by Xinhua writers Xia Lin, Wu Xiaoling, Ye Zaiqi
SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Out of decades of hard work and dedication, Chinese engineers are well perched in Silicon Valley in the U.S. state of California to build their flourishing career and prosperous life.
Both Zhang Xiaodan and Zhao Yao feel that their high times in Silicon Valley are yet to come, as they mingle into the vibe of high-tech giants like Google, Facebook and Apple.
"The company I work for has a great sway in the world. New things happen each day, which is exciting," said Zhang, a software engineer working for a leading high-tech company, who came from Beijing and settled down in the Bay Area in 2015.
TOO LARGE TO BE NEGLECTED
Silicon Valley hosts a surfeit of high-tech companies and start-up enterprises, providing chances for Chinese engineers like Zhang to boost their careers, build a decent life and pursue wild ambitions.
"Chinese programmers are one of the mainstays in Silicon Valley. Many nutcrackers in many major corporations are Chinese," said the 38-year-old Zhao.
He came from Hunan province in southern China, won his bachelor and master degrees at the distinguished Tsinghua University in Beijing, furnished his doctorate at the Northwestern University in Illinois, served the Bell Laboratory and Google in tandem, and now is the director of data science at a high-tech start-up Shape Security.
Top brands attract to the valley top engineers and programmers, who innovate and create to earn their living, and those from China have already been a strong presence.
"You know, (when) I look back on my team's members, probably 80 percent of them were made up of either Chinese or Indians," said Steve Mansour, CTO of Accord Interest, who had been hired by Apple and PayPal as a senior manager.
It is hard to ascertain the exact number of the Chinese people working for the companies here, but it is no wrong to say that their presence is now too large to be neglected, either for traditional tech giants like Google, Apple and Cisco Systems, or for rising Internet powers like Twitter and Facebook.
A 10 percent share is always the baseline.
"The peak of my team's largest size I had (was) roughly 300 people at eBay, and probably about half of them were Chinese. So I would say, (they make) huge contribution," Mansour told Xinhua.
PROSPEROUS WITH TALENTS
Official figures said that the annual income for an average American family was 55,000 U.S. dollars in 2015, while the valley version stood at 76,000 dollars, let alone the 20 to 40 grand an engineer make a year at the several giants.
A yearning for promising future and the confidence to achieve it make Chinese engineers and programmers tether themselves tighter to what they have been accomplishing so far in Silicon Valley.
"Around me are amazing people. They fit in with the mechanism so well and dare to develop fancy ideas into real products," Zhang told Xinhua.
Diversity, innovation and good finance transform Silicon Valley into a pilgrimage that IT professionals have to make once and for all in their life time.
Chinese players come no later than the others. They help build the scenery and share the fruits, leaving a non-erasable mark in the city's high-tech landscape.
"Most of my friends think innovation as necessary and they intend to innovate. Our generation wants to take risk to tap our potentials," added Zhao.
ELITE EDUCATION
Chinese engineers and programmers are making their call in Silicon Valley, through elite education they received both in China and the United States as well as widely acclaimed work style featuring combining devotion and concentration.
Most of them share one thing in common: education in top universities in both China and the United States.
An outstanding resume and total immersion have enabled Zhang to achieve more out of life and career.
"I studied Olympic maths since very young and attended the Affiliated Middle School of the Renmin University. Mathematics has always been my favorite, which interests me a lot. After graduation from my middle school, I applied for colleges both in China and overseas," Zhang said.
With a decent salary and less financial concerns, she has become more daring in exploring new ideas in her career.
"Many people around me are devoted to their jobs. They are able to develop idea into reality. I think the Chinese people here become more daring to challenge themselves, which is a very good phenomenon," she added.
Education background and dedication give Chinese engineers a solid base, and earns them word of mouth as well as reputation.
"I found Chinese programmers to be highly reliable, very technically capable. Absolutely I can't imagine hi-tech without the Chinese people, without the Asians involved," said Mansour.
HIGH TIME YET TO COME
Zhao has a larger dream to chase. In regard of his start-up project, he is weaving his resources in China and the United States to carve out a larger domain in the field of Internet security and innovation.
"I had my bachelor and master degrees from Tsinghua University, where I gained a solid foothold of education. As we know, Tsinghua pays much attention to basic sciences, including mathematics and computer," Zhao said.
Looking back, Zhao palpably owes his success much to his school years. Later when he started his career in the United States, especially as he began to hammer out a professional track in Silicon Valley, such a perception or belief proved true and more worthy.
"When you come to the United States for study or work, you will find what you learned before (in China) can now help you process much more difficult problems, even problems that others can't get over with," added Zhao.
