But why are you living in such a cheap house?
We are Indian by heart!
So in a one car garage
the capacity less than that of an SUV,
the company found, HP, has an interesting story there.
Oh, this is really interesting!
So they have marker for U-turn that you are allowed to take a U-turn.
Usually- I have never seen that. Usually they say
no U-turn.
But here it is written that U-turn is allowed
specially with a sign!
California is definitely different and interesting!
Bohot interesting hai! (It's very interesting!)
Wow! There DTH connections here as well!
So finally entering apartment
in Silicon Valley and I'm shocked that here
there is no security. Anyone can enter.
It's like a house.
And they just lock the apartment.
We need an access card to enter the building!
The view is quite good man!
It's a pool.
So friends, are you ready
to see a budget Silicon Valley apartment
where software engineers live.
I'm like so so pumped right now!
So let's welcome software engineers in Valley!
Can I open?
- Hi! - Hi, how are you?
I'm good.
So, first of all
like, introduce yourself a bit, where are you from India and
what is your education status and how you moved here to Valley.
Umm.. So my name is Ashish
And I'm an Indian from Bangalore.
From Silicon Valley of India!! Wow!
Silicon Valley of India to Silicon Valley of US.
Okay, continue please.
Yeah, so let me tell you a little bit about my journey.
I did my undergrad in VIT
in electronics.
And then I was a student at Northwestern.
I did computer engineering.
And now I'm here in Sunnyvale California
Silicon Valley, again.
Awesome!
So, let's start with the apartment tour.
You start please.
I'm in the kitchen.
Alright, this is my kitchen. Sorry, everything is a little bit messy
right now..
But it's a great kitchen like,
if I compare standard of living with Atlanta,
then it's quite nice!
Some people say you don't find anything here.
Some people say that the standard of living is very bad here.
We'll see the rooms later on but can you describe the kitchen?
So we actually cook once a week.
And we cook in bulk.
So that we have it for the weekdays as well.
So that we don't have to cook everyday.
Why? Don't you get free-food in companies nowadays?
We do but we don't get to go to office nowadays..
Everything is remote.. So..
so we cook food at home.
I go to office everyday, so..
I get subsidised meal.
Pass some over then.
Yeah, so it's different culture.
My company is open. So it depends.
So now, if you want to see, the kitchen is quite nice.
Yeah, so, like I said, it's a weekend now. We just cooked
So it's a bit messy. Sorry about that.
So coming to the bedroom,
till then, tell me about the rent.
Yeah, so this is a two-bedroom apartment.
And umm..
so one bedroom there and another to the left of the kitchen
That one's my room-mate's. So, sorry I can't show you that room.
But I can show you this one.
So we pay 2800 per month
2800... IT'S SO AFFORDABLE!
I have heard that you don't get anything below 4000 in Silicon Valley!
We spent two months just hunting for a place
that we could afford.
And this is like the best value that we could get.
EPIC!
I can tell you that my rent for one room is 1000
And for you it's 1400..
- And with the utilities? - Maximum 1500.
This is epic bro! This is like heaven in Silicon Valley!
Let's turn on the lights.
So we get a pretty nice view from here.
Yeah, I mean it's in the nature!
The problem is that I had expected that I will come to Valley
then it will be all innovation
... The innovation is from inside but outside it's a forest!
- It's all village! - Yeah, that is true!
But I think, these guys here go for like, more of a peaceful lifestyle.
They don't want a lot of traffic or noise.
Yeah, just like Steve Jobs' vision.
He wanted Park in nature.
- Right. - He wanted to be in nature.
- Right, exactly. - Yeah, so that's why.
So anyway, let me know,
what is your work life balance as a software engineer?
I can see MacBook.
Every engineer gets a MacBook like me..
Like how is the work-life balance?
Do you need to do late-night-shifts sometimes like in India?
Because of the time-zone change, engineers in India generally do this.
So how's the difference?
So I guess you are pushed now and then.
But I think compared to India
you are given more freedom
to choose what to work on,
when to work
and as far as overtime goes,
if you like what you are doing, it doesn't feel like overtime, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But do you feel like, here, my whole life is work.
I see people living so close..
office, people just work here!
I don't see anything exciting other than work here.
Work is exciting for sure.
But is there something else? Is there work-life balance here?
Tell us the reality!
Well, you gotta make the best out of what you have, right?
I mean, I lived in Chicago for a year and a half.
And I'm a huge fan of tall buildings.
