer than in other countries. I’ll run ahead and note that I was able to drive through the night of Cisco (short for San Francisco) only by bicycle. I was definitely not allowed to go to the steering wheel. It turned out that just a Ukrainian driver’s license is not enough, you still need to draw up some additional documents. But the legs said thank you to me.

Among other things, it was necessary to receive an official invitation to the internship, which is issued by a third party specially authorized to issue such invitations. Fortunately, it was not difficult, since the task fell on the shoulders of the inviting company. All that was required of me was to fill out 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 Skype interview. The interview is necessary to make sure that the subject can relate the words “Halloween” and “World” to the full meaning of “Coliges of the ezakutiv komiti, let me speake” ... well, then you yourself know.

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

Having received a passport, an invitation to 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 nice bonus; the rest is required for a visa). I was interested in J1 visa. Before leaving, I read all kinds of horror stories about interviews. People create whole sites with tips. Well, I think, since they draw a wolf so scary, you need to prepare a little and memorize the answers to standard questions. It was possible not to bathe. I went to Kiev for 7 hours to speak 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 whole appearance that the ambassador is also in the subject. He asked what Ruby is and how it is cooler than other languages. I, as if by chance, 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 backs of the future trainee. On that and dispersed. Once the job is done, now it was possible to see the city. On the Maidan, someone from Moldova accidentally treated me to a milk neck, because he liked my LA Galaxy trowel, in which Beckham had once played. True, then he clarified that their kiosk is experimenting with necks. Well, thanks for that. Beckham. Nice fellow. since he liked my LA Galaxy trowel, which Beckham had once played in. True, then he clarified that their kiosk is experimenting with necks. Well, thanks for that. Beckham. Nice fellow. since he liked my LA Galaxy trowel, which Beckham had once played in. True, then he clarified that their kiosk is experimenting with necks. Well, thanks for that. Beckham. Nice fellow.

The splendor and poverty of Cisco or what should I find a home

The matter remained small: to wait when it arrives by mail zagran and take plane tickets, and then fly and conquer. The costs of my travel and visa were fully covered by the company. I’ve never used to fly an airplane before. So when we were in the air and something rumbled loudly throughout the cabin, I was one hundred percent sure that it was just someone's dropped handbag. Among other things, I realized that only brave people fly in the USA. I would not be able to sit quietly for 14 hours in a chair, so I tossed and turned and went to the toilet. Turned over more often. I recommend taking headphones and listening to my music, but not offered by the plane. Saves from boredom and yelling babies. But you can still put up with boredom.

When I arrived, I was immediately lodged in a hotel, two minutes from the office. The first day I was told that they can fulfill only three of my desires: buy any laptop, monitor and input devices (well, four: keyboard and mouse - these are two input devices). Since the whole team used the Paradise Apples without exception, and I never even managed to drive Mac OS, I did not choose for a long time. I didn’t like Mac OS right away. I gravitate towards more tangible things like xmonad. On the Mac, it’s just a worthless window manager. I had to install several applications that bring some of the features I need that directly affect productivity. Once again, worry: we are not indulging in piracy here - the company paid for the software.

The first two weeks, when he lived in a hotel, he didn’t go anywhere at all. The task was to hold out all this time for the Spartan 200 dollars that I took with me. During this time period it was necessary to get your American identification code (popularly referred to as SSN), since without it you are guaranteed to remain without a salary. Of course, the company would provide financial assistance if I were 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, it 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 I fell for the first time on American spinning: instead of the planned forty minutes, I wandered for two hours. The thing is that street signs show the street that runs perpendicularly, not the one you are walking along. I gained this knowledge empirically. By the way, I heartily recommend the MapsWithMe app. Although his search is not the best, he still has the most reliable offline maps. In general, San Francisco immediately reminded me of a GTA computer game: neighborhoods, a lot of expensive cars, restaurants, hotels, a horde of homeless people, beggars screaming or talking to themselves crazy in the streets. Beggars always stand near supermarkets and ask for a trifle or small bills (they are always courteous and specify what they want). There are much 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 like Tenderloin are less prosperous, and my WTF per square meter density in those neighborhoods was slightly higher than elsewhere. Mostly there is a black population and it seems they all know each other. Usually they are swirling at intersections, or along Market Street, as if protecting their border from tourists. Some other areas, such as Sia Clif, are luxurious throughout. A three-story house with a courtyard, an ideal lawn and a view of the sea, where the kids are carefree running around - there it is in the order of things. Shine and poverty in one bottle. Speaking of houses, one cannot but say about their inhabitants. All people have completely different looks. It is quite difficult to stand out from the crowd, as tattoos or lilac hair no longer clearly express individuality and merge with the colorful range of the rest of the population. Rate the scale: I witnessed a group of seven men in black latex pants and an almost naked torso (in the best traditions of the Blue Oyster Bar) walked around and talked selflessly. Not that it outraged me, it’s just hard to imagine this in our latitudes. As some man once said: well, they are ***! Something is stuck on the keyboard. Others they say.

