Ask HN: How's working in the Silicon Valley today?

I come from banking in the Midwest. While I worked some long hours occasionally, it was never as bad as what I have experienced here in Silicon Valley. I'm specifically talking about the geographical Silicon Valley, not just the tech scene in the area. On top of that, I'm going to claim unrealistic work / life balance is something common to this part of the country. I've returned to banking out here, and I still find there is an unrealistic expectation of how many hours an employee should work a week.

With that said, I don't really mind the long hours if I am properly compensated. It's not the long hours that bother me. It's the thought that I have nothing better to do than to serve the company at any time of the day. Employment is a mutually beneficial economic relationship. Out here, it seems that a lot of employers think the employees should be thankful they are allowed to work there.

Ouch - I try to encourage my QA people to write code if they find something wrong and they feel it's easy to fix, and I am at a startup in downtown Palo Alto.

I successfully fought management to get them to allow time for the other senior engineers to mentor the junior developers, and for all to explore new technologies after a massive burnout session of product development to meet an overly aggressive release deadline - I threatened to quit if big changes weren't made, and I was by far their most productive frontend engineer.

Not all startups are equal - just as it can be difficult to find the career that interests you, it can be just as difficult to find the company you would like to work at.

I've worked all over the U.S., and oddly enough, am now only working in SV. Been here about 3 months.

Single? Young? Do it in a heartbeat. Get as much experience doing various things as you can. In the right spot, you can't beat the experience here. I'll also second what the others said about culture: go walking around downtown Mountain View or Palo Alto sometime and just listen to the chit-chat. Very cool stuff.

Older? Married with kids? Heck if I'd want to do it. Those same really cool 20-something masters-of-the-universe are probably also a major pain to have to deal with. Yeah, it'd be cool to bump into somebody in an elevator and start discussing NoSQL. No, it wouldn't be cool to go to some function like a PTA meeting or some meeting of the city council and have dozens of upper-income dweebs with little experience in conflict resolution.

I would also be very careful that you're not getting screwed over by a young startup that's going to crash and burn and take you with it -- or become one of the drones for one of the super huge companies. The sweet spot is between those two extremes. I imagine it would be extremely easy to wake up in two years and find you've lost a huge chunk of your life with little to show for it. Don't do that.

I've lived in a few major metro areas, so I'll take a shot at helping you. I'm interested in seeing if anybody else has run into these things happening to them, as well.

Coming from a background in CS, you have a definite advantage. There are a lot of tech companies out here, but I would not limit myself to that if I were you. There are plenty of opportunities where tech is an overlap with the actual focus of a company. Try not to get stuck in a particular mindset about what job you'll do, especially if you are just finishing your PhD and stepping into the "real world".

The Valley (I'm including all of the SF Bay Area, as well), is a great place, with a lot to offer. However, it can be a hard and cold place, especially if you don't know anybody out here.

Unless you're traveling along El Camino Real, or going into the center of cities, traveling is a pain. Services such as the Caltrain have limited stops at certain locations, and stop running at 10:30pm or midnight (depending on the direction). Muni can be packed and pass by usual stops if there isn't enough room (ususally will only happen around Chinatown and Northbeach areas). And BART is... a topic for another day.

This has given rise to Uber and Lyft providing a great convenience, but one in which you pay for. Sometimes having excessive multipliers on the usual fare you're charged. Taking an Uber in SF during a Giant's game day will see a spike in fare, for example.

The culture is its own thing. Having lived in Chicago and NYC, I've had my share of interaction with enough people. People in the valley are very friendly and very helpful—up front. Rather than not talking to you, or brushing you off, people will act very excited to meet you and talk with you. However, do not take this as them having an actual interest in you, or anything about you. This lone difference had made it difficult for me to actually understand who is a friend, and who is not out here.

Related to that, the dating scene out here is the same, from my experience. A lot of girls I've dated out here are looking for a guy who has a particular "thing". Whether that be he teaches yoga, has a dog, does art in the park, something they can tell their friends about. In NYC my experience has been a bit better. Girls seemed to be more attracted to me based on my personality, and "charm" for lack of a better word. I didn't feel the need to have a "thing" going on, just me being me.

Housing and where you live greatly alter your enjoyment. This also depends on what you want to do.

If you're looking for night life, you should definitely live in SF, Palo Alto, or San Jose. Anywhere else limits you to particular metros, or how much money you're willing to shell out for an Uber. There is a lot going on at any time in those 3 places, that finding groups, meetups, events, will be a great place to socialize.

Housing is expensive. Very expensive. But it's not terrible. A lot of companies take into consideration housing, so your paycheck will reflect being able to afford to live.

Your paycheck might look like a lot at $120,000, but it's not. Between rent, taxes, food, travel, you'll be living well, but not as well as some might think.

It's a good place to live, especially if you're in your 20's and want to further your career, and love technology. Outside of that, it's just another place with its own quirks.

This is pretty much spot on. I live in San Mateo. Firstly, what I pay for my basic apartment here would have easily put me in one of the nicest places back home. Nightlife doesn't exist. The traffic is horrible if you are headed up into SF or down into San Jose. I manage to save $1K per month on my six figure salary. At first, that sounds like I'm doing pretty well; however, look up the cost of a house in the Bay Area. In August when my lease is up, I'm taking what I have managed to save, and I'm going home to where I can afford to live, not merely sleep.