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San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

nytimes.com

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Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#201

Post by valgaze »

mapgrep wrote: post #31

I grew up in San Diego before spending 20 years in the Bay Area. While I totally understand why a fresh graduate would want to head north to the bay, I think as a place to CREATE a startup, San Diego has tremendous potential. The weather is beautiful and actually beats SF. It's close to 70 year round, nice and dry, with great beaches and mountain and desert hiking. As the article notes downtown has been evolving in a…

"The weather is beautiful and actually beats SF" --respectfully, what the hell do you mean "actually"?? Weather-wise San Diego is quite literally paradise. There is no competition, SF stinks.

There's no fog, sun every single day. Everyday can be beach day (and unlike here when you go to the beach you don't get bundled up like a J Crew catalog and bring blankets-- not towels-- and shiver like isosceles on some muggy wet sandy beach.)

We need to get going on the revolution and get out of these lame, expensive $2200+ apartment complexes and get after San Diego. Bad part about San Diego, besides dearth of opportunity right this minute (but it's changing apparently), is that it's pretty dull. There are little pockets of civilization but it's almost like San Jose in some parts.

San Diego's big problem it seems like is that you need to be at Qualcomm or some biotech or government contracting company to exist there. Or if you have some special gem that happens to be in San Diego, then that works too. But short of that there's not a lot of opportunity unless you really know where to look. Young talent needs to get out of there if they want to grow a bit in whatever they're doing.

San Diego is a truly amazing place. What's awesome is you can also get down to Mexico for dinner and come back same night. Great city but needs help.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#203

Post by sdelong »

niels_olson wrote: post #152
sdbluesman wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for PQ meetup

Second Chance or BT's Southern BBQ would be good.

I'm interesting in restarting the old SD Hacker News Group. I have access to the old email list and there is an existing google group. How about combining efforts?

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#204

Post by laughfactory »

AstralStorm wrote: post #79
ng12 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we've been in a talent shortage for 10 years. By the numbers the available applicant pool is young.

There is no shortage, it is just that every company wants to hire all the same rock stars and nobody wants to train anymore.

I've definitely observed this here in SD. When I used to go to meetups as an aspiring developer we'd get lots of recruiters looking for "rockstars" or senior developers, and none (?) just looking for talent they could cultivate. I understand this is a by product of people staying at jobs for 1-3 years these days, but come on, where are future rockstars and senior devs going to come from if someone doesn't give them a shot?

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#205

Post by jlubawy »

In my opinion this article and others I've seen like it seem have everything backwards. For new graduates I wouldn't recommend living in downtown San Diego, at least not right now. It's (relatively) expensive and can get old real quick.

Instead I'd suggest trying to find a job downtown or elsewhere and live somewhere more exciting/fun like the beach (Mission/Pacific) or any of the neighborhoods surrounding downtown (North/South Park). The rent is generally Also, haven't seen the University of San Diego (USD) mentioned in any of the other comments, but they just opened a standalone engineering school last year, so I'm sure that will also start to attract a lot more talent to the area (biased USD alumnus here).

After doing a 4 year stint in Orange County and just moving back last year, I'd say things are looking better than ever for SD, not worse. I'm glad I moved back and excited to see where it goes from here.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#206

Post by CalRobert »

jennyjenjen wrote: post #131
socialist_coder wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be happy in SD, you have to be content with driving everywhere. Cycling sucks in 99% of the city and mass transit is terrible. If you try to live in SD like you live in SF or NYC, you will not be happy. I'm not sure about your complaint with SD being too hot. 2 miles from the beach should be great weather. I lived in San Diego for 20 of my 35 years of life (moved away in 2011) and the weather is one of…

Yes and no on driving - my BF and I share a car, use car2go, and walk around our neighborhood. We live in North Park. He is a video engineer for conventions and tradeshows, so he's more in the tourism industry than anything. It's actually a very lucrative career - up there with tech, if you play your cards right and have the right work ethic/talent then it can pay and provide well. I'm in tech. I work in robotics and…

To answer your question, I'm in Dublin.