The World Cup was already booming, and I, in turn, rattled the buttons on the keyboard, bombing Craigslist with my letters in search of an apartment. The internship was paid and the agreement was that the company only pays for a hotel (which costs an average of $ 150 per day; prices change daily). Let's go see the first apartment. We (I asked the supervisor, the person who was responsible for me as a native trainee son, to come with me) were met by some bald Indian (which is at least suspicious, because I thought he lives in Redmond), who asked me to speak be quiet so that the neighbors do not hear (although I was generally silent, but he mainly spoke). He said that he was leaving far away for a couple of months. He asked for a deposit and warned that if they burn that I live there, then the deposit will burn, and they will expel me in disgrace. How about no? He’s naive I didn’t know where my chuyka 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 ($ 2200). There is nowhere to go - 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 slept on a bed with white linen alone. The bed was almost in the kitchen, so it was delicious to sleep. Another pleasant thing: in my case, the rental was automated by the very tomatoes. When the push clogged at night, I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was repaired. Nice work, gentlemen. As a result, I found a decent apartment (the so-called studio) for decent money ($ 2200). There is nowhere to go - 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 slept on a bed with white linen alone. The bed was almost in the kitchen, so it was delicious to sleep. Another pleasant thing: in my case, the rental was automated by the very tomatoes. When the push clogged at night, I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was repaired. Nice work, gentlemen. As a result, I found a decent apartment (the so-called studio) for decent money ($ 2200). There is nowhere to go - 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 slept on a bed with white linen alone. The bed was almost in the kitchen, so it was delicious to sleep. Another pleasant thing: in my case, the rental was automated by the very tomatoes. When the push clogged at night, I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was repaired. Nice work, gentlemen. 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 slept on a bed with white linen alone. The bed was almost in the kitchen, so it was delicious to sleep. Another pleasant thing: in my case, the rental was automated by the very tomatoes. When the push clogged at night, I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was repaired. Nice work, gentlemen. 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 slept on a bed with white linen alone. The bed was almost in the kitchen, so it was delicious to sleep. Another pleasant thing: in my case, the rental was automated by the very tomatoes. When the push clogged at night, I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was repaired. Nice work, gentlemen. then I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was already repaired. Nice work, gentlemen. then I just filled out the form on the site, and early in the morning I was already repaired. Nice work, gentlemen.

Mobile communication was provided to me 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. To talk, send or receive SMS, it was necessary to go down to the first floor, pray the heavens and come close to the front door. It happened that in some places it even caught on the street. 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 phenomena: earthquakes, sex, and feminism

Speaking of girls, I cannot but mention that here I first tasted feminism. No, of course, I heard about him before, but it was in the USA that I got into a funny situation. One weekday morning, I noticed that usually a habitually cheerful colleague was somehow sad. Well, I think let me cheer her up and say something nice. Without a second thought I say: "Something you are so sad today, come on, smile." To which she answered me so that I would stop behaving strangely. And I'm not strange at all in life, well, I stopped. The evening of the next day, having completely forgotten about this incident (but simply did not attach any special significance to it), I was going 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 him everything about him. When I found out that they considered it something of a harassment, I was a little taken aback, as I had nothing of the kind in my thoughts. Fortunately, no one was angry at me, because everyone understood that although we are all together and great democrats, we still have cultural differences. In any case, I accepted their rules of the game and no longer gave me reasons to be considered a sexist. They have the issue of oppressing women in IT is much more acute than ours, they can be understood. However, this made me wonder: how is it even possible to get to know someone for a relationship who works in IT? And it’s already scary to make a compliment. They have the issue of oppressing women in IT is much more acute than ours, they can be understood. However, this made me wonder: how is it even possible to get to know someone for a relationship who works in IT? And it’s already scary to make a compliment. They have the issue of oppressing women in IT is much more acute than ours, they can be understood. However, this made me wonder: how is it even possible to get to know someone for a relationship who works in IT? And it’s already scary to make a compliment.

