{"id":2970,"date":"2020-09-05T14:08:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T04:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eisabainyo.net\/weblog\/?p=2970"},"modified":"2020-11-09T11:39:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T01:39:46","slug":"my-observations-of-san-francisco-as-a-tech-worker-pre-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eisabainyo.net\/weblog\/2020\/09\/05\/my-observations-of-san-francisco-as-a-tech-worker-pre-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"My Observations of San Francisco as a Tech Worker Pre-Covid"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to San Francisco for a week for work and this was my observation<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard of the delicious clam chowder, the iconic Fisherman\u2019s Wharf and Golden Gate Bridge, the famous cable cars in San Francisco. The city that\u2019s also known as the city of Bay or Bay Area. I went there late 2019 to speak at a tech conference, decided to do more than just touristy activities and saw the city from a different light.<\/p>\n

Second Or Third Generation Asian Americans Tech Celebrities<\/h3>\n

Whether you\u2019re in a subway or a shopping mall, you\u2019d hear people talking in American accent about pop culture or the latest technology only to turn around and see Asian faces. These folks are the second or third-generation Asian Americans and they are all around the city in San Francisco. They are also like mini-celebrities with a sizeable audience, but instead of being on screens of movie theaters, they are on screens of your mobile devices, via YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Medium, Facebook or iTunes Podcast. Disclaimer: The sizeable audience part is measured by the number of followers they have on social media who may or may not be real humans.<\/p>\n

Large Billboards Promoting Software<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s nothing surprising about large billboards; you see them in almost every city in every country. But what I find amazing is that ten out of ten large billboards that I saw in the Bay Area are promoting software. That human resource software, that chat app, that customer relationship management system, that email newsletter software, that incident management app; it was as if the skyscraper and medium rectangle banner ads that you often see as you browse through the web came to life in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Everyone (That I Spoke To) Works At A Tech Company<\/h3>\n

That woman who graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing; she works in people operations in a tech company. That man who dropped out of uni halfway through his Bachelor of science; he works as a community manager at another tech company. That person I met as I was waiting for my morning coffee; they work as a UX designer at yet another tech company. Even that Uber driver who lives near Palo Alto and drives to and fro San Francisco multiple times a day used to work at a tech company in San Francisco. One thing I have to admit though is that some of the tech companies mentioned by people I\u2019ve met don\u2019t ring a bell.<\/p>\n

Jeans And Tech No Brand T-shirt Are Acceptable Fashion Choices<\/h3>\n

You see people wearing jeans. You see people wearing no brand t-shirts that they\u2019ve probably received for free with a logo of a tech company. Everywhere. Before you think they can\u2019t afford to buy clothes, let me share with you a fact; most of them are software engineers and tech workers and they make six figures annually.<\/p>\n