introducing my weekly newsletter
where i navigate the remote work new grad life as silicon valley employee who f***ed off to europe.
what it’s about
living a well-explored life. travel. lifestyle. remote work. small joys and slow pleasures in a fast-paced world. coffee and food, plus recommendations. musings in long(ish)form for friends old and new, internet and irl.
why
with social media apps, we’re more connected than ever. but there’s a lot of noise out there… and it’s hard to keep in touch with the people we care about meaningfully. even more so if you went to an international school, then a globally diverse university, and thus your friends are scattered and in different stages of transition themselves. what i’m trying to say is: it’s difficult to keep to up date, but i’d like to try, if you’d like to listen (or rather, read.)
while i share highlights on instagram (@audrey.chen), it’s not the best platform for reflection and longer thoughts/updates. i really like reading friends’ personal newsletters, so i’m making my own. it’s a creative outlet for myself—a push to write weekly. plus, i might finally create nicer content for everyone dm-ing me for city guides. 😄
welcome, and feel free to write me back. no pressure, but i’ll read it if you do.
recent update/what’s on my mind:
icymi on instagram, i just moved from san francisco to lisbon after traveling for a few weeks with family.
top: the view in my new flat / bottom: my dining area
not surprisingly, i find settling down to be hard after moving countries every semester for the past four years at minerva university. while san francisco is very convenient, it was starting to feel a bit small for me. (it doesn’t help that most businesses close very early—as someone who loves walking around, it left me with not much to see/do after a workday.) my partner and i decided to take advantage of our remote-first jobs and move, and now here we are.
all my belongings, including some nice ceramics and bedding accumulated over the past year, fit into three large suitcases, one carry-on, and one backpack. my clothes and pillows were vacuum-sealed. this is one large suitcase more than when i was a student, but less than if i were to purchase all the dinnerware/cookware i want. it’s a good compromise for now.
if you might also want to relocate soon:
switch to renting furniture when you can. we used feather in the bay area. for a one year term, it tends to be cheaper than buying and re-selling. one exception is investing in a good mattress. being well-rested is so important to daily mood and happiness.
test out a location before committing. staying and working from lisbon for a few weeks in january let me experience the remote work infrastructure and time zone differences. i learned i prefer to work afternoons and evenings so i have the morning to do other things in the sun.
short term leases tend to be more expensive. budget accordingly.
let your manager know, but don’t tell HR unless you’re sure, and you might not need to if it’s short-term. unless your company has regulations against working from different places.
getting set up
this first week has been about learning where to get my groceries and what stores sell certain items. getting into a semi-routine when it comes to meals, exercise, work, and sleep. quickly becoming a regular at my favorite coffeeshop. after traveling for a few weeks, it feels strange to not live out of a suitcase anymore; i had to remind myself to unpack and actually put things away.
small anxieties
i know i have to leave the EU for 90 days in december (i have not applied for a visa to remain a US employee for now.) while i’m flexible and don’t tend to get stressed in the face of uncertainty (rather, i’ve historically sought it out), not knowing where i’ll live after december is starting to get to me a bit. i’d like to have a permanent location or a place to call “home” in the future, or at least somewhere i can host dinner parties and keep all my nice dinnerware. i may go to london in december? we shall see….
simultaneously, there’s been re-orgs at work, team changes, people leaving. all part of working at a fast-growing startup. i’ve switched managers and teams twice in the past month. amidst all this, i’ve been asking myself whether tech or SaaS is really the industry i want to be in, as i’ve felt pulled towards industries with a greater *real life* presence like hospitality, food, and retail. and i always thought i’d end up in branding, doing brand strategy, but haven’t been doing that kind of work in my role. but i like the company culture, people, and product, and the fact that i’m in a rotation program. i’m still thinking about the direction i want to be headed in, and have been reaching out to colleagues for advice.
advice i’ve gotten from mentors in the past few days:
trust the universe. even if there doesn’t seem to be a clear path forward (this applies to both career and general life), things always make more sense in hindsight. so go where your intuition is taking you, and have fun along the way.
if you’re not happy with your current responsibilities, saying “actually, i want to be doing X or learning Y instead” is never a bad thing, especially if you’re at a startup where roles are more flexible.
a low-commitment way to explore potential paths is to read job descriptions of roles related to what you’re interested in, even if you have no intention of applying. and just because you’re no longer a student doesn’t mean you can’t ask for informational interviews with people who’s roles you’re interested in.
maybe it seems like simple advice—and sometimes it’s the advice i’ve given myself to new grads—but it’s nice to be reminded, since i find it harder to follow advice when i’m in a thought loop.
addition to my main task now, which is running a fellowship program for university students, i’ll be taking on more creatively-oriented work in writing and content strategy, and not signing up for campaign management or growth marketing related work. we’ll see how it goes in a few weeks. right now, i’m taking the team transition period as a time to slow down and work less. and have more afternoon coffees in the sun with a good book.
what do you want to read about in next week’s edition of this newsletter? i’d like to make this a habit and write something every single week, so keep an eye out!