My 89 days at Silicon Valley :)
I do not remember exactly when was the first time I heard about Silicon Valley. It could be during my undergrad days. Not sure. But the term Silicon Valley became more captivating to me, after reading the biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. Palo Alto, Los Altos, San Jose, Mountain View, Cupertino, Stanford … All these places became household names as I learned more and more about Steve Jobs’s story.
One amusing thing about Silicon Valley that influenced me deeply, was the idea of the hobbyists and drop-outs starting the tech revolution in their garages. They had built billion-dollar companies out of their hobby projects and overthrew the big corporates with innovation, and tenacity. I often wondered about the impact these visionaries have created with their artistic products, even in my day-to-day life, which is 15000 miles away from the Valley.
Long story short, on a fine day in 2010, I added Silicon Valley to my bucket list of destinations to visit before I die. I wanted to take a picture at Steve Jobs’s garage in Los Altos. I wanted to see Golden Gate Bridge. I wanted to visit Stanford … a list of to-dos.
To realise such a dream in 2010 was completely unattainable for me. I couldn’t even imagine going to the US for a visit as a tourist, considering the financial aspect of it. The next option is via employment and software companies are the best bet on it. But there was a catch. I hated coding. I had found programming very confusing in my college and decided that a software job is not my cup of tea. I even ditched a campus placement offer because of this reason.
But I always believe in seeing unattainable dreams.
Fast forward 12 years …
Dreams do come true, ain’t it?
And I work on software 😀
My journey to Silicon Valley
So from a ludicrous dream to a reality, how did things work for me?
In 2020 November, I joined Ericsson as a Machine Learning Engineer at their Global AI Accelerator. In 2021, I’ve got an opportunity to apply for Ericsson’s Early Career Program (ECP). As the name suggests, this program is intended for candidates who are in their early careers. Ericsson provides 18 months of training and experience to the candidates to become the future leaders of the company. Potential applicants may apply for the opportunity internally as well as externally. There will be multiple rounds of interviews in both cases and the selection criteria are the performance in these interviews and the overall professional profile of the candidate.
In 18 months, each candidate gets a chance to work with three different teams in Ericsson. These are called rotations. Among the three rotations, at least one should be an international opportunity.
These rotations help the candidates to understand a mammoth company like Ericsson from different perspectives. The international assignments will help to build self-confidence, adjust to untried challenges and foster inclusive leadership acumen in the candidates.
My ECP International Rotation @ D-15 Labs
or my second rotation, I reached out to multiple teams outside India and I managed to land up on two offers. One was in Spain and the other was in the US. Both were equally promising opportunities, and for the time being, I decided to go forward with D-15 Labs, Santa Clara, CA.
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Again, for landing on a rotation also, the candidate has to go through rounds of interviews.
Ericsson’s D-15 labs is a 5G test bed at the heart of Silicon Valley. D-15 collaborates with partner companies to experiment, build an MVP and move forward to the business side of things. NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Apple are all on the list of partners. To give an instance, Apple Watch calling feature was tested in D-15 Labs.
During my time at D-15, I was able to understand so much about communication networks, since the lab provides a miniature version of the actual commercial network, that includes a Radio Access Network, Packet Core, Control Plane, User Plane and UE.
I was able to work with a set of professionals who are from different parts of the world. Such an environment provides the prospect of learning new ways of working, reflecting on our own biases and weak links.
I find myself fortunate that I was at the right time at the right place so that I could attend two events that happened in the US which significantly recast my perspectives.
ECP Cohort Program, Plano TX
With ECP, the learning opportunities are not limited to rotations. ECP organising team collaborates with business schools to provide modules on various markets. The first module was on developing markets of Ericsson. The first module happened during the lockdown, the team had no choice but to conduct it virtually. As the world reopened, a week-long business module on established markets was conducted in person, at Ericsson US headquarters in Plano, TX.
The business module was in association with Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business, in Boston, Massachusetts. The professors from the University led the leadership sessions. It was a busy week with full of learning, unlearning, relearning and so much fun.
We got a chance to visit the 5G Smart Factory of Ericsson in Lewisville, TX.
Ericsson Imagine Possible Event, Santa Clara, CA
From Extended Reality (XR) and the Metaverse to the future of Enterprise connectivity, Ericsson’s Imagine Possible event was held at Santa Clara, CA on October 18th and 19th, showcasing the power of this new world through lively discussion and real-world examples. There were representations of all big names from a diverse portfolio.
I was able to attend the event on both days, and got a chance to learn from a lot of industry leaders.
I don’t know how dreams work. I don’t know how the universe conspires to make them a reality. I don’t know if even the alchemist guy is correct.
But I always believe in Steve Jobs’s theory of connecting the dots. Whatever happens in life, I always try to think that it happened for a reason, and I will be able to connect those dots when I look back on life. And I am so grateful to my life for that 🙂
In closing thoughts, I would like to quote Shahrukh Khan, the famous Indian movie actor.
Sometimes it is all about being at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. Of course, you need to work hard, and you should have talent. But more than any of it, circumstances play a significant role in being successful.
