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

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

#21

Post by seekingcharlie »

vargalas wrote: post #20
anw wrote: post #17

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 compa…

I'm a senior web/fullstack developer, interviewing with some firms in order to move to the Valley. I have a good chance with a company in SF, soon I'll have to negotiate the salary with them. Is $120.000/year really hardly enough to live on there? I'm in Europe now so I really don't know the costs there. Here I make ~7000-9000 Eurs / month, which is quite enough.

That salary is way too low for a senior developer in SF. I would take a look at hired.com & see what offers you get, but I'm betting they would be a lot hire than $120k.

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

#22

Post by percept »

silverpikezero wrote: post #5

Longtime lurker, never posted on HN before. I am a mid-career software engineer working for a hardware company. I don't live in the Palo Alto area and SF itself, because the cost of living is incredibly high. They are nice places for sure, and the social scenes there are more developed. You will have to pay to play there though. Housing is very expensive, rents are very expensive. I see it as a tax on job portability…

Without projecting too much, I think there's much comfort and benefit in that--having some mileage under one's belt, relaxing and realizing it's a long trip (and behind every peak is another valley, until the next).

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

#23

Post by smeyer »

hyt7u wrote: post #18
akhilcacharya wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>love it - for the first time in my life I'm surrounded by people who are as passionate (and often even more so) about the same things I am, it's something I don't think you can really get anywhere else. Are there any universities with a similar atmosphere?

I'm curious about this. I went to a good university (though not known for CS), and I thought that most of my classmates were apathetic/just in it for the money. I certainly never saw the sort of enthusiasm that I see from people on HN (or my co-workers at my startup job). Are places like CMU or MIT utopias of hacking-related discussion? (I mean at the undergraduate level, that is)

I went to Harvard and spent a lot of time at MIT. While not universal through the campuses, you can definitely find environments with the feelings described above.

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

#24

Post by ModernMech »

Cuyacap wrote: post #19
anw wrote: post #17

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 compa…

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 Are…

I'm curious if you'd be willing to share your monthly take-home and your monthly rent... or maybe at least what percentage of your take-home you're paying for rent?

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

#25

Post by Cuyacap »

ModernMech wrote: post #24
Cuyacap wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Are…

I'm curious if you'd be willing to share your monthly take-home and your monthly rent... or maybe at least what percentage of your take-home you're paying for rent?

Rent and utilities are approximately 40% of my take home pay. That's for an average one bedroom apartment in San Mateo.

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

#26

Post by anw »

ModernMech wrote: post #24
Cuyacap wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Are…

I'm curious if you'd be willing to share your monthly take-home and your monthly rent... or maybe at least what percentage of your take-home you're paying for rent?

Since this is a child comment under my post, I'll chime in, too.

When I first started out here, I was making aprox $6666 a month ($80k annual). Of that, I would take home around $4100 after taxes and withholdings (including travel expenses which were reimbursed when you file your taxes).

Of that $4100, $1600 would go towards rent (which was only because I found a deal from a friend). You now have $2500.

This seems not too bad, until you factor in utilities, random car repairs, saving for vacations (or maybe just skip the vacations and save for a fancy casket).

In the end, unless you're mindfully frugal, you may be left with around around $12-1500 to keep in your bank account.

Which is great... if you're content with keeping the equivalent of a sub $20,000 salary.

To make it worth it, find a job you like, or a job that likes and values you. Look for areas you can expand and grow; not just in your current skillset, but in broadening outside of engineering, as well. Soft skills are very helpful.

As you get promotions (also called switching companies every 1.5 years out here), your salary will increase, but it won't feel as dramatic as the check says.

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