Workdays or why I don't like CEOs in a supermarket

The British and the Americans worked with me. There were 7 of us in total. 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 they loved and fooled around (sometimes even too much). People there are some more liberated, or something. After work, and sometimes during, they could afford to play a game in any of the many board games, Mario Kart on Wii or just drink alcohol. In general, everything is like everyone else. My tasks included working with the zoo of technologies and languages. I didn’t have any clear Big task. There was only Me and the next Madame Task, which politely asked her to solve (and for the rest, there was a Mastercard). Since this is a startup that supports a lot of things, and our team is small, then we all should have been able to do just a little bit, but doing it well. The main difficulty for me was that I had to quickly switch between programming languages ​​and adapt to a lot on the fly. Some technology had to be mastered on the spot (damn you,GOPATH!). Therefore, I almost did not have fun there. I note that they did not let me into the most important parts of the system. Probably, they were embarrassed that I executed the hippo with confidence on the build server rm -rf $HOMEwhen I wanted to delete a directory called accidentally created by my clumsy script $HOME. Shellshock, speak? Haha, laughing in the face!

I’m not picky about food, but at the university you could pretend that you are sitting in the dining room and gnawing your piece of science granite violently with everyone, but in fact it’s the only way you nibble languidly. In real combat conditions, one had to look for this granite itself and gnaw it out from Aunt Pasha’s viscous claws (from the word "plow"). You know, she didn’t always have granite. I chose the attacking scheme and came to the office one of the first, and always left the last. So hard I have never worked in my life. According to the textual precepts of many interns gurus, I took the initiative and climbed into those sacks in which I was not expected to triumphantly pull out the rabbit ears from there and surprise everyone. On board games, Mario Kart, drinks and women preferred not to exchange.

I liked the payment method they use in the USA. In Ukraine, I had to beg for a salary (which is also delayed by at least a month) from the general director and catch him in supermarkets across the street opposite the office, at the moment when he seems to be sitting at home and supposedly getting sick. There was no need to run after anyone. Grandmas themselves flew into a dense string on a bank card. Of course, some of them decided on my way to turn towards the pockets of tax officials (from the word "blessed"), but in the USA multiculturalism and society teach us to be tolerant, so I was tax-tolerant. I even have politically correct business people in the title of the Bank of America brochure. By the way, when I said that I used to work in informal work, no one understood me at all. I had to explain the shocking truth about the methods of employment in my country. In short, it is very pleasant that now I had to worry only about work, and not about various distracting, swirling CEOs.

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

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

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

It has not been in my life so that my belly has recognized me in love. Over the course of my internship, this has happened many, many times. Firstly, the company provided free meals. This means that it was possible to experiment with food endlessly and painlessly for both the wallet and the abdomen itself (my mother passed activated charcoal, but it was not useful). Secondly, almost every home has restaurants in San Francisco. There are cuisines from around the world. However, some of them are highly Americanized: I once went into a “Vietnamese” restaurant, where you can’t buy anything but ordinary sandwiches. The most Vietnamese thing that was there was the Vietnamese at the seller. I also went to the Russian restaurant there. Would you like to taste the eleven-wheeled chicken dumplings in the amount of 11 for $ 11? How about a bird portion of Olivier salad for $ 9? But kvass and borsch were cool, everyone liked it. Thirdly, some food itself was just tastier. For example, orange juice. In our country, as usual, this is not juice, but just a sweet concentrated sugar liquid, diluted with the imagination of the manufacturer. There it is a real squeezed juice. Or maybe they just have more advanced preservatives? I warmly recommend cold raspberry and pomegranate mate (Yerba Buena Mate) in glass bottles. Or maybe they just have more advanced preservatives? I warmly recommend cold raspberry and pomegranate mate (Yerba Buena Mate) in glass bottles. Or maybe they just have more advanced preservatives? I warmly recommend cold raspberry and pomegranate mate (Yerba Buena Mate) in glass bottles.

In San Francisco, it seems that the developers all know each other more or less. It seems that they don’t drink so actively in those parts. How do they get to know each other? They probably know each other because the company’s offices are literally adjacent to each other, and when changing jobs they simply cross the road, to the other side of the street and wave their hands from the windows of the offices. Someone's friends work on Twitter, and some have a guy in Github. This is the norm and it is not surprising to anyone except me. Employees from different companies often spend leisure time together or go to theme parties. In this regard, I came to the realization that there are exactly the same people. Maybe a little luckier. And if we had as much luck, then maybe in our world we would have our own Cisco. Oh, dreams ...

