TheDom

Any book by Steven Levy is great, he is the master! He wrote multiple books about Apple, and also about Google, Facebook,…

Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris

The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni

That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph (Netflix Cofounder)

I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards

I am from Austria and moved here 2.5 years ago. In between I lived in Dublin, Ireland for 1.5 years (can't recommend unless you like rain).

The main reason I moved to SF and why I also see myself here for the foreseeable future is the job market. No other place in the world can match the density of exciting tech companies of the SF Bay Area.

I LOVE my job but if I would not, then there would be tons of other interesting companies I could work for. If you’re a good engineer, then you can basically choose which company to work for (assuming you’re good at the interviewing game). Recruiters reach out all the time, and over time you will also build up a network of friends at other companies.

All these exciting opportunities attract great talent from all over, and companies try hard to attract and retain that talent. It’s a lot of fun to work on a strong team!

The other thing that’s fairly unique to the Bay Area is the high total compensation for engineers. Based on what I hear and read, I would assume that the TC for a regular engineer with a few years of experience is at least $300k on average. AFAIK that’s impossible to find outside of the US, and only in a few other places inside the US (Seattle, NYC). Also, since the Bay Area is home to a lot of fast growing companies, the potential financial upside is huge if you're lucky enough to choose such a company!

The best advice I can give is to choose the company you work for carefully. Ensure the business has the right trajectory, the hiring bar is high, and the compensation is fair.

The city itself has been discussed here and elsewhere extensively. I agree with many of the points but overall I quite enjoy it. I live in a nice neighborhood (Inner Sunset) and for me the job market far outweighs the downsides of living here. At the moment I can not imagine moving back to Europe.

In the end, it depends on what you’re looking for and which set of trade offs is the right one for you.

I also talked to someone from Fb recently, and he said that even some internal teams have moved away from it.

Full salary and benefits but vesting is paused.

This is by one of the guys from Sparrow (RIP) [1] and powered it under the hood.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparrow_(email_client)

I never used Sendgrid though so I can't compare the two.

* Your stock options should be worth a lot more down the road. * It's fun and a better learning experience to be part of a growing company. * The unicorn's name will also look good on your CV. So don't pick the giant for that reason.

Imagine joining Google or Facebook when they were small and considered a unicorn!

Of course there's the unlikely scenario that the unicorn will fail but even then the overall experience will teach you a lot more.

Love it!

If you work for a subsidiary of a US company outside of the US for at least one year then you can transfer on the L-1 visa to their US office. Just be aware that you can't switch companies like you could on an H-1B. However, L-1 visa holders can still apply for a green card. Once you have that you're free to change employers.

One technicality: If you work for a big company (like Google) then you're basically guaranteed to get the L-1 after one year since those companies typically hold the so called L-1 blanket. Otherwise it's a more involved process where you might get rejected.

I have friends who are currently on an L-1 in SF through big companies (= L-1 blanket holders) and getting it was basically a formality.

The L-1 also has the advantage that there is no annual cap like there is on the H-1B. You get it or you don't. No lottery. One big startup that I interviewed with opened up an office in Vancouver specifically for H-1B rejects to get them to their main office in SF through the L-1 one year later.

More information on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-1_visa