Start-Ups, Silicon Valley Giants, and the Salesforce Tower: Students See it All on West Trek
Published by Rebecca Goldfine
This year's trek participants ranged from computer science majors settled in their career paths to students studying the humanities who are thinking of applying their skills to a creative and fast-moving field. Though there is an application process to participate, the trip is open to any student studying any major, with a preference for upperclass students.
The trip has two main goals: to introduce students to a network of alumni working in the Bay Area's tech industry, and to give them a chance to envision themselves living and working in San Francisco or nearby cities.
This meant not only did trekkers visit famous company headquarters and meet with more than twenty ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ alums, but they also had lunch at Google's café, rode the elevator to the top of the Salesforce tower, and got free time (and $100 cash to spend however they liked) to wander around downtown San Francisco. A bunch of students splashed out on a dim sum lunch together.
- Phil Schiller P’17, Apple fellow
- Megan Maher ’16, Senior machine learning fellow
- Tom Leung ’95, Director of product management
- Sam Martin ’12, Software engineer
- Robert Lynn ’09, Energy and location strategist
- Luis Rosias ’15, Software engineer
- Solomon Aborbie ’22, Technical account manager and strategic cloud engineer
- Clare McInerney ’18, Growth strategist
- Sarah Loeb ’11, Senior analytical lead in retail
- Paige O’Connor ’20, Software engineer
- Amos Fung ’10, Developer relations
- Cathleen Nurse ’13, Growth strategist
- Zak Kokosa ’17, Investor in ventures
- Omar Alam ’02, Vice president, mergers and acquisitions legal and associate general counsel
- Nick Edises ’13, Solution engineer
- Pauline Unietis ’20, Technical writer
- Jenna Goldman ’03, Commercial
- Jayme Woogerd ’07, Software engineer
“Bird's Eye View of Silicon Valley and the Tech Industry”
- Dave Brown ’79, Seed investor
- Mitch Zuklie ’91, Chairman and CEO Orrick
- Charlotte Willner ’06, Founding executive director of Trust & Safety Professional Association
- David Vasquez ’14, TikTok
- Sophia Cornew ’14, Independent consultant
- Andrew Schroeder ’15, "Stealth" start-up
- Kote Mushegiani ’17, "Stealth" start-up
Bethany Walsh, CXD senior associate director and advisor, was one of five CXD staff who helped organize and lead the trip. She said that adding in free time was an important component. "In the past we ran students right through fourteen-hour days, but one of the big questions in their minds is 'Do I want to move here and work here?' so we built in some time for them to walk around the city."
Minseo Bae ’23, who was part of this year's trek, said he had long dreamed of visiting Google and Apple but had to make do by watching video tours of their headquarters. "The trek was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I applied, I got in, and it was a great experience—it was a dream come true!" A digital and computational studies and sociology double major, he aims to build a career in cybersecurity.
And, being a San Diego native, Bae had nursed a few doubts about whether he could adjust to another city. But the trip made up his mind. "I could most definitely live there, and it has changed my outlook on my future career," he said. "I want to be involved in Silicon Valley—you feel the passion for tech oozing out of everyone you meet. It's great place to be for young tech entrepreneurs."
Trek participant Lauren Traum ’24 is a philosophy major and math minor from the Bay Area. She has no family who work in the field and only recently considered it as a career possibility for herself. "This trip seemed like an opportunity to explore more humanity-related careers in the tech field," she said. "The greatest strength of the trip was that it was incredibly inclusive, appropriate for students interested in many different careers." (And as for applying her philosophy studies to tech? "There are a lot of fascinating applications of ethics in the tech world, like with AI or thinking about how risk-averse the industry should be," she said.)
Over the course of the trip, students met with more than alumni (and some ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ parents) at their workplaces, including at Apple, Google, Orrick, TikTok, Salesforce, and Plaid. They met investors, software engineers, product managers, marketing and communications experts, executive directors, and business strategists.
"What is interesting about West Trek is that the majority of alumni we visited are not software engineers— yes, of course, they are represented—but they are outnumbered by alumni working in various business roles across tech," Walsh said. "So it is a good way for students to explore both tech and non-tech roles at these companies."
“West Trek was a unique opportunity to gain exposure to the tech world in a low key, curious, and fun-filled way. A lot of students said they gained more out of the experience than they expected, both in terms of thinking more broadly about career goals and also in terms of getting to know a beautiful city and spending time with friends. â€
—Lauren Traum ’24
Traum appreciated that, too. "The trip was exciting because we were able to meet a lot of people thriving in their own way in very different roles," she said.
Trek student Arav Agarwal ’23 is a math and physics double major who is interested in working with AI or machine learning after attending graduate school for math. He pointed to the Apple visit as a high point, comparing it to "walking into a MacBook." The offices, furniture, design—"everything had that sleekness and color scheme. When it comes to modern architecture, it was pretty slick."
He also experienced a perk that sometimes arises from the trek: an interview offer. "I met someone who works at a start-up, and he was more than happy to give me a job interview for their data compression team."
Cole Crawford, CXD associate director of employer relations, helped staff the trip. He spoke highly both about the gracious hosting of alumni and the students' conduct as guests. "They were a really smart, bright, talented, and capable bunch of students," he said. "While it wasn’t designed as a recruiting trip, I would think you would want to hire them after meeting them!"
Networking and Alumni Highlights
During the days, students toured workplaces and listened to presentations. One panel, called "Bird’s Eye View of Silicon Valley and the Tech Industry," offered an overview of the industry in the midst of turmoil and change. Dave Brown ’79, Mitch Zuklie ’91, Charlotte Willner ’06, and David Vasquez ’14 spoke about their industry in transition, why it's evolving, and what to expect going forward.
CXD also organized an entrepreneurship panel with Andrew Schroeder ’15, Kote Mushegiani ’17, and Sophia Cornew ’14, some of whom couldn't even talk about the start-ups they were working on since they are in "stealth mode."
Walsh said that exposing students to alumni both at established companies and at very young ones, or even who were launching start-ups, gave students a wider and more realistic view of the tech ecosystem.
Crawford agreed, saying the panel helped illuminate a trend in the business. "There is rhythm in the Bay Area where you start out working for a big company, then go to a start-up, then return to another big company or another start-up, et cetera," he said. "We wanted to give students the chance to understand that a little and to ask questions about what is a good risk to take, how to handle the financial challenges, and why you would consider jumping from one to another."
After the office tours were over, CXD threw a celebratory networking event at a bar the final evening of the trip. More than thirty alumni showed up.
"For me, the best part was this networking event," Bae said, "which was funny, because drinking beer and having tacos, that was by far was the best form of networking I’ve ever done!" He befriended alumni, gained contacts, and had conversations about, among other topics, robotics at Amazon, building a career path to Google, and "global perspectives on tech trends from both young and old perspectives, ages ranging from around twenty-four to seventy."
Bae said he also happily gave advice to sophomores on the trek about what to do during their upcoming summer, the pros and cons of different majors, "and other little tips and tricks."
Traum also enjoyed the friendly networking event. "It was really inspiring to see alumni connecting with one another, supporting one another, and wanting to hear updates about their lives and careers," she said. "And they all took such a deep interest in learning about our aspirations and were incredibly encouraging."
Walsh said that, while ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾'s alumni network has always been generous with students, she was impressed this year with how they showed up during a challenging time for the tech industry. "There is something different about heading out in a boom market, when it's hard to not get a job," she said. "But to show up with companies having hiring freezes or layoffs, or people working all weekend because of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, that is amazing. They still showed up with energy, enthusiasm and advocacy, even in the most pressured environment."