Profile Of A Valley Girl
Who Am I? Just call me the Silicon Valley Blogger or SVB for short.
I am a software engineer by trade, working and residing in Silicon Valley, California USA, the land of technologists, venture capitalists and liberals. I have lived here for over 20 years and have witnessed some amazing things first hand, such as the incredible prosperity befallen so many of my colleagues and peers.
From the moment I graduated from one of the Bay Area universities as a foreign student, I’ve had rather an amazing ride through companies like Oracle during its juvenile years, Hewlett Packard during its real heydey and Cisco Systems when it was a major high flyer and juggernaut in the techno landscape and equity markets. I’ve been through a handful of startups and seen friends go from 0 to Ferrari in one year. I also know a few who lost half their savings to the dot com bust but still manage to hold up pretty well in the “Valley”. I’ve heard only of very few who have left to strike it new elsewhere — perhaps casualties of the bust only due to their being late to join in the party (as transplants from other locales or career shifters). Somehow, everyone I know fairly well seems to have left with some reasonably sized goody bag.
Now wait. Lest you think I’m on easy street, I will need to remind you that everything is relative. From where I’m situated right now, I’m but a mere farm rat in a barn full of large sized mammals, especially considering California’s insane cost of living. Nevertheless, I do feel fortunate to be in a geographical location that affords a melting pot of opportunities and a chance for me to exercise my creativity and be rewarded for it. So wherever you are, before you bemoan your own farm rat status, why don’t you try your hand at this.
I did not think I would be doing this, going into what you may loosely call “web publishing” and such. I am a fairly busy person with a young family, a full time job and a household to run. I tried blogging on a fluke, as a “socio-economic” experiment at an incredibly micro level. I had some business ideas I was tossing around and to do market research, I went into blogging. Then I guess the bug bit me, as they say, and so far this experiment has stuck. Here’s hoping to keep this blogging venture going on for a really long time!
Update: I’ve now quit my engineering job to blog full-time. Since February of 2008, I’ve switched gears to become a “problogger”! If you’re at all curious about my thoughts on finance, business and blogging, do check out this Wise Bread Q & A forum thread where I conducted a lengthy dialogue with Wise Bread readers.
For more information on this blog, The Digerati Life, please visit my About Page.
Other online projects:
- I have joined the Wise Bread team as a contributing writer. Wise Bread is a premiere personal finance site, and counts as one of my all-time favorite money sites to visit!
- I am a contributor and member of Work It Mom, a web site for working mothers.
- I help promote this recommendations site, Best In Class, which provides reviews for various products.
- I am the blog editor and founder of The Smarter Wallet, a consumer-oriented blog.
- I worked as a contributor and the interim corporate blog editor for Mint.com, a personal finance software company.
- I am a contributor to Prosper.com’s blog, an online peer-to-peer lending company.
- In other blogging escapades, I also contribute to the ePlay entertainment blog. ePlay is an interactive entertainment site that allows you to vote and predict the outcome of events. If you get things right, you get points and win prizes! Check out my writing contributions here.
