Life in California has not met expectations: how I left Google and returned to Kiev

In December, 2017, on Khreshchatyk in Kiev, opened the art space 001. Its founder Sergey Dumik lived for three years in California, working under a contract with Google as a tester, and then as a developer.

Photo: Facebook / Sergey Dumik

In an interview with the publication DUO He spoke about life in the United States and why he decided to return to Ukraine.

Where and by whom did you work before moving to the USA?

I’m at IT from 2006 onwards, came as a complete zero, knowing only English and Internet Explorer. I have a technical education, though not technical, but I graduated from the KPI, the faculty of welding. When I got my first job, my goal was to buy a camera and a bicycle. He worked as a testing engineer at the grocery company, then at GlobalLogic. In 2007-2008, as a hobby, he was engaged in photography in the art nude genre, but then abandoned art for as many 10 years and turned into an ordinary IT person.

Did you specifically look for work in the States?

In fact, my wife wanted to emigrate more. She was engaged in the creation of visual effects in post-production, she had a serious portfolio. In California, this industry is very developed, and the wife hoped to get new career opportunities. I found out that EPAM is hiring directly to the USA on a H1B visa, has been interviewed, but then the quota for issuing these visas has expired. I was offered to work in the Kiev office for a year or two and then on L1 to make a transfer to Google in Mountain View. In the end, I went through an additional interview with the manager of the Google team and moved in September 2014. The company reimbursed the cost of airfare, rent of an apartment and car for the first month, in general there was a standard relocation package.

What is the difference between working conditions in a contractor at Google and full-time employees?

I would say that conditions are not changing for the better. When I moved, all the EPA members in Mountain View along with Googleers, on the same projects, we had almost everything available to our employees. Then separate offices were opened for contractors in Sunnyvale and San Jose, and now they lose to Google’s main campus. They look like dull office buildings, and there is not even a canteen in San Jose. It becomes obvious that Google does not want to mix contractors with their employees. But this can hardly be called a serious disadvantage for those who have the main goal - to move to California.

More importantly, contractors may be given less interesting tasks, for example, it may be internal Google projects that no one knows about. But I must say that EPAM has a rather serious R&D direction. The company sometimes gets exclusive access to certain projects and launches them on a turnkey basis. EPAM positions itself not as an outsourcing company, but as a service company that provides solutions. The trick is that based on your experience, you can be entrusted with a really important project, precisely because EPAM has a special relationship with Google. In addition, it is felt that the company cares about the professional development of employees, and the atmosphere there is not like in a bodyshop.

Photo: Facebook / Sergey Dumik

What exactly did you do at Google, did you change the projects?

At first, he was a tester on internal projects, such as a performance review for employees and an access control system. Back in Kiev, I dreamed of going into development, but several times I failed an interview for a programmer position because of algorithmic tasks, I have an idiosyncrasy for them. I again put this question to my manager already in the USA, finished the project I was working on as a tester at Google, and after that EPAM found a project where I could already come as a programmer.

At the beginning of 2016, I got a job working as a developer on the tool to review AdSense ads. In fact, I was just lucky that at the interview I was asked a couple of simple questions, because I had never learned how to solve algorithmic problems. A few months later I successfully completed a performance review, but my level was defined as middle. After some time I grew up to the signor already at the post of a programmer.

EPAM contractors often go to Google as full-time employees, why didn't you go this way?

There were several reasons. With a L1 visa, you cannot change jobs until you get a green card, so everyone has one pattern of behavior: wait for the green card and start attending interviews about half a year before receiving it. I’ve heard about terrible interviews at Google, for which people have been preparing for a whole year. I did not want to devote so much time to it. In addition, I saw that the Googlers have a much higher level of responsibility, they have overtime, and there are not so many advantages, except that the increase in salary, but for me it was not such an important factor. But the main reason is that I'm just a bad programmer. In fact, I got tired of work in a month, I was expecting a completely different one. IT is just not mine, but deciding to leave was hard.

Why life in the Valley did not meet your expectations?

The valley is so boring that after six months I began to plan a return. I thought that the USA is like Europe, and Silicon Valley is like a picture from Futurama: monorails, flying cars, that’s all. Instead, I saw Caltrain, which looks worse than the Kiev subway, imperfect roads, houses lined with clapboard and steelоmaking millions. All this was not at all like the sixth economy in the world.

