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Very interesting! Do tell me more about your experience :)

by itmag 15y ago

vidarh 15y ago
It was fun while it lasted, but I flew over about every 6-8 weeks, and it got exhausting long term. I'd usually effectively lose one day to travel each way + one day after I returned where I'd be totally useless. In terms of the work, it was challenging to work remotely. We spent a lot of time on Skype, but the time difference wrecked havoc on my schedule - my coworkers in the valley got in around 5pm-6pm London time, and would usually still be in the office at midnight my time, so I ended up working in the evenings a lot, often while also working a lot during the day. If it hadn't been a startup I might've tried to keep more strictly fixed working hours with evenings some days (to account for meetings etc) and more free time during the day, but that wasn't really an option. I managed a team, which was even trickier because whenever I flew out I'd spend 2-3 days resolving whatever drama had arisen since my last trip. My impression both from that job and others where I dealt with SV engineers is that you're far more likely to find some real primadonnas with huge egos amongst software engineers in SV than in most places in Europe. Most of the guys I worked with were really nice, though, and overall it was a great experience. Trickiest part with the regular visits: Make sure to never, ever say the wrong thing to immigration. If traveling under the visa waiver program, you're not allowed to do normal work while in the US. You can receive instruction and participate in meetings etc., but you can't do "productive work". We had an immigration lawyer instruct me in detail on what I was and was not allowed to do and how to address this with immigrations to mitigate the risk that I might get turned away. This was because I was flying in often enough to get asked extra questions now and again, though - if you fly in a couple of times a year, there's not much scrutiny, but I had about 13-14 stamps from SFO in my passport and none from other locations at one point...

Very interesting! Do tell me more about your experience :)

by itmag 15y ago

Very interesting! Do tell me more about your experience :)

It was fun while it lasted, but I flew over about every 6-8 weeks, and it got exhausting long term. I'd usually effectively lose one day to travel each way + one day after I returned where I'd be totally useless. In terms of the work, it was challenging to work remotely. We spent a lot of time on Skype, but the time difference wrecked havoc on my schedule - my coworkers in the valley got in around 5pm-6pm London time, and would usually still be in the office at midnight my time, so I ended up working in the evenings a lot, often while also working a lot during the day. If it hadn't been a startup I might've tried to keep more strictly fixed working hours with evenings some days (to account for meetings etc) and more free time during the day, but that wasn't really an option. I managed a team, which was even trickier because whenever I flew out I'd spend 2-3 days resolving whatever drama had arisen since my last trip. My impression both from that job and others where I dealt with SV engineers is that you're far more likely to find some real primadonnas with huge egos amongst software engineers in SV than in most places in Europe. Most of the guys I worked with were really nice, though, and overall it was a great experience. Trickiest part with the regular visits: Make sure to never, ever say the wrong thing to immigration. If traveling under the visa waiver program, you're not allowed to do normal work while in the US. You can receive instruction and participate in meetings etc., but you can't do "productive work". We had an immigration lawyer instruct me in detail on what I was and was not allowed to do and how to address this with immigrations to mitigate the risk that I might get turned away. This was because I was flying in often enough to get asked extra questions now and again, though - if you fly in a couple of times a year, there's not much scrutiny, but I had about 13-14 stamps from SFO in my passport and none from other locations at one point...