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Software Engineer - Google - Silicon Valley (California)

Fascinujúci človek, pre ktorého je jeho práca skutočnou vášňou a zábavou. Za sebou má dve univerzity, množstvo náročných projektov a momentálne je jeho zamestnávateľom top firma globálne: Google. Vo IT fachu bol už v čase dot-com éry, a na Silicon Valley a Kaliforniu nedá dopustiť.  Predstavujeme Slováka Miška Heveryho, jeho najnovšie projekty a kariérny a osobný príbeh odohrávajúci sa v USA.


Misko Hevery

What are your memories of emigration? How was it to start a new school in a totally new country?

Emigration was not really as exciting as people would have thought. My parents went to visit my dad's sister who has live d in the States for many years. They liked it so much that next year they simply bought four tickets on CSA to JFK airport and that was it. When I tell the story, no one believes that the communist regime let the whole family on the plane at once.  Once in the U.S., we applied for the emigration status. For a while we thought we would go back after the Velvet Revolution which canceled our emigration status but then we decided to stay anyway. This created bit of a problem since now we technically were illegally in the US. But we applied for the Green Card Lottery, which we won, and so that is how we got started.

School was interesting. At first, I did not understand anything, but the school was understanding, and went easy on me and cut me a lot of slack. It is amazing how quickly a kid learns a new language. In September, my first day of school, I was totally lost. By December I could follow the class just fine, but I was having hard time expressing myself. By the end of the school year, in May, I was also able to express myself just fine. I still have a slight accent, as at the age of 13 I was too old to learn a new language flawlessly.

How/why did you decide to go studying Computer engineering?

My parents were doctors in Slovakia. However, my dad was always interested in electronics. So when computers came out, my dad just had to get one. Our first computer was Sinclair ZX Spectrum+, I think we got it in 84. I had interest and so with my dad's help I have learned BASIC, Pascal and Assembler. I went into few competition as young programmer. Once I even got disqualified, as the judges did not believe that what I had done was mine, which is the highest compliment, which they could have given me :-). Over the years I learned new languages as computers got more  sophisticated. So it was only natural for me that I will go to college with computers in mind. I got my BS/MS from Computer Engineering From Rochester Institute of Technology in 99. (I missed school so much that I went back to school and got my MBA from Santa Clara University in '05)

Tell us more about your life when you still studied at university...do you remember any specific moments, successes, failures etc?

I was never good at taking notes in high school. So when I started college I told myself that I would take notes like other kids. Old habits die hard. Note taking lasted about a month. First, I stopped taking notes, then stopped carrying my notebooks. Then I noticed that I stopped reading my books, so I stopped buying them. By the end of my studies, I would show up to lectures without any books, notebooks or writing utensils. I would just listen. Then I would be surprised when the professor would hand out a test, and had to quickly borrow a pencil from my friend :-). But I always did my homework. Turned out that taking notes and buying books was not necessary as I graduated with honors.

My last year I decided to spice it up and convince the department head to let me design a CPU instead of taking elective classes. He said yes, and with three of my other friends we designed a simple micro-controller in VHDL. When it came time to have interviews with companies, all I had to do was pull out the design specification and the job interview would be pleasantly derailed.

The other thing I remember is that for the senior year my friend Andre and I decided that it would be cool to build a self-balancing inverted pendulum. However, the adviser said: "Smarter people have tried in the past, and they failed, I think you should pick something else." Those were the words that should have not been said. I will show the world! I did everything with extra gusto to prove the advisor wrong. Few weeks later the project worked flawlessly. I guessed we sparked a fad, because next year three other groups started the same project, but to my knowledge, Andre and I were the only ones who ever got it to work.

When we first moved to US, I remember reading about Silicon Valley as a birthplace of the computer industry. I remember thinking how nice it would be to be able to go and visit that place one day, only if for a short vacation. I thought, then that it was an unachievable goal. I find it humorous now, since not only do I live here but I am very much a part of the Silicon Valley and what it stands for.

Your first jobs: what main learnings did you take from there? would you change anything if you could do it all again?

My first job was working as a consultant for a consulting company. They flew me all over the US and I got to see a lot of it. It was an exciting way to get to see the country for free. However, the best part of it was always working for a different client. This was great as it always opened my mind to new things. I am not sure that I would change anything. I learned a lot as a consultant.

I left the jobbecause I wanted to try my luck with a start-up. Start-ups are a lot of fun and back in the dot-com era everyone was doing it. I joined a company called SiliconX, which in the end did not go anywhere but I have made a lot of great friends and have learned a lot about start-ups.

When I first moved to Silicon Valley it was at the end of the dot-com boom. So I still got to see a little bit of it. It was really something else. Companies were hiring like crazy, there seemed to be no end to the good times. When you went to bar, all you could here were people selling others on their latest cool idea and how it will change the world. Money for your new venture was easy to come by, and people were eager to work for the latest start-up. The times did not last, and soon after I moved to California the dot-com boom turned into a dot-com bust and the U.S. went through a recession. But the spirit of the people stayed. One thing I noticed was that no one was bitter, and everyone just got up dust off and tried again with a new idea. This positive attitude is something which is noticeably absent when I travel outside the Silicon Valley.

What tips / tricks / success factors would you share on how to accelerate your career in your field?

