Getting the ball rolling: Lisa G.

To kick things off, your cruise director for this site will share her story:

What years did you work in Silicon Valley?
1998-2001

What company (or companies) did you work for?
Women.com (’98-’01), Juniper Networks (’01), Hewlett-Packard (’01-’02)

How did you land your first job in the area?
I had started off as an HTML coder in London in January of 1996, working for Time Out magazine (while going to grad school for archaeology – obviously) – I’d gotten that first job because I emailed my resume to the hiring manager, which was a novelty at the time. I’d talked my way (via email) into an in-person informational interview at Yahoo in early 1997, then later opted not join their customer service department (presumably a stepping stone into other parts of the business) as the salary wasn’t something you could live on in the area.

I applied for and interviewed for a job at Women.com; the process included an interview with the CEO – at that point, all new hires were still personally interviewed by her. I believe I was Employee 30 or a similar number.

Did you have an interesting job title (or titles)? Did it match your actual duties?
I started off as Web Production Coordinator: I updated the various Women.com websites, including Womenswire and the Women.com flagship site. At that point – and long after I left – everything was hand-coded HTML; there was no content management system to speak of. I was later promoted to Web Production Manager in one of many reshuffles, where I still built sites, but also led a team of coders. I also did a bit of writing for the site on occasion.

What was the day-to-day like at your workplace? Any good perks?
Like all tech companies, we had free soda; a typical day was spent in meetings about scheduling new site builds and when we’d push out new content packages, coordinating coders and designers, doing a bit of code and hoping the power didn’t go out – a frequent ‘gift’ from Enron during that period.

While Women.com wasn’t as ‘fun’ as some other local businesses (no foosball, no free Ben & Jerry’s), the atmosphere was intense but casual. Corporate buzzwords only began to creep in much later.

If your company had extensive layoffs or went under, when was the writing on the wall, from your perspective?
Things began to go south when we merged with Hearst; the editorial direction changed sharply, and as the wider market was becoming shakier (as evidenced by regular Fuckedcompany.com updates – some of us had placed bets over when we would inevitably appear there), I realized I should get out. This was not difficult, as one could simply walk into Mordor (as it were) at that point – jobs were still plentiful, and qualifications didn’t matter nearly as much as enthusiasm, in many cases. I landed a new job at Juniper Networks (and turned down several others that seemed less secure) within a few weeks of starting the job search.

But (funny story!) despite being told at one of my first company-provided beer-and-pizza meetings that we were ‘never’ having layoffs (everyone duly cheered), I was laid off months later. Even then it wasn’t difficult for me to find something else; one of my fellow layoffees recommended me for a job at Hewlett-Packard, and I started immediately (or would have, if 9/11 hadn’t happened; it took me a while to get back from Iceland, where I’d been on vacation with my severance package).

After HP, I moved to NYC (though I continued to work remotely for them for a time), where I got to trade up from my tiny box of an apartment in Mountain View – and this was pre-Google Mountain View – to a huge basement apartment in Brooklyn for a much lower rent.

Bonus question for those no longer in tech: did you simply want to try something else, or did you feel forced out?
Still in tech – whether it’s because I spent so much time at a women-majority company, or because I’ve nearly always been in majority-female development teams, I’ve (almost) never encountered any creepy sexism.

Most absurd event?
One company ‘brand rally’ for employees left an especially bad taste, though we were all given a lot of swag – t-shirts, keychains, hats, videos, etc., though it was exceeded in unintentional dark humor by the holiday party held the day after layoffs were announced (and those laid off were uninvited), complete with ice sculptures, celebrity impersonators, raw bar and the rest. I still have Women.com logo wine glasses swiped from the party.

Fondest memory?
We electrocuted a Jar-Jar Binks talking alarm clock. As you do.

Anything else you’d like to share, good or bad?
Although there were many bizarre things about the time, it was amazing – a bit like getting an MBA that specialized in what not to do, in many cases, but lots of fun as well.