lab-angel

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Shaping My Career

Am I ready to take the compensation risk to join late-stage startups? How much do I hold out until a good company comes along that is willing to pay more than any other offer? These and other thoughts on shaping my career...

Life: I got engaged! And my college bestie got engaged a week later! – I flew out to the east coast for one weekend and had a small engagement ceremony at my parent’s house. I flew right back to California to attend an onsite interview. – My mom is hardcore planning my wedding already. I feel like there’s a lot of miscommunication between my parents and my boyfriend’s parents as compared to me and…

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Thoughts on Job Searching

Thoughts on Job Searching

Life: I had a wonderful time spending Memorial Day with two college friends who flew in from Texas. – I had told my parents that I was studying for interviews back in February, I told them I was looking for a job at the beginning of May, and today I told them that I quit my job because I was having trouble meeting deadlines at work after I made my mind up to find a new job. My mother is a big…

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Looking for a Job

Looking for a Job

Life: I took a weekend roadtrip with my bf a few weeks ago and flew to Texas last weekend. I’m also looking forward to two friends flying in from Texas over Memorial Day weekend! 😀 – I flew to Texas to celebrate my best friend graduating with a Masters this past weekend. A mutual friend from our college also attended and it was really nice catching up with them. – My boyfriend’s parents are…

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Finally Focusing on Work

Finally Focusing on Work

Life: Still local since the last entry. Still planning on visiting a friend in mid-May. Still haven’t booked flights yet. – Highlight of my month: I went to Women Who Code’s Connect 2019 conference in SF. I volunteered for WWC so I got to attend for free. I really enjoyed getting to learn about all the amazing women working in my industry. – I went to San Francisco’s Cherry Blossom Festivalin…

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Making Space for Career

I'm trying out the #pomodoro technique and started doing a few Leetcode questions every week. What are you doing to improve your career?

I’m trying out a new format. Let me know how you like it!

Life: I stayed local in February but I am considering making the trip to a friend’s graduation in May. – Highlight of my month: Going to the Exploratorium on Valentine’s Day. It was open in the evening for adults-only, plus they had special chocolate-themed exhibits. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of their adults-only evenings.

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A lot of fanciness for a simple girl

It's my birthday month, I feel special. Also I was inspired by Marie Kondo to organize my digital files. What tips do you have for tidying up?

I stuck around this month. I played badminton with a couple friends the first weekend, hung out with alumni from my graduate college the next weekend, spent MLK Day weekend with my boyfriend in SF, and was very much a homebody last weekend. My boyfriend has never been to a Women’s March and I considered taking him the Saturday before MLK Day, but did laundry and yoga instead. He made some digital…

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2018 Financial Review

I reviewed 2018 income, savings, and investments. Plus estimated 2019 savings. Check it out! #financialreview #savingsrate

Every January I review how the past year went, compare it to previous year’s prediction, and give an estimate for the upcoming year. My last paycheck for the year says I got 296K W-2 gross income in 2018. From what I can tell of my brokerage accounts, I had at least 4K investment income. That puts me over 300K pre-tax incomefor the year, which is just astounding to me as I never imagined making…

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2017 Financial Review

My net worth increased by 112K to 214K in the past year, I personally contributed 64K (after 5K excess contribution withdrawal) and the rest was company match and investment gains. Here’s how my investments have changed between the December 2016 and December 2017 entries:

Stocks (Brokerages + ESPP proceeds): 20K original amount, +65K change

+35K personal savings

+16K ESPP contributions for three…

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After Health? Career.

Happy New Year! I'm going to focus on my career in 2019. For anyone in the tech industry, I'd love to hear about what you're planning to learn next and how :D

Happy New Year! I booked flights last minute and arrived at my parent’s house on Christmas Eve, I flew back to the west coast on New Years Day. I spent a lot of time with my family and had an amazing time. I’d worked from home the last time I visited and hadn’t gotten much time with family then. This time I was on vacation all week so I went on a walk with my mom, helped her start a 30-day…

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The Importance of Having a Mentor

I met with my mentor this week after a 6-month hiatus. What have you learned from a mentor?

Happy Holidays! I attended a family wedding over Thanksgiving weekend and stayed at my parent’s house the week after the wedding, so I just got back to California this past Sunday. It was a pretty long wedding since I also attended dinner events for the couple’s close friends and family for two nights before wedding day, but mostly it went smoothly. My parents let me take it easy at home last…

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The Numbers

Want to know how much I make? Go no further...

I started to blog anonymously so I can be open about my job and compensation. I got the idea of a numbers post from HerEveryCentCounts, who in turn credits Leigh’s Financial Journey. All numbers are in thousands of USD. Salary is as of December of the listed year, Gross Income is the income from my tax return. Net worth lists Assets – Liabilities using December Networthshare entries.

My income…

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Frank Career Conversations

I’m back from vacationing in China and it was amazing!!! Not just the country itself, the trip gave me faith in my boyfriend too. I’d gotten a Chinese visa and booked flights a week before I took off so I landed in Beijing with zero preparation. My boyfriend met me at the airport and took care of almost everything for the week we were there. It really helped that I could forget about everything…

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Renewed Motivation to Work

Renewed Motivation to Work

Time is slipping quickly these days. I’m again uncertain of where a whole month went. As I predicted in August my work-life balance has become more skewed towards work, but not before a whole bunch of life and play happened in the intervening weeks. I exercised on 5 days straight after Labor Day and totaled of 19 workouts in September; it helped that September was wellness month at my company and…

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Designing My Life, Part 1

Designing My Life, Part 1

I started reading the book Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It’s an interactive book that gives writing prompts every chapter. In the first chapter they advocate putting together a Health – Work – Play – Love Dashboard as a “You are here” sign to signify where I’m starting from. Here is mine; I’ve rated each area from 0 to 4 and written a small blurb about why.

Health – 4

This…