So welcome everyone to LinkedIn's headquarters and LinkedIn's office is very very special because
it has one of the best perks you get anywhere
in Silicon Valley such as sometimes Fridays are off and
you get unlimited paid time holidays as well.
We will learn about much more than these perks and
the culture at LinkedIn today. LinkedIn's office is much more than
a office for us because here it feels like
that you are in Indian weddings where there are more than twenty
restaurants, more than five dessert options and much more than that
and today massage was also there and it felt like
a next level Disneyland to me.
So this is Building 3?
Yes. This is Building 3. There are five buildings in this area.
Five buildings here. Oh wow!
It's bigger than Microsoft Office
Yes.
That's only one building.
Well, in the Bay Area. Seattle Office is way bigger.
So hi everyone. Meet a LinkedIn Engineer, not just an
engineer, he is someone who is so inspiring that he became
a Staff Software Engineer within three to four years at LinkedIn.
Hi. Can you please introduce yourself?
Hi. I'm Shivam. I'm as Harnoor said a Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn.
I work on a team called Pages. So if you ever see anything around
companies or company pages on LinkedIn, that's my team.
Brilliant. And since LinkedIn was acquired by
Microsoft in 2016, so like we can chat and talk
to each other through teams as well.
Yeah.
So we have been doing that for a little while.
It's interesting because you know LinkedIn is under Microsoft now.
It was acquired a few years back but we still do operate independently.
We do still have our own CEO.
Even though Harnoor is a Microsoft employee but I still have to get him a guest badge to access our campus.
Yeah. My badge will not work.
So... Italian, Asian
That'll be like South American or Mexican.
They have Indian street food too. Oh nice!
They have. That way.
This is Butter Chicken Kathi Roll. Nice.
Here, it's pizza and barbeque.
That's plantains, Caribbean food. And this is in the shape of L.
Every building is pretty much like L.
I don't think they were going for the L.
And this is the newest building of LinkedIn.
Building 1. They take carbon dioxide and take out the
carbon from it to make cement.
They make cement inside?
No. It's like when they built this building, they injected carbon from the air
into the cement itself. So basically they used carbon in making the building?
Yes.
Oh wow! Very interesting. Brilliant.
There's endless food. Daily Deli.
Indian food again.
Gobi Manchurian.
And once upon a time LinkedIn also hired Michelin Star Chefs for food.
Like that's so expensive. Michelin-starred.
If you want to think about three star Michelin
restaurants, there are only hundred in the world and they hired those kind
of chefs. It's insane. And you might be thinking about
food wastage because there are like ten plus restaurants.
So I think that's not a concern. I saw they cook
based on supply and demand.
They keep increasing the supply based on the demand.
Wow! This is house-made.
So today we got from LinkedIn Office a healthy salad
which has herbs which were handmade and some
handmade croutons, some organic vegetables. Everything organic and these are tamales.
Yeah tamales.
Tamales. This is Mexican.
Most of the food is also Asian and Indian because there are so many Asians and Indians
which is a staple diet for LinkedIn and Silicon Valley now.
Right? Yeah.
It's overwhelming amount of Asian and Indian restaurants around here.
Yeah.
Every office has those.
So excited. I'm also going to try Indian cuisine.
So finally let's get to learn about his journey how he was able to not just crack LinkedIn but
also be able to be a Staff Software Engineer in the last four years.
It's pretty quick to be honest. Right?
I think like...
As long as you're meeting kind of what is the criteria for the next level
there isn't a hesitancy around timing or age or things like that
maybe in other parts of the country you might feel.
I think you're rewarded for the work you do and performance you have.
I think there are several people that have been promoted in that time period as well.
So you're not the only one. It's not any exception.
But if you make yourself, make your efforts worth it then it's possible.
Yeah.
And honestly like I think a lot of students,
a lot of people struggle in is getting their expectations
right from the manager.
So you know like the manager's expectations change every month.
So you always have to ask your manager...
What do you expect from me? Asking every single month
because it keeps changing, that gives you a perfect idea. So how did you
handle expectations?
I think especially early on expectations were important.
Whenever I had a one-on-one with the manager, I'd always ask
What is it that I can be improving on?
What is it like I'm already doing good but what can I improve on
and what are additional opportunities I can take on
so I continue to grow?
And making interest that I have clear
so that when those opportunities are presented, I can jump on
and really take advantage of them.
And you started from University of California, San Diego. Right? Yeah.
So in your college in the four years,
how many internships you did to prepare yourself for tech jobs?
