A year in San Francisco

I feel that nothing has changed compared to yesterday but when I look back to last year, I realize a lot of things have changed for me.

Wow, it's already been a year in San Francisco! Living in bay area has changed me as a person. If you ever wonder about life of a coder in San Francisco, this might help you as I share my perspective.

Weather

They said go to California, weather is great in California they said.

Unlike rest of California, SF weather is not something that you want to admire all the time. SF is popular as fog city. @karlthefog best explains why that is true! I have stayed in hot weather of Mumbai for most of my life. Spent couple years in hot weather of Arizona. In all, I am naturally adaptive of hot weather. After moving to San Francisco, I have added more jackets / coats to my wardrobe more than any other type of clothing . I stay few blocks from ocean. Early mornings and evenings are foggy for me most of the times. There are days that I can count with my fingers when I can leave home without carrying a jacket throughout a year. But like most techies in bay area, I learnt to wear a hoodie on daily basis. Sometimes layering up with a winter jacket on top of hoodie is now part of my life.

People

Being surrounded by highly successful, driven individuals is contagious.

Staying and working in SF has intensified my desire to succeed, grow, learn and be challenged. The amount of opportunity in this area continues to amaze me, which certainly fuels the drive. In one year staying in SF, I have stayed with roommates from different countries, different genders working in crazy different areas. One of my roommates was a cop and she worked at Alcatraz. Other roommate was self-learnt surfer, rapper, guitarist with a day job in solar industry. I have learnt a lot from all of them. We have had Polish parties at home, Spanish barbeque in the backyard and my sister threw Pani Puri(Indian snack) party for my friends when she visited me. Similarly, my workplace is very diverse too. Besides, I use Shapr, LinkedIn apps to have coffee with seniors in my field working with companies like Airbnb, Intuit, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. It was a very humbling experience when CTO of E&Y came down to Yelp to have coffee with me (Thanks Ken, your few minutes did wonder to me). I have memories of meeting with many more folks that changed a tiny bit of me simply by being who they are. I think it deserves a new blog altogether.

Home

I have always been a beach person. I spent quite some time to find out a house near the beach. In one year I stayed at 2 different places, both near the ocean. I love the place where I stay right now. It's a block from golden gate park. If you have ever stayed in SF, you will know how big of a deal it is to find a place that is affordable + good (in x different dimensions). SF is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I learnt to be more aware of finances than ever before to be able to afford a stay in this city. I am moving again as my fiance came to stay with me for good. Enjoying current place right now before we start with house hunting process again!

Culture

I have always been a person who is open to learning. After being friends with wonderful people from different backgrounds, I believe more in humanity than in any particular religion, including my own. I believe that everyone should be free to choose their religion, sex or gender. I am close friends with folks who society identifies as gay/ lesbian/ transgender. As I dig deeper and spend more time with them, it becomes clearer to me that we are all humans who function differently. And everyone is trying to be happy in their own ways. Period.

Work

I am not saying that every company in SF has culture that makes you feel excited to go to work. But mine does! I have the liberty to chose projects that interest me, and work for hours that leave me with great work-life balance. If you ask engineers at Yelp about what they like the most about working here, usually the answer will be either culture or people or both. I am part of Awesome Women in Engineering at Yelp, that gives me an opportunity to continue working in some of the many causes I believe in, women empowerment and career development. I have had worse of managers in my career, I have worked for 6 days a week from 9am to 9pm and I want to say that I really appreciate the job I currently have.

Conclusion

I love the vibes in this city and I love how diverse and accepting people in this city are. I don't realize how things are changing for me until I sit back and reflect on where I have come in a year's time. Very grateful for everything this city gave me, and I am excited about the future.

I will end this with a line that I read somewhere, "Change is constant but growth is optional".

PS: If you feel that I am lucky to be living this kind of life, just a note that its iceberg illusion. I interviewed for 7 months before starting the job at Yelp. I had no money when I was starting out in SF. I borrowed money from friends to put down a deposit. All of this was super intentional and it's not based on just luck.