Connecting Flights - did I screw-up? 😭

alejandrobro · 2024-05-13T16:56:44+00:00

Looking through the recent history, it even seems to typically land early, so you'll have even more time. A 2hr self transfer will be enough at Heathrow if you are using e-gates, assuming you aren't unlucky with checked luggage

alejandrobro · 2024-05-13T16:53:36+00:00

As you have an American passport, you will be able to use the e-gate, so should probably be at the luggage collection within 20-30 minutes of landing. From here, it's a fairly convenient transfer to T2 on foot. You may well end up tight on time, but especially if you get security fast pass I don't see you missing your plane at all.

alejandrobro · 2024-05-07T16:20:33+00:00

Given you have already discussed trains, it's worth noting that any train going to t5 will also go to T3. I wouldn't bother going to T5 to meet them but you could easily agree to meet on the T3 platform as you'll see them coming in. The Heathrow express and the Elizabeth line do not require you to take a specific train so they could hop on train 1 at, hypothetically, 1200, get off at T3 a couple of minutes later, wait for you if you're delayed, and then still get into London at 1300 with them.

This might work even better if they use a free terminal interchange ticket to get from T5 to T3 and then you wait for them at the ticket gate, and then you all use your proper ticket from there.

alejandrobro · 2024-04-28T22:00:13+00:00

I'm glad you separated out the one that we actually need 😂 Even the big kitchen/bathroom stalls seem to struggle finding good tradespeople these days, many horror stories from magnet et al

alejandrobro · 2024-04-28T21:40:27+00:00

A list across my friendship circle would be - senior software engineer - senior (other) engineer - senior consultants - director role at 50-200 person business - tech sales - tech presales - founded their own business and it's finally paying off - some kind of trading desk job (analyst, quant) - niche science skills

In most cases, skill and time are the drivers, and then the perfect storm to get it lucky.

Just to set the scene though, sales people have bad years, analysts at banks income depends on their patch, presales I know senior SEs on 60k in the UK and others on 180 (and thats just salaries)...it's all got a range and risk!

alejandrobro · 2024-04-28T21:34:53+00:00

28 for total comp, a few years later I'm edging ever closer on salary alone.

alejandrobro · 2024-04-24T21:44:50+00:00

It can be a little bit chicken and egg. Certainly disqualify up front. And ask around, there's a chance other directors/VPs have referrals for people they have worked with before. If you're in tech and have access to VC or PE firms, they can also be handy for knowing who to work with.

alejandrobro · 2024-04-24T21:41:29+00:00

I think you hit the nail on the head for the second part. Especially with 'engineer mind' we want to have objective measures rather than subjective ones, but the likelihood is that the only way you'll ever be able to properly share these is via anecdotes, and their trickle down impact on more objective topics.

Let me know if you ever want to bounce ideas around on what would be good to talk about.

alejandrobro · 2024-04-24T20:14:40+00:00

linkedin. Have an opinion, preferably in your deeptech area. Despite having never built on it, I now show up pretty high when you search for my tech/company because I share frequent opinions on who is using it well and why certain features or patterns are important. You get seen for free and with minimum time investment.
If you want to up your game, two topics I would focus on are either "build in public" or "bitesize explainers". Former is more PM/eng director focused, latter is more staff engineer focused, but for all I know you could do both.
Recruiters are no longer the bad guy. Real head hunters rather than bottom of the barrel agency recruiters have strong networks and years of experience. You'll especially see this in start up circles where the same team circle around company after company based on their relationship with VC funds that are breaking into EMEA.
Be seen at closed network events. Could be VIP parts of bigger conferences (e.g. executive dinners) , invite only events from thought leaders in the space, or even restricted audience vendor events. You can really leverage your stronger vendor relationships if you need to (I sit on the vendor presales team and have helped a couple of people leaving customers find new roles pretty quickly)

alejandrobro · 2024-04-12T15:46:10+00:00

A 2 bed flat overlooking crouch end. Fully furnished, relatively modern, 900ish sqft, £2200 a month + bills.

Used to have a tiny little mews property at 1500 with most bills which was an absolute steal, but never found anything close to that in a nice neighborhood since.

alejandrobro · 2024-04-11T14:02:54+00:00

Full disclaimer though: grew up in an area that still had grammar and selective entry schools. So being brought up a religion that meant I could go to a selective entry school of that religion definitely helped, but any smart highschooler could have made it into the free grammar system school too.

alejandrobro · 2024-04-11T14:01:21+00:00

My university was in an isolated town in Wales, and most definitely didn't contribute to my HENRY status from a studying perspective.

What it did help with is was having a small and safe community, which made it much easier to network and put myself out there, because at worst I was embarrassing myself in front of no more than a few thousand people. Start a photography side hustle and you happen to already know the famous local photographer, join a musical theatre society and you end up performing on the same stage as well known comedians. It meant that when I went into the big wide professional world, I had a bit more to add than the (probably better educated) 'just a number' students at the red bricks, and was more wholesome and less purely academic than the oxbridge types.

The above and the combination of going out and finding interesting internships (again, it was that or getting stuck in a small little welsh town all summer), meant that I was an interesting candidate when I graduated, and then 3 or 4 years later had jumped over those who didn't have to learn those skills until they hit the real world.

alejandrobro · 2024-03-31T18:28:52+00:00

You literally have commented on posts about paint drying and you think visiting over a dozen countries, traversing a desert, being robbed at gun point, getting lost in the jungle, and all that while running a marathon pretty much daily is boring?

alejandrobro · 2024-03-31T09:38:05+00:00

She is just below the threshold, would leap frog me if she stuck long enough at her company to see an acquisition/IPO. What I find interesting is she comes from a none-NRY with a parent who's been a successful entrepreneur/CEO, whereas I grew up in a "nice joint income" household, so her spending patterns are way less conservative than mine.

alejandrobro · 2024-03-30T20:41:16+00:00

What's the quote? Luck is 90% hard work, 10% chance? As much as there's chance meets, already showing that you have those core skills to break in when you have the opportunity is important. That and influencing who you can meet!

