Silicon Valley - Reflection

The Curry College trip to Silicon Valley was an amazing experience all around.  I think there should be more opportunities for students to travel with the school and experience new environments, specifically in the workplace.  During this trip, we as students got to observe a completely new business environment and culture.  It opened my eyes to other parts of the country and made me see not all business environments are similar to that of the east coast.  The workplace was much more casual in Silicon Valley, however everyone seemed happy and content with their current situation.

In Silicon Valley, we were able to compare and contrast companies of different size and stages of maturity.  We were able to visit Fortune 500 businesses such as Apple, Google, and Facebook.  Additionally we visited start up businesses looking to shape their goals and propel themselves into future success.  Having the opportunity to experience these drastically different environments was very useful and could influence the direction I chose following graduation.  One comment I have is that I think in the future it might be nice to visit one larger corporation, one medium size company, and one start up each day in Silicon Valley for the next class trip.  This would give the opportunity to compare larger and smaller businesses each day, and not be too overwhelmed by say an Apple and Google in the same day.  This is just some minor feedback, as the trip as a whole was an amazing educational experience.  Students need more opportunities to visit the real world environment in the field of interest for each student.

The selection of businesses was perfect in my opinion.  There were some businesses which I had no idea about prior to this class trip.  I thought the mix of start ups with larger corporations was a great choice, and I wouldn't suggest changing too much in the future.  Perhaps one more free day in the middle of the week to re-energize.  But otherwise, it was a perfect week in Silicon Valley.

One suggestion unrelated to the Silicon Valley trip.  I think Curry College should further encourage internships to gain more experience in the real world environment with real world application.  It seemed as if the companies in Silicon Valley expected a number of internships as prior experience.  However it doesn't seem like many Curry students have undertaken internships in the field that they wish to enter following graduation.  As we continues visiting businesses in Silicon Valley, I noticed that internships were brought up contuinuously.  Perhaps Curry should require at least one internship?  Just a takeaway from the whole experience that I thought I should mention.

-David Blythe