Lest anyone think I'm an immigrant to CA who just couldn't hack the culture shock, I'm a Californian who grew up there- I spent thirty years there and then moved to Ireland on a lark (and working holiday visa). I liked Ireland so much I stayed for about 2.5 years, then moved to San Diego to start a company, then after that failed moved back to Dublin. It's not perfect, but the weather's cooler and the cycling a hell of a lot better than SD.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#207

Post by CalRobert »

Johnnybe wrote: post #170
CalRobert wrote: post #54

I moved to San Diego to start a tech company with a partner about 18 months ago. SD was chosen because partner lived there and was established. We found it very difficult to get the attention of any VC's or potential customers. We did manage to get an interview with YC, but were declined. Was this due to the location? Perhaps. I do know that the events we went to were lackluster, and the ecosystem was weak. You've go…

Todd Gloria is a little bitch and always caves to businesses and developers. Case in point: Jack in the Box debacle in North Park.

I don't actually mind developers per se, I have more problem with existing business demanding the local taxpayers fund their parking. I also got tired of NIMBYs objecting to any new housing that didn't include ridiculously high amounts of parking.

The apartment I lived in was built in the 20's, and it was a 2 bed with no offstreet parking above a shop. It was fantastic! It made a lot of sense since my wife and I wanted to live car-free. Unfortunately it would be illegal to build now, and SD would have required two parking spots for it (at most we only ever owned one car).

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#208

Post by Steeeve »

gallonofmilk wrote: post #75
CalRobert wrote: post #54

I moved to San Diego to start a tech company with a partner about 18 months ago. SD was chosen because partner lived there and was established. We found it very difficult to get the attention of any VC's or potential customers. We did manage to get an interview with YC, but were declined. Was this due to the location? Perhaps. I do know that the events we went to were lackluster, and the ecosystem was weak. You've go…

I disagree, San Diego is one of the best US cities period. :)

Honestly it sounds like everyone who doesn't like San Diego would really like the bay area.

I tend to agree that salaries in SD don't match the cost of living - at least in tech. The southern California lifestyle isn't for everyone, but if you like the beach it's tough to beat in the continental US.

Bay area cost of living is tough too, even with the higher salary ranges. I had never even heard of a "micro-loft" until I came to SF.

In the end, I'm a big fan of both SD and the bay area. Both areas have huge benefits to offset their respective problems.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#209

Post by blackflame7000 »

runT1ME wrote: post #153
blackflame7000 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think the place where you program determines whether or not you are a 'blub' I believe you are sorely misguided.

That was not what I meant at all. I mean if you aren't particular about the technology stack you are working with and/or hoping for a high salary, then odds are more in your favor in SD, vs. being picky.

I work in San Diego. I work for SPAWAR on missile defense technology for the navy, a massive presence in San Diego along with the marines. Uncle Sam has a pretty big budget for defense and lot of cool technology to play with. I get to work on things from device drivers to websites the whole gambit. Silicon Valley ain't the only place to learn, that's kinda the whole point of this whole internet thing.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#210

Post by CalRobert »

niels_olson wrote: post #66

I'm in San Diego and have visited SF many times on business and pleasure. I used to think I would want to live in the City and retire in the Bay area. Today, I'm not so sure. It's just too crazy. Driving from my friend's studio 3rd floor walk-up near AT&T Park to Mountain View convinced me that drive is crazy. I could get anywhere in San Diego in the time it took me to make that commute. And the article didn't seem t…

"Driving from my friend's studio 3rd floor walk-up near AT&T Park to Mountain View"

Taking a personal automobile through a metropolis might not be the best option. Caltrain also serves MV and SF.

I agree that SV, just like SD, suffers from having too many bland, incredibly sprawling office parks which are mostly acres of parking with a building sprinkled here and there.

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