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Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

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Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#241

Post by Hydraulix989 »

halpme wrote: post #198
BurningFrog wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Watch people's reactions change depending on the reputation of your company Does this mean you give different (mostly untrue) answers to this?

No. What I mean to say is, if someone claims to work at Google/Apple/Facebook/Microsoft, or a "cool" start-up like Uber or whatever else is popular these days, then everyone all of a sudden becomes more interested in talking to that person. "Oh wow, that's so cool! What do you do? How's it like working there??". If you work at a boring old enterprise company, most people react with "Oh, I see" and move on a different…

Haha, whenever I wear my startup's t-shirt, I see people "stealthily" eyeing the logo to size me up all the time here. Everyone wants to be on the gravy train.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#242

Post by mkching »

whitegrape wrote: post #209
kelukelugames wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hello fellow Cal Alum. Go bears! DTF is overpriced. Facing East is standard Taiwanese which means tons of sugar. I used to drive to Lynwood and Federal Way for Korean, but my girlfriend doesn't really eat meat so we don't eat Korean as much. The only good Indian restaurants are in Renton.

Sichuanese Cuisine in Redmond near the Sears / Overlake Fashion Plaza is the best I've had in the area. Health code violation shutdowns of the past just make it more delicious.

Sichuanese Cuisine is very good.

La Bu La in Bellevue is also good.

Dough Zone is worth trying if you like DTF, but not as good imo.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#243

Post by zeckalpha »

protomyth wrote: post #97
relaunched wrote: post #4

Minneapolis. - Affordable, great culture / food, low unemployment, tons of public companies, rapidly growing startup scene (100 meetup groups)...If you have kids it gets even better. The suburbs are amazing, with great parks, schools, etc. Work life balance is the norm.

Are there some pointers to the startup scene there? Every time I have checked recently its been off-shoring the IT in a lot of those public companies.

http://tech.mn/

Meetup.com has a good list, too.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#244

Post by auxym »

Chris911 wrote: post #106
atomic77 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To address both comments - I didn't mean to suggest Montreal is the new promised land, just to add some discussion of non-US locations that may hold promise since the comments had been US-centric. Most tech people working in the US likely will be shocked at how little tech workers are paid in most of the rest of the world, including Canada. But not everything is about absolute salary. Montreal, imo, provides a well-b…

What do you think is the average software developer salary in Montreal?

Throwing a wild guess (not even in the industry), but I'd be pretty surprised if it were above 100k. Or even 90.

To put this in perspective though, you can rent a reasonable 2BR for 800-1000, even not that far from the city center. GF and I rent a 1BR a bit farther, but still close enough that she can bike to her downtown work in the summer, for a fair amount less than that.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#246

Post by mikekij »

beachstartup wrote: post #213
sjg007 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in LA and the first thing you learn there is to not ask what anyone does because everyone's an actor.

these days everyone in LA is working on some kind of tech-related nonsense. i moved here to get away from all that, and it followed me. now i just want to go live in the woods with my dog.

@beachstartup Me too. In North SD. Want to work on med device security and take company retreats in the woods?

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#247

Post by auxym »

Apocryphon wrote: post #222
atomic77 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No question the salaries are lower, but two things balance that out. Income distribution is somewhat more even in Canada, so maybe you don't make as much but the people in 'lower' positions make more, relatively. This is actually a feature, not a bug - the city is safe, there is still a middle class, public services work (relatively) well and you can walk around as a tech person without worrying about a person random…

Those are all helpful and reassuring things to know. Thanks for answering some of the critiques! One more question- how's the climate? Montreal is north of Chicago and New York, after all...

This winter's been pretty warm with little snowfall, I think we only had one real cold snap dropping below -20C, and only one major snowstorm in early january. But I like winter in the city. I live walking distance from a large park where I can cross country ski.

I heard last winter was much colder on average, though I was lucky anough to spend that time on the west coast. Coming from a few other places in Quebec, Montreal so far strikes me as having milder winter. Probably harsher than NY, though.

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#248

Post by wprapido »

bwha wrote: post #199
dpeck wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atlanta has a lot of good stuff going for it, midtown area and the tech village up in Buckhead have some promising startups. Few other south eastern cities to add to OPs list: Charlotte isn't bad either and has a similar if less developed vibe, lot of financial business around there. People seem split on whether they like it or Raleigh more, seems like a toss up. For a smaller city Chatanooga has a lot going for it.

Second on Chattanooga. I help run a weekly lunchtime talk series. We've been having pretty good turn outs. For our size we have a very active community. Anywhere from 50 to 80 software professionals have been showing up every week. OpenTable has offices here. There are a few startups and a decent number of consultancies. Come visit!

will be visiting chattanooga soon. can you mail me more info at info [a] wprapido [dot] com please

Re: Ask HN: Moving Out of Silicon Valley because of housing? Where to?

#249

Post by wprapido »

captaindiego wrote: post #192
WhatsName wrote: post #77

Vienna (Austria). Great living standard, lifestyle and housing prices are growing, but regulated and mostly affordable. Fast growing startup and hacker scene, backed and supported not only by accelerators, but also by ongoing campaigns to support innovators and founders. "Vienna named world's top city for quality of life" - http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/23/vienna-named...

Does anyone know easy is it to get a visa for working in tech/engineering areas for Austria? Is something that's actually doable or is it more of a moon shot moving from the US?

it's much easier for you US citizens to get work visas (and a permanent residence permit is automatic after 5 years) than it is for us EU citizens (or for a matter of fact, just about everyone except canadians and mexicans) to get a work permit in the US, while a green card is a tough call.

not sure about austria, but germany and spain give you a residence permit even as a freelancer / entrepreneur, so these are good options to look into for folks working remotely or working for themselves (freelancers, consultants, startup founders, ...) and the process is pretty straightforward

might be good non-US destinations for these looking for something different

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