Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

The #SanFranTechTrek

    This post was written by Dominic Esposito ’15

Imagine going to San Franscisco, meeting with 5 of the most talked about tech companies, engaging with over 10 Babson alums, and doing it all in just 2 days. This dream became a reality for me and 9 other Babson students over winter break as we took the trek over to San Francisco with Babson’s Caroline Hayes and Mikaela Callahan . Two days may seem short but let me give you the highlights.

1) Arriving – I never had traveled to the West Coast ever before in my life–I didn’t know what 60+ degrees felt like in January! Luckily San Francisco is a welcoming community and everyone fits right in.

2) One Kings Lane – Our first company tour was a complete success. At first sight One Kings Lane is every tech-lovers dream: an open floor plan, modern decor, good food everywhere, and a CTO and CEO who sit on the ground floor with all of the employees–including the interns! This was a great way to kick-off our tour, thanks John Capecelatro for the recommendation.

3) Meeting with Shaun Steingold – You never know just how vast the Babson network is until you leverage it. Shaun Steingold is the leader of Babson’s San Francisco Babson Alumni Division and everyone knows him on the west coast. He has been so helpful to so many people over there and it was amazing how he was able to extend his network to us. He led our tour of HP and showed us how the company is on the bleeding edge of cloud, security, and mobile with plenty of fun demos. Thanks for the demos and knowledge-sharing Shaun!

4) Dinner at Jasper’s – Jasper’s is not only a fantastic restaurant but also a great place for conversation. We sat down with 4 alumni who have worked at Facebook, Inflection, Meraki, a Cisco Systems company, and Tech Target. These alums taught us everything from where to find the best food in San Francisco to how they knew they wanted to move out to the West Coast and most important, how they got to where they are. We can not thank these alums enough for all of their help, Steven, a Babson alum who worked at Facebook, even invited us back to his apartment to learn more about San Francisco. The alumni network is amazing in San Francisco.

5) Jawbone – Jawbone’s tour made you feel like you are a part of a company that was on the cusp of the new and innovative, it really brought the spirit of Silicon Valley full circle. Alumni Tim Pryde gave a presentation that inspired all of us with the direction he is helping the company take as senior director of audio product management.  Thanks for inspiring us Tim!

6) Google – Google is a spectacle. You may read what it’s like to work there, see pictures, or even watch The Interns with Vince Vaughn but you have no idea what it’s really like until you get there. It was described to us as the best college campus in the world and I think that is a fair description. We were lucky enough to have our alumni, Huy Nguyen navigating us around Google’s large campus and showing us all it has to offer. We got food, sat down in a conference room, and even left with some gear courtesy of Huy, thanks Huy!

7) Inflection – You know you are walking into a fun company culture when the goodie-bag is a company sweatshirt! Inflection opened its arms to us with four Babson alums, Tiffany, Jake, Hiba and Matt leading the conversation. They taught us everything from how and why to pick your first job to finding a house and leveraging the alumni network in San Francisco. Thanks for the sweatshirts and the great company tour!

That may seem like a lot for 2 days, and is, but that’s only the highlights! We spent every hour we could exploring, connecting with alums, and getting to know San Francisco companies better. To all who are interested in going on the trip next year, get your applications in early because it is well worth it if you are thinking about the West Coast and a technology-focused company. Can’t wait to see how this program grows with the next #sanfrantechtreckers!

San Francisco (1) SF3 SF2 SF4