So that way I... My heart is in Chicago but
but, you know there's still fine things to do here!
As far as work life balance goes,
I guess it's just in waves.
You get work in waves.
So sometimes you really have to work a lot.
But other times it's just chill, you know, do your work and then
log off at 5.
And then you can carry on with the rest of your life.
Yeah, that is true. That is literally amazing.
And next part, now tell me. As a software engineer,
what are the salary packages here?
Like every guy just tells this.. 1.5 crore mark
Silicon Valley is famous for.
Many people go to Uber from IITs and say that it's 1.5 crore...
Like in Atlanta, the base salary is 80-100k.
What is the base salary here?
The base salary for most companies is 120-140k.
And adding the compensations, you could end up getting 150-170.
Adding the stocks and everything - 140k!
This is amazing!
But why are you living in such a cheap house?
I am Indian by heart!
I mean, there is tax as well. People forget about the tax.
Yeah, exactly. It feels that you get a lot of money but
in reality you need to manage your money.
I mean, I won't say lose, but you end up giving a lot of money on taxes.
I mean, it's not a bad thing.
Because you can see it being used by the government
for roads and other stuff, infrastructure.
But what happens in the end is that
you know, you don't have a lot of money to spend on luxury
so that's why we decided to find the most economic place.
But if you consider luxury,
like my apartment... How much will that cost here?
4000 to 5000.. Two bedroom.
So there's a difference.
So if you want to have the same luxury,
then your money will be deducted as well.
- Right. - Yeah.
Now while coming out, tell me
how do you commute to work.
If you work from home right now,
like, in future, if you want to go to office,
how will be your commute?
Yeah, so my office is in Apollo Alto.
And I take a train.
So the train station is about 15 minutes from here.
A fifteen minute walk.
And from there it's just 2 stations so another 15 minutes at max.
So it takes me like half-an-hour to go to work.
So I spend one hour on travel each day.
But now the things are remote.
I don't go to office everyday. So I guess that's fine.
So when the office opens later on
then you will reach there within 10-15 minutes.
That is amazing!
And if you are on a metro, you can use that time for other things
like reading a book or listening to music. So it doesn't feel
like you are wasting time.
Another important question.
Software engineers here, struggle a lot with fomo.
So fomo is fear of missing out. There are so many things to do
related to work.
There are so many things related to work
there are exciting projects sometimes,
and then something else.
You feel like you are missing out. If you catch one, the other is gone!
Does that thing bring anxiety?
Like, sometimes, you're like, "I wanna take that task too!"
Or performance reviews...
In Google, they do performance reviews after every 6 months.
Your manager can warn you of firing if you don't perform good!
In some teams of Amazon, there are performance reviews held every 3 months.
You don't perform good for 3 months, you are gone!
So, does software engineers have such type of fomo?
Yeah, of course! I mean like,
there's always something new and exciting you wanna learn.
And you always have this feeling that
you know, I'm occupied here
so I'm missing out on that opportunity.
So you tend to put too much on your plate.
But the reality is that
you gotta prioritize and you gotta know when to say no
because the truth is, you can't do everything!
You'll just end up burning yourself out
and not doing a good job anywhere!
So just... I'd say, focus your attention on
whatever's most important to you.
Thank you so much. Now, let us see the gym!
The balcony view is great!
It's epic!
And I forgot about one thing..
Oh! There's a mesh!
How do you open it?
The balcony view is quite good!
It's so cool. The weather's so nice here.
All year, pleasant weather. Amazing!
I mean, there's the smoke. But the weather is amazing.
And yes, I didn't see any AC here. Where is your AC?
One second.
So if you see the heaters down there,
No AC then?
If you can see there's a heater down there.
Okay, it's not centralised.
- Yeah, no.. And... - That's the AC for cooling?
That's why it's cheap! There's no centralised AC or heater.
So the cooling comes from outside.
I was confused why it is so hot!
Outside it's such a good weather.
Right? It's so hot here.
- Bohot garam hai. (It's very hot)
Yeah, so that's why.. I mean,
there's no AC inside the room. I'm just so shocked!
So that's the reason it's affordable!
Now I know.
- Yeah. - Okay. But I'm not trying to make fun of you, but
you don't feel hot, right?
Are you used to it? That's why you have fans, right?
Yeah, we just get used to it.
It was pleasure meeting you!
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
- Thank you. - Yeah, thank you!
Pets are also allowed here. It's a very decent community.