But San Francisco is not only a place where IT people from around the world gather. It is also a great city for hiking and cycling. Rather, not the city itself, but the so-called Bay Area of ​​the San Francisco Bay Area. Dozens of artificial routes have already been worked out for hiking in many parks and forests. However, for adventure lovers, the peppercorn is lost, since almost nowhere can one turn into artificial capitalist woodlands wilds. As usual, nobody ennobles forests, so going out into the forest is a real quest. Although hiking is to my liking, I always appreciated bicycles more. Riding along the Kharkiv roads is scary. You yourself know how you drive. And there the drivers are very gentle and caring, so driving around the city is fun and safe. So I realized my old dream: I went to work on a bicycle (even for 10 minutes a day in total). Many interesting cycling routes run towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It is difficult to convey the delight when you rush from the Golden Gate down to Sausalito at high speed. Fans of longer trips recommend a trip to Tiburon and back. Some neighborhoods make you remember the good old Fallout.

The bike! Once in a conversation he mentioned that we have a lot of things being done to doom. Asked to explain what it is all about. I took a moment to think, because explaining the meaning of the word immediately is not easy. He began to explain, but they immediately realized that I was talking about corruption. I thought again and agreed.

Another bike. On the street quite often heard Russian speech. One middle-aged woman, even without an "exclusivity," like that, famously from the back came up to me and recognized me as a Russian speaker. She asked in Russian how to get to the library. It seems that I did not manage 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 GoGaRuCo 2014 conference

One cannot but mention the uncountable 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, since the work was more important, I was lucky to attend one of the conferences. My company was on the list of main sponsors of GoGaRuCo - the annual conference for rubists. Thanks to this, I got there for free. We had a table there with a swag (swag; as they call good with the symbols of the company, which is distributed free of charge to everyone). We handed out a lot of things, but here portable chargers for phones scattered like pancakes on Shrovetide. I, in turn, scored free t-shirts from tables of other companies. The conference was held for 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 hypnosis magic, you can attract many people. In addition to promoting the symbols of my own company, I also worked in the name of the holy Open Sorsia and handed out stickers to everyone 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 worked almost always. Just stick a sticker discreetly in your palm and make your feet. So why is this my last GoGaRuCo? Everything is simple. This conference has been held for the sixth year in a row, so it is "tired and gone." Seriously, the organizers did not explain the reason (or maybe I overslept).

What causes an excess of initiativeosterone in the body

Unfortunately, fairy tales always have an end. Here came the end of my fairy tale. I never managed to become a full-fledged employee. Although the company was pleased with my results in general, my lack of experience in real production affected me. They needed strong people, and I had not gone to the gym for a long time. At times, he too took the initiative. I had a very large motivation charge and an excess of initiativeosterone. This manifested itself to such an extent that a couple of times I allowed the support to tell customers something that I myself had no idea about. And once one very important client (I already found out later) requested a change, which, in his opinion, improves some functionality in our service. We have been discussing this issue for a long time within the company and came to the conclusion that it is not advisable to spend time on this. So here I am Being completely confident in his innocence, based on our kitchen gathering, he immediately blurted out to him that we have no time for his idea. I mean, the meaning of my message can be described by the capacious “WONTFIX!”. Such tricks could affect the company's reputation. Sending beautifully is also an art. I don’t own it, so they recommended reading Styopa McConnell’s book “Perfect Support” on the Internet. Advice to trainees: do not trust everything you read on the Internet. therefore, on the Internet, they recommended reading Styopa McConnell's book “Perfect Support”. Advice to trainees: do not trust everything you read on the Internet. therefore, on the Internet, they recommended reading Styopa McConnell's book “Perfect Support”. Advice to trainees: do not trust everything you read on the Internet.

So the option was drawn to find some other place of work, so that 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

They say that each mathematical formula reduces the number of readers by half. I want to check. I am not a mathematician, so I will write the conclusion with code. JavaScript!

'использовать строгий джс';
function сделатьЗаключение() {
  var спасибо = 'Наверное, стоит рассказать, каким чудом меня вообще туда ' +
    'занесло. Дело в том, что я вхожу в команду разработчиков популярного в ' +
    'узких кругах джема для Ruby под названием Pry (я о нём упоминал уже в ' +
    'статье). Один мой тиммейт как раз и предложил приехать постажироваться в ' +
    'стартап, где он работает. Мы были знакомы с ним виртуально на протяжении ' +
    'нескольких лет, так что я уже примерно знал, чего от него ожидать. Ребята, ' +
    'не сомневайтесь, Open Source меняет жизнь. Творите во имя карьеры и добра.';
  var за_внимание = 'США пришлось покинуть. Я не сказал "скоро буду", но я также и ' +
    'не сказал "прощайте". Я сказал "увидимся позже".';
  return спасибо + ' ' + за_внимание;
}
сделатьЗаключение(); // Это валидный JS ;-)