This past winter break, with the USC MBA High Tech Association, I was afforded the lucky privilege of going on office visits to Zynga, Autodesk, and Salesforce.com.

Autodesk(Picture of HTA Visit to Autodesk – I’m the 5th person from the left!)

My top 3 favorite things about my visit include:

1) Checking out each company’s office – Not sure if everyone is the same way, but seeing how each company designs their office is like checking out houses for sale. You may not want to buy the house, but it’s interesting seeing how different companies style their offices based upon office culture.

Zynga incorporated all of their games into the styling of their office.

Autodesk had this really fascinating gallery and they even had 3D printers (I kid you not!) and exhibits about reality capture!

2) Learning about these tech companies from a business/MBA perspective – As a Sociology major, I’m always conscious of the type of lens through which I look at the world through.  Once I start working in audit, I worry that seeing things from the business perspective will become more difficult over time.

3) Being an accounting geek – As I visited these companies and listened to their employees, my thoughts drifted towards the potential accounting problems each company might face. At Zynga, one product manager talked about designing features to increase revenue. To me, essentially this meant revenue recognition issues. How do you apply the traditional revenue recognition rules to decide when revenue is recognized at this company?

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Overall, this Tech Trek was a great insight and provided me with lots of valuable business insights about technology companies!

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On another note, for those in the LA area on Friday, 2/22/13, if you’re interested in the entertainment industry, there is a conference, E2: Evolution of Entertainment Conference 2013, Disruptors in Media and Entertainment, where some chief execs of Sony, Hulu, and Warner Bros will be speaking.