The Move To Yahoo! HQ

Two weeks ago, my entire team was moved from Yahoo's Mission College campus to Yahoo HQ. When I tell people that, their first impression is, oh, you got a promotion and you're moving to headquarters? Nope, not at all, this is a cost cutting measure because they had free space for us. Anyway, currently settling in, but still haven't had time to unpack my stuff. I'm still getting randomly loss in my building.

I guess I'll start with the cons of moving to HQ. The commute currently is annoying via public transit; I will reiterate that public transit in Silicon Valley is bad. My commute has increased from 30-35mins one way, to 60-70mins. As a result, I have to wake up earlier, and I'm getting home later. As a consequence, I have accelerated my time table in buying a car. Just need to find time to sort out California driver's license and insurance. Unfortunately in this state, my Canadian driver's license isn't going to cut it, so I need to do the road test again.

The other thing about our move to headquarters is that our current workspace is one big open area, shared by 4 programmers. I lucked out and got my own individual cube, but the other folks weren't too happy about it. Currently they're not reconfiguring work spaces because a ton of people moved to HQ.

On to the pros of moving to HQ. One huge advantage is that the cafeterias at headquarters are much much better. The food so far has been pretty good, and they have a larger selection. First day at HQ, I had a flank steak salad for lunch. Yum.

Another advantage is that most talks, events, and training happen at HQ, so it's convenient to attend them now. While we were at the Mission College campus, it meant a 20min drive to HQ and back if we wanted to participate. Life at headquarters is definitely more lively. Today for example, they had an outdoor BBQ with some band playing for everyone.

Anyway more later. Just wanted to post a small glimpse into my life currently. The blog has been a bit neglected as of late as I'm pretty busy.