• Ignore the nay-sayers, prove them wrong by figuring things out. It is easy to say that something is not possible. It is quite hard to work around the problems and get to the solutions.
• Learn as many things as you can. It gives you perspective on things. Perspective is something that is hard to come by in this ever-changing world. Right perspective is also something that can save you tons of time when creating things.
• There is no such thing as failure, only not getting to the finish line yet.
• Reflect on things all the time, and learn from your mistakes and from others
• Get a good mentor

Speaking of mistakes, what mistakes of yours and others did you learn the most from?

Don't assume that others know more that you. We are all in uncharted territory, and it is easy to think that others know more then you do. But the truth is that we all are flying by the seat of our pants. Listen to others but also listen to yourself.

Is it true what we know about Silicon Valley, that it's an extreme cut-throat and competitive environment and only the thoughest can survive there? What's there to like?

It is true that it is very competitive, but in a good friendly way. I always wonder where people get the idea that we are cut-throat. People are quite helpful and friendly here, as a matter of fact, I think it is the friendlies city I have ever been to. People are highly motivated to do new things and often work very hard, but the motivation is always the desire to create new things and to be the first to innovate. Companies and people often partner on the way to innovation, that is hardly a cut-throat behavior. It is a great place to live, if you are interested in software. People have the right can-do attitude, which makes great things possible. The competition is on the company level and it propels the companies to do new and innovative things, but on personal level people are very helpful. As a result companies have all kinds of perks to help attract the best talent, so it is a great place to be a software engineer. Whenever people come to visit and I show them the Google campus, and they see people playing volley-ball and enjoying the sun, they often ask, how do people get any work done here. In Silicon Valley, work and play are one and the same. Most people genuinely love what they do and they think it is fun. But even when it looks like fun, people work hard here.

What do you love and hate about California?

There is everything to love about California. People are great and friendly. The weather is amazing all year round. Natural wonders are abound. Working in Silicon Valley is great too, as you are surrounded with the best talent in the world and there is always something new to learn. People have "can-do" attitude and everything seems possible. Competition is intense and inspiring. There is something magical when you are surrounded with high-tech on all sides. There are trends, which you see first, like the rise of Apple Computer and popularity of iPod and iPhone. It is interesting to see it here first, and then the rest of the country catch up. I love the outdoors and there is plenty to do here. I can be at the beach, and see snow in one single day. People all over the world have made Silicon Valley their home, which introduces you to many cultures. That makes you realize how we are all the same, in our wants, desires, and what makes us happy.

Take us through your day - from the moment when you wake up, till the bed-time..

Wake up around 7am. On a sunny day, I try to bike to work (about 25 km) otherwise I drive with my wife as we both work next to each other. I have breakfast at Google and try to be healthy. My day consist of helping others with code and I tend to give lectures about best practices in Google as well as outside of Google. I often visit other Google offices around the world where I try to share the best practices message. Then, at noon, I have lunch at Google, where we talk about how we can change the world for better one small step at a time.  A lot of what I do I try to share a better way to Develop Software both at Google and with the rest of the world, I do this through my blog where I try to share the best practices and also through Open Source, which is a way to give back to the community.  We usually go home around 5 pm. At home, I help my wife with gardening. (This year we are hoping for some nice Heirloom tomatoes) When we are not outside we go and visit our friends for dinner. There is a Slovak and Czech community here and we usually get together once a month in San Francisco in Cafe Prague, where I have hard time choosing between Gulash and Knedlo-Vepro-Zelo.

Take us through your main jobs - and what (in nutshell) you did there...

Your last 4 years at Google: what you like and dislike about Google. What's your role there, what you are currently working on. The most exciting part of your job. Some funny or interesting stories if you have...

I love the company, and how much freedom it gives to its developers. You can really feel that the company cares about its employees. The concentration of bright people is like no place else. It seems to be run the right way. People are incentivized the right way and then rewarded fairly for their work. It is really a unique place.

My job is exciting because I get to help people, not just within Google but also outside , through my lectures. Currently, I am helping many teams by sharing the knowledge through lectures. I also work on open source project for JavaScript testing, and building internal tools for Google. So my days are busy.

You travel a lot with your job. How would you describe cultural differences in IT field that you see from your professional perspective?

Differences? I would say that people are more the same then they think they are. The world is becoming very small. If anything I am constantly surprised that I keep finding high quality people everywhere. I have recently given a talk in Prague on Karlova Universita Matematica a Fyzika and I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of questions I have gotten. When I look back to what Czechoslovakia was 20 years ago and what it is today, I am amazed, as not even in my wildest dreams would I have guessed, that it would become a first class place for software and many other things. The universities we have are some of the best in the world and it shows.

Traveling to India is a bit different. But the things that amaze me is the rate at which new buildings and infrastructure is being built. It looks like building is happening 24 hours a day and seven days a week. It is a wonderful thing to see.

What's your oldest and then most recent memory of Slovakia? How do you see it from a distant perspective - its development, growth, changes etc?

Last time I was in Slovakia it was about 4 years ago. Unfortunately, my travels do not take me there. I do tend to visit Czech republic as my wife is from Usti nad Labem and Google has an office in Prague. I have given talks in Karlova Univerzita multiple times and also in Goerlitz Germany. I would also love to give talks in Slovakia, if some university would have me, then I will be able to answer this question better.

Thank you Miško!!

Click here for Slovak version.