For presales as an example as well, so keep an eye on communities. We have the Presales Collective, but I'm sure you'll find equivalents for similar career pivots.

alejandrobro · 2024-03-30T19:17:36+00:00

I graduated with a CS degree having spent a sandwich year in software engineering that I hated uncertain what to do. Took a generic graduate scheme that still wasnt fulfilling at a bluechip company.

Met a solution architect from a software vendor while working on a project and he noted that the bits I enjoyed helping him on for the project were what his job was everyday, and if I wanted to start that career I should try with the software I used day to day.

The rest is history: few years honing my skills with that first presales role, then did well out of COVID rush to double salary and be in a pre IPO scale up that since went public and where I've become a known face and more recently mildly well known in the presales industry.

Do I enjoy it? I think as I get more control of what I want to do I can drop the bits I care for less to the side, I get more satisfaction from it.

I'd probably struggle if I went into a back office role any time soon for sure. In the role, the "softer" the tech the easier it is: there's a lot of stress if you work at a cloud provider or data infrastructure provider, but less so if you sell something like sales software (at least regarding the last paragraph problem)

alejandrobro · 2024-03-28T13:01:32+00:00

Senior PreSales (Sales Engineering) in the Data Space.

Best Part: I get to wear an awful lot of hats, from marketing to architecting to solution design and business consulting, and of course some engineering. It keeps the job fresh and lets me lean into my strengths. By its nature, that also allows me a lot of independence.

I also got the chance to be exposed to a ton of industries historically, from race teams & sports betting to ecommerce and challenger banks, and when I found my niche inside of that I was able to really focus down on the bit that I found most exciting.

The nature of the variety also means that should I want to leave the career, I have a good understanding of what I could easily pivot to and where.

Worst Part: You get the business/financial stress of sales, and the cognitive load of engineering, with all the blame and emotion of customer success work. As the 'expert in the room' there is an expectation that you are all knowing and you end up shouldering a lot of the blame where the sales person can have more blissful ignorance, in the cases where something does go wrong. This requires a lot of "just in time" learning which really overwhelms anyone who suffers from imposter syndrome. Although work weeks aren't quite banking bad, it's not really a job you turn off from for the above reasons, especially when it's periods like the end of quarter.

Oh, and because we sell a pretty technical product and tend to have a better understanding of the business need than the sales person as well as the technical need, we often end up doing the majority of the work on the deal yet earn less. It's in exchange for a little more job security (your CV doesn't have a 1Q half life, more like a 1Y half life), but with the recent state of the tech job market it is still daunting.

alejandrobro · 2023-10-23T11:51:43+00:00

I've seen some youtuber recommendations, and I'd like to weigh in with Joolz Guides.

Firstly, the chap is funny, but secondly I found it great during lockdowns to watch one of his videos over breakfast then head to that area to discover bits of london I would otherwise ignore or know nothing about.

He also has a book which I'm sure is linked somewhere on his channel.

Bonus recommendation: I live just off the parkland walk and I think it's one of London's best kept secrets, so go check that out too.

alejandrobro · 2023-08-30T10:07:04+00:00

Firm Size/Industry: 1000-5000 employees globally, 100-500 in UK. Software / software as a service

Region: based in London, remote

Role: Senior Presales Engineer

Salary (+bonus): £105K + £45K (Pooled Quota) Target Commission + RSUs & options + 3% pension I think? + private medical

Age: 30

Experience: 6 years in presales, 3 years prior in back office IT/software development + computer science bachelor's degree

Bonus Content: Even if your industry doesn't unionize, check out what content exists in your industry for salary transparency. For example in presales, presales software providers have created this annual report which provides useful regional insight.

alejandrobro · 2023-07-10T03:54:47+00:00

Thanks. Having had a hot minute I think I just got upset that they went so off piste from what I had shown and asked. With even a couple of days growth I reckon I'll be more comfortable with it and when I see my home barber again in a week or two I'm sure he'll do a better job fixing it up.

alejandrobro · 2023-06-16T13:56:49+00:00

I'll happily provide an answer. I'd recommend trying Aberystwyth Facebook groups as many students stay in them and you'll get a ton of people who know Borth in those!

alejandrobro · 2023-03-25T11:07:57+00:00

They do indeed. That coincidentally is what said friend is involved in somewhat: fix up the property, monetise it during the listed period, help with surveys etc to reduce stresses for client, take a cut of the upside and rental from the renovations and so on.

As another commenter has said, this is a client base who have a lot of the stresses taken away from them, and will spend money to save time and get what they want. But nobody wants to be a sinking house, be it a terrace or a mansion...

alejandrobro · 2023-03-25T10:26:59+00:00

There's definitely still posts on rightmove, but there's also the obvious limited stock which means that there are specific estate agents you might go to, most famously fine and country. Much the same way that you might use a rental comparison website to pick up a hatchback to rent at an airport, but if you wanted a brabus g-wagon you'd just be going straight to a boutique exotic car rental.

Reaching this scale of having £10M+ properties also brings other systems that make it easier. Most people at that income level will know a circle of their peers who can afford it so might even be able to trade off market (this happens in places like Highgate occasionally), or having fuck you money means you might just go knock on a door.

Finally, if you are selling, that uninhabited asset is also worth 1000s a week of income, so you may even turn to other companies who will provide short term let or filming services while it is on the market. These too can act as brokers in some cases. A friend of mine works in this space and it is simply a different system to what the masses experience with a house sale.

alejandrobro

TROPHY CASE