Growth hacking with America

Imposter syndrome

My Dear America,

I’m not living in your country, but I really want to. And I hope that the following article won’t hurt you…

In March, the 17th, I mentioned on Twitter, my blog, Github,… everywhere I could, that I was in America, especially in San Francisco. I did that for two main reasons.

I have a dream

Since I was young (younger, I’m still young!), I’m dreaming of living in the U.S.A., even if the country does not look as beautiful as the American dream itself. But I’m convinced that realizing some dreams make the life more beautiful and travel is a so wonderful way of life that I must try to achieve it.

The problem is that conditions to work in America, for a stranger, is hard. Too hard. In an era of free trade, freedom, globalization, we lose the great strength of humanity: sharing.

My dear America, call me a cynic if you wish.
But I know your lies.
You know them too, my dear America,
Though you refuse to admit them.

Why we cannot go freely into other countries, especially by promising to work in this country? That makes me sad.

I am an engineer

The second one is; trust me, I’m an engineer - and I’m not dupe. I know that some companies are very well perceived worldwide (or almost) and being recruited by one of them is like having the golden ticket. Of course, I’m talking about GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) and PayPal, Airbnb… The same conclusion could be made with professional experience, especially in the United States, but not only.

And that’s how my growth hacking experience started.

Growth hacker and the imposter syndrome

I remember that Todd Motto talk about the imposter syndrome after his experience to be promoted expert in Angular.

This is exactly the same experience I encountered. By specifying my new location, and sometimes my new company - Apple through a draw, I’ve got the same result, to a lesser extent.

I also wrote an article about a great topic: web performance. I didn’t attend the conference in person but I followed the online presentation, thanks to the excellent work of Smashing Magazine, allowing me to thank Patty Toland for her talk.

Some companies, or maybe bots, sent me job opportunities. Those weren’t qualified according to my skills so I didn’t applied, but living in the American soil is one of the key factors in finding a job, a great help when we are strangers.

Some real people, or maybe bots, began following me on social networks, surely because they appreciated my works, or my French Tech spirit… or certainly because I was working for Apple. They believed that. I especially hope that if I really work for one of these boxes, one day, I’ll be followed not for the job but for research content, debates and discussions.

Personal growth hacking

Growth hacking is a set of techniques to do cheap marketing. Cheap but effective and qualitative.

Growth hacking is a process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels and product development to identify the most effective, efficient ways to grow a business. Growth hacking refers to a set of both conventional and unconventional marketing experiments that lead to growth of a business.

So, personal growth hacking is the process of experimentation to grow a personal community, and simply change his biography is a cheap and good way to reach other communities.

Indeed, I’ve reached Meteor San Francisco groups, CEO’s and bots, I was added to lists, but the quality was not there. I didn’t go thoroughly in the process of growth hacking, however by regularly feeding the machine, who knows, maybe I could already have realized my American dream.

Hope before reality

By this article, I do not apply for permission to work on your soil. But if these words can echo across the Atlantic, you’ll sparkle the 50 stars of my American dream.

Here my virtual boarding pass to finally go to America and live there forever (or not):

JS Airways
Boarding pass
MPL SFO
PASSENGER NAME
iScor
FLIGHT N°
CA-S710
GATE
11B
SEAT
34A
BOARDING TIME
10:03PM ON MARCH 2016, 17