Lessons Learned from Moving from Traditional Education to a Silicon Valley Startup Part 2: The Decision and Interview Process
This blog is part of a series that discusses my reasoning for making a mid-life career switch from a traditional education setting in Green Bay, WI to an Educational Tech Startup in Mountain View, CA.
You can click the link below for part 1.
First, it’s important to understand I’m not a programer in the traditional sense of the word. So my experiences in moving to Silicon Valley are going to be much different from other people’s. I’m an educator. I have a firm belief that we owe it to every student, at every age to provide them with the best possible education.
However, as part of my job teaching and working to improve education , I have acquired programming skills in Python, HTML, CSS, JS, Google Apps Script in the areas of web development, app building, and data analysis.
I have been able to do this through taking online courses like the ones offered at Udacity and through trial and error. These skills have at times felt like superpowers, but my superpowers pale in comparison with many of the amazing people I have met along the way. With background out of the way, let’s talk about the major life decision my wife and I made and the how the interview process fit into that.
In Part 1, you found out that I have already made the switch to Udacity, but the decision wasn’t an easy one.
After applying, I had a phone interview which led to a more formal interview. At this point, I wasn’t too nervous about what might come, but we had started to think about and talk about what it would mean for my family and I.
The more formal interview consisted of several parts. I knew this would be the case in talking with the excellent hiring manager at Udacity. One surprise I encountered came when I was sent the schedule for the interview. There would be a technical interview. It was my first time ever experiencing a technical interview and I wasn’t sure what it even entailed.
I did what I always do when I don’t know about something and Googled it. When I learned about what typically happened in a technical interview, I immediately started to panic. The interview was only two days away I needed to learn about program efficiency, Big-O notation, sorting algorithms and how to solve some complicated problems I had no experience with.
I watched YouTube videos, looked at websites and took the Udacity Course on Data Structures and Technical Interviewing Preparation. However, while I was more prepared than if I hadn’t done these things, I was far from knowledgeable about what I thought was going to be asked. I learned a lot of valuable language and strategies though. Thankfully, it was at a much lower level than I had anticipated, did pretty well on it and passed.
Tip- “work with your interviewer. They are really learning how you think though a problem”
My tip for doing a technical interview (especially without having done one before) is to prepare your best, but work with your interviewer. They are really learning how you think though a problem. There isn’t one solution to most of these types of problems.
Once I had made it through the gauntlet of interviews as it’s often called, I waited a few days and received an offer. During the days of waiting to hear back, my wife and I started doing the math on moving to Silicon Valley and deciding if we really wanted to pick up and move to another state. Neither of us had ever lived outside Wisconsin before, but we both severely dislike Wisconsin winters. So +1 California.
Tip- “Do negotiate, it’s important to do that.”
One issue we had was that my wife was not ready to quit her job and move to California right away, especially without her having secured a job. She initially thought she would wait a year and stay in our home while I tested the waters. That plan quickly fell apart as we started looking for housing in the Silicon Valley area. (Since that time she has begun actively looking for a job and wants to move ASAP :-)
We realized that if I took this job and she stayed behind we would still have to sell our home in Wisconsin just so I could afford a one bedroom apartment. Once we made that decision though, we knew what we needed for a targeted salary and benefit package.
When I received the offer, we ended up negotiating some as we were moving across the country and we were only going to do this if we both felt comfortable. This all went very well overall.
Do negotiate, it’s important to do that. I was a little worried about this at first, but if an employer really wants you, they’ll be willing to work with you in reason.
Still, this decision was very difficult. In the end it was the opportunity to be part of something amazing and the new opportunities that would likely be linked to this that made the decision pretty easy for us. The climate change didn’t hurt either!
It was hard to give up the very comfortable living we had built for ourselves in the Green Bay area, our friends, and the familiarity. In the end, we knew if we didn’t take this opportunity, we would probably regret it later.
“give your family time to digest the information”
Once the financials were out of the way and I accepted the offer, I had to talk with my employer, St. Norbert College and my family. St. Norbert, my work family, were sad to see me go, but excited for me. This was not the case with my parents though my sister was supportive. It took several weeks for them to come around and decide to support this move. My tip here is to give your family time to digest the information.
I needed to let them process why we made this decision and go through the what about fires, and earthquakes and traffic phases. We talked a lot through the process, but they came to understand that while they wouldn’t make this decision for themselves, it was alright that I did.
Unfortunately, while in the process of moving we did find out that my Dad has Pancreatic cancer, and that made things much more difficult for me. By that time we had already sold the house and signed a lease for an apartment in the Bay Area. Saying goodbye was very very hard.
The good that came out of this is that I talk with my parents everyday now, where before it was only once a week. So while we are not close physically I can still support my family through this difficult time. I’m hoping they’ll be able to visit between treatments because I actually think they’d like California.
Well, that’s the ending point of the decision and interviewing process. In the next part, I’ll talk a bit more about finding an apartment from 2000 miles away and moving with a dog!
I hope you enjoyed part 2.