So I did six. Six internships?
Yeah. One before going to college.
And then one each year during college until I did two just before joining LinkedIn.
Wow! You started from high school?
Yeah. This is brilliant.
So what do you think are the biggest perks of working at LinkedIn?
You have told me already but I really want them to know as well.
Ultimately I think the biggest thing is culture. Work culture.
I think there's an emphasis on the people element here.
Right around you know making sure people have that work life balance
and the opportunities to go to stuff outside of work
as well as while you're at work you know
obviously there's great things like food, gym, all that stuff is included
but, you know I think when you are working here, I would say it's very encouraging.
People are always looking for you know how you can improve...
How can we help you take your career to the next level
And like they are encouraging you branching in.
So whether it's going from mobile development to back-end development
or back-end development to AI.
Right. I think all of those things are very encouraged and
they are willing to help you take that next step in your career and
pursue whatever your interest is.
And about Fridays. You get pretty much one Friday off a month?
Yeah. So what we have is called 'Indays'
So they're meant to be a sort of investment in yourself
So there're activities that happen here on campus when there's Indays
like... Things like you know craft activities or maybe they'll have some motivational speaker, something like that.
But generally it's more of like a time to spend to yourself.
Maybe there's a side project you want to work on or maybe
you just want to like... For instance, me and my friends go out on a hike,
you know co-workers here at LinkedIn and that helps build bonds and
you know gives people time to reflect, relax and re-energize for the next week.
Brilliant.
And every other Friday is half day pretty much or every Friday is half day?
So that was more of a summer thing that we had here.
So over the summer we had Indays, once a month and then on top of that we had well-being days
So another once a month Friday off, to again spend for yourself
and then we also had half Fridays over the summer.
Brilliant.
And once again talking about the promotion. How your performance is reviewed? The five points and about the culture.
People are scared about PIP which is Performance Improvement Plan.
They are always scared about it. So how does the five rating go?
One, two, three, four, five. How is it given?
Yeah. So we do performance based off of three main categories
and then that falls into a bucket of how are you performing on a point scale.
So the main categories are called LEC, Leadership Execution and Craftsmanship.
So how are you performing as a leader? How are you enabling others to do their work
as well as potentially working across teams to get something done.
Your execution is more straightforward. What is the code that you're producing?
What is the output of the work that you're doing?
And craftmanship is how are you up leveling the quality bar at LinkedIn.
Are you making code better? Are you making foundational improvements
like structural improvements to whatever you're working.
Are you getting rid of legacy systems? Are you streamlining operations and substance.
So it's very holistic view as to like the work you're doing. It's not purely just how many lines of codes did I write.
So taking those into account... So based on your level
there'll be certain qualifications for each of those
and then people will be given a rating from one to five.
Five being far exceeding expectations and then one being, not meeting expectations.
So then in the middle would be meets most expectations, meets expectations, exceeds expectations.
So PIP, Performance Improvement Plan is only for one,
not even two? Right?
So I think LinkedIn especially is very accommodating to the fact that maybe this role might not be the
exact fit for you but that doesn't mean that there might not be a better fit within the company.
So they're encouraging you to try opportunities within the company,
branch out maybe.
You're just working on something on this team that doesn't really vibe with you.
So for instance, there's just a need for someone to do some web work.
For instance, but you might come in with an Android background
So maybe you're not doing the best at that job but
that doesn't mean that you can't find a role elsewhere in the company that makes sense.
So it's more based around how do you improve yourself
and obviously just like any other company.
Like if ultimately if you aren't, if it isn't a good fit like then
there'll be steps taken in terms of like what specific things can you be doing to perform better.
And if not then, you know it's work. It's ultimately work.
It isn't that you would be just naturally employed.
It's brilliant that if you don't get the right performance rating,
it's not that you will be fired. You'll be told that
this might not be the best role suited for you.
You can try out different things and that's why it's called Performance
Improvement Plan. Yeah.
Brilliant. So thank you so much Shivam for sharing your journey
and any final advice for students who are also aiming for the life at LinkedIn.
Yeah. I think the main thing that helped me in college is focusing on experience.
Classes can only teach you so much. Focus on experiential learning
Try and get out there, do internships, do projects.
Things like that will help you up level your actual career
and what you want to do in future.
So I think that's my main takeaway from going through college and then
you know starting full-time work.
Thank you so much Shivam. It was pleasure taking to you and
thank you so much for welcoming me on this campus.