Bay Area Road Trip

A weeklong gap in my blog usually means I’m either temporarily dead, or I’ve been busy. In this case, I’ve been very busy on a road trip to the sunny Bay Area near San Francisco, colloquially known as Silicon Valley. Ashley and I drove down to Palo Alto last weekend, taking two days to enjoy to trip, so I could check out the region, see a few companies, and get a general idea of what the area had to offer a newly-minted MBA.

First, let me just apologize to freeways. You see, I had always felt freeways were a Bad Thing, an opinion mirrored by the City of Vancouver in deciding to design the city without them. Let me just say, after driving around the Bay area, covering much ground with minimal effort, I have to say that freeways are definitely a Good Thing. In the time it took me to drive to Coquitlam the previous week, I drove five times the distance in the Bay Area without so much as taking the Lord’s name in vain. A significant feat for me, especially given my dislike of driving.

So, what did I do while I was down there? Well, let’s see. I had an interview with PGP Corporation, which went pretty well. The company, reformed from the intellectual property divested by Network Associates, is humming along nicely, complete with revenue, customers and experienced management. Looks really good, so hopefully I get an offer.

I also got a chance to visit with team at Project JXTA at Sun. It was nice to finally meet the team, see what was going on. I was also given the opportunity to dub the next release of the JXTA reference implementation – it seems that the team is naming releases after exotic dishes. Not to be outdone, I chose “Klauh Kalesh”, in reference to the episode of ‘The Simpsons’ where Homer visits New York. Ironically, “Klauh Kalesh” is a real food, not just a Simpson’s gag, though it sounds very unappealing.

I also managed to visit the Haas School of Business in Berkeley to access their Career Center, which operated in a league of its own compared to UBC. But I digress. Berkeley seemed pretty cool, if a little bit like a Phish concert that had been going for thirty-five years, before which it had been a Grateful Dead concert. Many, many flower power casualties wandering the streets there.

Best of all, I managed to attend a morning event presented by Carr & Ferrell, a local law firm. They were hosting a seminar/workshop on “Pitching to Win” – complete with Jerry Weissman, the legendary pitchman who has helped numerous CEOs tune their IPO roadshows, giving tips from his new book, “Presenting to Win“. Cool!

All in all, the Bay area seems very active, has lots to do. Not a bad place to live at all, should I get the chance.