My San Franciscan experience
When I was accepted for the training program in San Francisco last year, I didn’t realize how lucky I.
It is my first time in USA.
Thank’s to my school, I’ve already done many internships, and I learnt many things.
San Francisco was an amazing experience for many reasons :
I learned new knowledges
I met lot of people (some of them became my friends, and I hope see them again)
I participated to many events, where I created some professional contacts
I did many road trips and each place I visited have an amazing particularity
I reached my goals, and I have new plans for my future than I arrived here.
Let’s me develop this few points, to share with you, dear readers, my amazing experience in California !
INSEEC in San Francisco
We had class during 10 weeks, in the INSEEC campus, at 180 sansome street. A beautiful building in the financial district.
Usually, we had 2 class per day. A class tough 2 hours. We also had « guest class », where some professionals come to share with us their experience.
The main classes were : -English : Thank’s to Lisa D., we’ve improved our English, we’ve read lot of articles, we’ve debated about many different subjects, we’ve learned to pitch about us and about a product. Thank’s to this class, I feel more comfortable in English and I understand all when a person is talking.
-Lean start up : with Ryan M. Ryan give us the project to create our own start up (with an innovative product or service) and to build it like if tomorrow we will really launch our product. Really interesting class. We learned many things about how to embark on a project, manage it, finance it, communicate about it …
-Starting up in Silicon Valley : with Lene S. She explained us what is the Silicon Valley, who are in, how does it work when you create a start up, how to do networking, how to create your pitch …
-Design marketing : with Max B. Thank’s to him we’ve learned how to build your own website with html code. We call that : coding. A little bit complicated when you don’t are a geek, but it is captivating, and when you start, you can’t stop ! Find my website here.
-Digital marketing : with Andreas R. A very interesting teacher. He learned to us how to create a blog, how to write an article strategically, how to use google adwords and google analytics… It is thank’s to this class that you are reading me !
-Design thinking : with John S. How to concept an idea, find the needs of your customers and create the thing that they need.
-3D printing : with Max D. Thank’s to him, we’ve learned to manipulated adjust a 3D printing.
Surprising things
I was surprised by many things in San Francisco. The city is not as I imagined. It is a big city but with an european way of life. Of course all american people are with their coffee in their hand (like in movies!), but I find the city really quiet, safe and San Franciscan people are so open-minded. They talk to you without any restraint, like if you are their friend since a long time ago ! The life here is very expensive. It is one of the most expensive in the world ! Like I said in my first article, it’s very difficult to find an accommodation for less than 1200$, unless if you staying in an hostel. The food is expensive too. In France I spent something like 130€ for the month. In San Francisco I spend 60$ per week.
Something which surprised me in San Francisco was the number of homeless people. They are so many ! It’s incredible. I thought that in USA people are « rich » or at least well-off people. I was wrong ! They are not wicked, just sometimes a little bit crazy.
Best memories
My best memories here stay my road trips !
As you can saw in my last articles I visited the Lake Tahoe. Not so far from San Francisco (2 hours and a half). We saw amazing views ! Pictures are so beautiful. It was cold but awesome !
Then, two weeks later we went to Yosemite park. We did an hard climbing to reach the Nevada falls. I confess you, I complained myself (for the leisure of my friends, or not!). Yosemite is to 4 hours from San Francisco. If you visit California, you have to visit this park ! Amazing views !
Finally, my last trip was 5 days in Hawaii. My best trip ever !!
Beautiful beaches, visit of Pearl Harbor, visit of « Hawaii 5-0 »’s filming locations, surf, Manoa falls, we also rented a beautiful red and convertible Mustang ! It was fantastic !
We also visited many places in San Francisco like Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, Baker Beach, Ocean Beach, Coit tower, Twinpeaks…
All this visits will stay forever in my mind !
Professional aspect and my future
I created many contacts thank’s to the events that I did here. I added more than 30 person on Linkedin. I’m still in contact with some of them.
I’m in process with Yelp Bordeaux to achieve my next internship with them. I appreciated the guests intervention at INSEEC. They shared with us their experience, they pushed us to dream and realize our dream, not give up, believe in our projects and do the best of us to achieve them.
I would like to thanks all teachers, guests and the director of INSEEC San Francisco for their time and their learnings. Thank you to shared your experience with us. It was an amazing experience. I’m so sad to write this article, it means it is the end of an incredible trip.
For the next students who have the lucky to come in San Francisco : just enjoy every moment in your trip. These 3 months pass really fast ! If you want to read my other articles, click here.