I am used to living in the capital, I am used to urban life, and the Valley is a village where life is very slow and nothing happens. Everyone travels only to shopping centers and bad coffee shops, whose interiors, compared to Kiev or Lviv institutions, are tasteless and uncomplicated. The only thing you liked was nature. I immediately bought a bicycle, rode a lot, and did not want to go back home: the apartment-complex looked like a makeshift without some style, with a pool that was made just for show and did not want to use it, and the same gym.

San Francisco in terms of lifestyle you fit more?

Six months later, we ended the lease, and my wife, who often traveled to San Francisco, began to push me to the thought of moving there. It must be said that when the topic of San Francisco arose in a conversation with one of my colleagues, everyone unanimously began to resent what a terrible city it was: it was dirty there, homeless, there was no place to park, it was cold. But there were two people who lived in San Francisco and by a strange coincidence were strikingly different from the general mass, they told about interesting parties and parties. The rest of the guys mostly discussed only questions of optimizing life in America: what kind of insurance to choose, which car is better to buy, how to bargain, how to grow a credit account. At first, as a newcomer, I was also worried about these topics, but then I decided all the domestic issues, and people continued to talk about it.

My wife and I began to go to San Francisco more often, but did not know how to approach it. We had no acquaintances who would show the city, and at first we also treated him wary. Nevertheless, we managed to find a very comfortable apartment almost on the border with Daly City. And only when we moved there, after a year of adaptation, and real life began. San Francisco for each his own. Only strong people live there, he pushes away the rest with his unfriendly climate, prices. This is a city of contrasts, which I loved with all my heart.

Photo: Facebook / Sergey Dumik

How did you become interested in art again?

My wife and I are very influenced by the events on the Maidan. We wanted to do some kind of socio-cultural projects related to changing the world as a whole. When we lived in the Valley, we could not find like-minded people to realize our initiative. And this also played a role in my attitude to this place, because I saw around boring people who are not interested in anything but money. Settling in San Francisco, we decided to act outside the box: we pasted ads in art schools that we are looking for developers to participate in an art project. As a result, we met the guys who discovered the artistic environment of San Francisco.

My favorite place was the art space of Merchants of Reality, where exhibitions, workshops, concerts, performances were held, and artists could rent studios for workshops and even live there. I started to work again, in various forms: recording music albums and podcasts, shooting videos, taking photos, making sculptures and installations, and organizing parties of an unusual format. I devoted all my free time to this and started thinking about how to do this full time.

What was the turning point for you and prompted the decision to quit?

In 2016, I visited Burning Man. In fact, this is not a festival, but a transforming consciousness environment, where you find yourself in your deepest desires and completely lose touch with reality. There, everything is sharpened to make you more creative, kinder, more open. The atmosphere that reigns in this oasis in the middle of the desert is real magic. On Burning Man you can see the coolest art. Sculptures and installations are made there that shake by their scale and engineering complexity. I am convinced that everyone should be on Burning Man. When I saw how and what people live there, they go there, I realized that I can use my skills and intellect differently.

Why did you return to engage in contemporary art in Kiev, and did not stay in the US?

In San Francisco, there is a decline of that art, which I like, of that which is connected with pure creation. Gallery art is developing, but it never interested me. Due to high real estate prices, artists are forced to leave San Francisco, mainly to Oakland and beyond, up to Portland. The last straw for me was the closing of the Merchants of Reality gallery. After Burning Man, I became interested in the movement of Digital nomad, I had a plan to save money so that I could travel around the world and engage in creative work for a year. I wanted to break with the corporate world, and since I had no legal reason to live in the United States after being fired, I planned to return to Kiev, but for a short while, I did not even think that I would decide to stay here.

Photo: Facebook / Sergey Dumik

How do you like Kiev after returning? Has your attitude to him changed?

This is heaven and earth compared to what was before my departure. I did not feel such a concentration of creative energy even in the cities of Europe. I have always loved Kiev as my homeland, and now I see that this is objectively the most suitable place in the world for the start of the cultural revolution. I quickly found like-minded people here, participated as an artist in the Brave Factory and GogolFest festivals, met people from the art community.

Tell me about the project 001, how was his idea born?

The idea came to me even in the States when a friend told me about The Factory, the cult art studio of Andy Warhol, which in 60-70-ies was the refuge of New York bohemia. I was so inspired that we tried to discover something similar in San Francisco, but there was no financial opportunity. The idea lay down in the depths of consciousness and sharply actualized upon returning to Kiev. There are a lot of places with affordable rentals, post-industrial, which are particularly suitable for the format of the factory, just old houses, there are even squats. I realized that I no longer needed to go anywhere, but I had to create the space I dreamed of right now.

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