Perspective of a Firmware Engineer | An Interview with Li Li

Li Li is a firmware engineer at a technology company in Silicon Valley, located in the southern San Francisco Bay Area of California. In this interview, Li shares about her personal story immigrating to the United States from mainland China and her experiences living and working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020–present). In this interview, Li recounts some of her experiences as an Asian American and as a woman in her industry and in the Bay Area community during this unprecedented time in U.S. history and culture.  

Access the full interview transcript here.

Keywords:        COVID-19, Asian American, immigrant, mainland China, engineer, technology, anti-Asian hate, model minority, education, work-from-home, work-life balance, work environment, diversity

Index:

[00:00:15]         Consent to recording and media release of the interview

[00:03:03]         Introduction and background about Li’s journey immigrating to the United States from China

[00:06:34]         Reflecting on anti-Asian biases in America over time

[00:11:40]         Sharing personal experiences during COVID-19 quarantine and working from home; company culture and industry measures taken during pandemic to maintain a safe work environment

[00:16:15]         Instances of anti-Asian sentiment Li experienced during the pandemic

[00:18:30]         Work-life and culture in Silicon Valley technology industry, before and during the pandemic

[00:21:25]         Workplace diversity in technology industry and comparison of company culture in Bay Area to other locations

[00:24:54]         Examining work-life balance and generational differences in its meaning and importance

[00:25:10]         Education and work-life balance in the younger generations

[00:33:42]         Maintaining work-life balance and a proposal of government intervention

[00:36:10]         Li’s personal to the “Chinese virus” epithet on SARS-CoV-2 and to the political blaming on China for the pandemic

[00:42:42]         Experiences and opinion on anti-Asian hate, especially perpetrated against Asian women

[00:46:30]         Li’s stance on the “model minority” myth pinned on Asian Americans

[00:52:05]         What future generations should know about and learn from the COVID-19 pandemic

[00:54:30]         A puzzling question to ponder: What went wrong in America’s response and control of the pandemic, and how can we learn to do better?

[00:57:32]         Concluding remarks and thanks to Li for participating in the interview