I’ve always been curious about the West Coast, especially San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Growing up in India and then working in the oil & gas industry in Latin America and Texas, I didn’t have much opportunity (or reason) to visit the Bay Area.
Now that I’m an MBA student at MIT Sloan, I want to explore the tech sector as a possible career path. So when I heard about the annual “Tech Trek” to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I jumped at the chance. Not only could I finally check out the West Coast, I also could check out tech companies – including several that don’t recruit on the MIT campus – and see if they might be a good fit for me.
Throughout the week, our group of 30 MBA students visited a mix of large and mid-sized companies in the hardware, software, and consulting areas. While they were all quite different, a common theme seemed to be an appreciation for being “scrappy.” In reality, some companies were scrappier than others, but it’s interesting that most tech companies embrace the concept of “all hands on deck” these days, especially since many have incredibly high valuations and in theory could afford an army of people in different functions.
We started our trek at LinkedIn, which is now a large established company. When I think about LinkedIn, I only think about its core functionality of providing a business network, so I was really interested to learn what else it has in store for the future. The presenters talked about the company’s exciting plans to expand in new directions and geographies. In particular, it is moving toward an analytics focus to make all that data it collects more useful for subscribers.
Moving on to Apple, my biggest impression was of its strong culture. We heard from several employees at various stages in their careers, several of whom were MIT Sloan alumni. They all shared an intensity and drive that I found remarkable. If your personality and ambitions align with those of the company, this could be a great place to develop your career.
VMware was a particularly interesting visit, as it does not have consumer-facing products. Many people on our trek weren’t from a tech background and were very curious to learn more about what this company does. Also, Dell had recently announced its intention to acquire VMware’s parent company, EMC, so we wanted to know how this news might impact the environment. Upon arrival, we were very warmly received by several MIT Sloan alumni who discussed their career trajectories. They did a great job explaining what the company does and the roles of MBAs at the organization. It was useful to hear that the company doesn’t require a specific degree to become a product manager (PM). Rather, the company values past experience and doesn’t provide a cookie cutter career path for everyone. As for the merger, they said it’s been business as usual on their end.
Next up was Walmart eCommerce. I was expecting this to feel pretty corporate, given Walmart’s size and relative age, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The e-commerce division is relatively new and the CFO we met showed as much enthusiasm for his job as any 20-something at a startup. The division was created to keep Walmart competitive with the likes of Amazon, and the employees have immense responsibility. They appreciate how they are helping one of the largest retailers in the U.S. move onto a new platform that can generate billions of dollars in business and impact millions of consumers.
Heading over to Google, I was really curious to see its famous campus. Like many others, I had watched the movie “The Internship,” which, regardless of its cinematic merits, did paint an image of Google’s campus as a sort of tech Disneyland. It was fun to see its indoor slide (although we didn’t see anyone actually using it), unique sculptures, and lots of open spaces for collaboration.
The people we met seemed very engaged and driven by innovation. They also appeared to have some fluidity in their roles, as many talked about having previously worked in different functions and on different products. It was notable how employees have a clear sense of what the overall company is doing rather than just a division-centric view of their own area. As for recruiting insight, we learned that a computer science degree or relevant experience is nonnegotiable for PM roles. I understood their point of view; since the products are so heavily technical, it is important for an incoming PM to be able to understand the code and gain credibility with engineers.
While it was hard to imagine an even bigger campus than Google, Facebook showed us what that looks like. Having taken over the former Sun Microsystems campus, Facebook is more like a mini-township. We also saw some of the strictest security at Facebook with company escorts accompanying us to the bathroom. This was oddly reassuring, as it