Greetings from the land of techies, hybrids and the highest average SAT scores on the West Coast. This summer I'll be living in the heart of Silicon Valley working as a public relations intern for education tech startup Coursera. Maybe it's the free meals and unlimited snacks and beverages. Maybe it's the culture of my coworkers being incredibly friendly and genuinely collaborative. Maybe it's the seven minute commute via bike. Maybe it's the ultra-low humidity yet gorgeous sun. Who knows, but it's only been one week and I can already feel the beginnings of an exciting, memorable summer.
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| Women in Cloud? More like Lily on Cloud Nine. |
Day two at Coursera and my manager leaned over from her desk to casually ask if I'd be up to go into the city for an event at Google's San Francisco office after work. Without a moment of hesitation I jumped at the opportunity. So, as it turns out, my first time in San Francisco as a working woman ended up being for a Women in Cloud (technology) event hosted by Google. I was expecting a high-quality event, but man, Google's events team went above and beyond. Keeping with the cloud theme, there were "clouds" of white balloons hanging from the ceiling all around the room as well as adorable golden cloud temporary tattoos. A pianist and flutist were jamming in one corner next to the full wine service bar. On the other side of the room was a decadent "small bites" buffet, complete with branded cupcakes sporting the colorful Google "G" and super friendly waiters.
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| Talk about an office with a view! |
That evening, taking the Caltrain from San Francisco back to Mountain View I experienced a great deal of empathy for my colleagues who make that commute daily. Commuting is a way of life here. I feel like when you meet a coworker the first three questions are...
- What's your name?
- What department are you in?
- Where do you live and have far is the commute?
They say Mountain View is the 'burbs of Silicon Valley. Well, if this is suburbia, I think I'm in love!
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| Hello from about a fifth of the Coursera team! |
Speaking of love, this past weekend there were Pride Month festivities in the city. I didn't celebrate it this weekend, but at work on Friday we did recognize it a bit. There were talks about inclusivity, we were all encouraged to dress colorfully, a company blog post came out about Coursera's goals for welcoming LGBTQ+ employees and at happy hour there were (delicious) rainbow cupcakes.
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| If this aspect of PR were only more talked about in school... |
And if Coursera wasn't wining and dining us enough, this afternoon the whole Marketing and PR team got to leave work early to go to our offsite department activity. We went to a little wine bar in San Carlos to paint and sip. There was a picture we could copy if we needed a little extra inspiration and it was interesting seeing who painted the picture exactly as it was and who went totally out of the box. The design people on the team did some pretty impressive -- and different -- stuff, while the analytics people copied the original piece line for line.
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Waiting for an Uber Lyft at the Googleplex. |
Outside of work I got to catch up with my friend and fellow CBYX-er Lucas at a music festival this weekend. I've already run into another Oregon Duck unexpectedly while in San Francisco last week and another CBYX alumnus named Jessica came by Coursera for dinner Monday. It is a small world in general and Silicon Valley is an especially small one. It's only been a little more than a week and I'm looking forward to what the next 11 will bring. But for now, time for some beauty sleep!
