This was the advice of famous newspaper editor and failed American presidential candidate Horace Greeley to the ambitious American citizens of the mid-19th century seeking prosperity. After spending the past week with Dean Bruner, calling on technology companies in Seattle and San Francisco, I offer MBAs the same advice.
Why go West?
Passion. I'm a novice when it comes to technology, but when I visit a young company (only four years old) like Facebook, and listen to a recruiter who is absolutely bubbly when talking about her company, its products, and her co-workers, I can't help but get excited also. Facebook currently has 600 employees, and hired several MBAs this year to help them continue to grow. Apple Computer says their main criterion for hiring new employees is passion for something (and not necessarily technology). You can feel the passion the employees have just sitting in their cafe. (We were there three days before the launch of the iPhone 3G, so the excitement level was at a fevered pitch.)
Opportunity. We visited Microsoft--a company of 90,000 people already, but so excited about its growth prospects that it is building new facilities at a rapid rate all around the world to house new people. Microsoft is hiring people in most of the countries in which it does business and seeks employees willing to move around and create opportunities for themselves and the company. We also visited Amazon.com. One of our alumni there is in a job she describes as not typical MBA work--and she loves and gets to do it because she asked for it and has performed in it. Another alumnae has been there only a couple of years and is growing in responsibility because she is making contributions as well.
Impact. At Cisco our alumni there truly believe their products are going to change the way people meet with each other. One alumni is finding ways for Cisco to invest in emerging economies, to help the economies grow and take advantage of breakthrough technologies. He believes he is making a difference in people's lives. Actually so did the alumni at Microsoft. And the recruiter at Facebook. And the recruiting team at Apple. They are all convinced that they are on the cusp of greatness and that what they are doing is making a difference.
So, should you go West? If you have a passion for technology or just like to work on products about which you have passion, if you want lots of opportunity that you yourself get to create, and/or you want to make a difference for the next generation, you might want to go West.
P.S. One other reason to go West: a love of great coffee. The West has almost as many coffee shops as it does people. We met with an alum at Starbucks, and his mission in life is to add a few more. After spending an hour listening to his confidence in the future of Starbuck's, I left convinced that even the coffee business was reason enough to move West.