Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 226 posts

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#211

Post by [deleted] »

laughfactory wrote: post #188
marter wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been back recently? I visited SD last month after being gone for 4 years... It was not the same to me. Very dry and dirty. Maybe living in Colorado has made me spoiled but it just seems different.

This. I'm from Montana, and while I love the weather here in SD, the glamour has worn off. The cost of living is astronomical, pay insufficient to compensate, and there are surprisingly few opportunities for what I do (Data Science). Oh, and while I love the beach (toxic water and all), I think a lot of SD is just... UGLY. Brown, dirty, desert. Of course part of this is all the hard scaping taking place. Everyone rip…

[deleted]

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#212

Post by beachstartup »

marter wrote: post #162
LukeG wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in San Diego, have been working on tech in SF for almost a decade, and love the idea of moving back. The quality of life in (western) San Diego is so hard to beat. A couple dozen (or hundred) of us moving back with some meaningful experience and success could go a long way towards making San Diego a viable place to more easily build and sustain real companies.

Have you been back recently? I visited SD last month after being gone for 4 years... It was not the same to me. Very dry and dirty. Maybe living in Colorado has made me spoiled but it just seems different.

of course it's changed, the entire state is in a drought! for 4 years! it's a real problem! have you seriously not heard of this?

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#213

Post by ng12 »

laughfactory wrote: post #204
AstralStorm wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Can you blame them for not wanting to take the gamble? I was once given a new hire who had a degree in a different field and later went to one of those hacker schools. He was smart, friendly, and a good worker -- but just not cut out for a job writing software. Not only was he unproductive, but he dragged down the rest of the team who had to fix his code and spend extra time going over his code reviews.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#214

Post by Johnnybe »

CalRobert wrote: post #207
Johnnybe wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 want…

There's actually a lot of new housing developments going on right now. Especially in uptown and downtown. I think there are 5 or more cranes in downtown right now. How many cranes are in SF right now? Probably zero. Unfortunately, in San Diego, you really need a car to get around.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#215

Post by niels_olson »

sdelong wrote: post #203
niels_olson wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Sure. I know the owner of BT's.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#216

Post by stuxnet79 »

aianus wrote: post #156
monkmartinez wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$600,000 is affordable? How about smart? I don't mean to chide, but $600,000 for a cookie cutter tract-home is down right absurd. California is nuts.

$600,000 for a house in California sounds pretty cheap to me too. That's the price of an apartment in Toronto and even senior software developers here are lucky to clear US$80,000 a year.

Toronto dev here. How many years qualify you as senior in the city? On average how likely is it to score six-figures (CAD) within let's say 4 years?

Definitely not staying here long term. Gonna try to move down-south where developers are better compensated and cost of living isn't so much.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#217

Post by stuxnet79 »

gavanwoolery wrote: post #124

Hi from San Diego. I did a brief contracting stint in SF, and considered relocating up there for work (the pay is indeed much better) but ultimately decided against it. Note that I grew up in the Bay Area. In SD I pay $2300/month for a 2500 sqft house with a yard and garage, 4 blocks from the ocean. While in SF, I paid this for a single room in a shady neighborhood without a window. After coming back here, I was stru…

Totally forgot that Rockstar has a studio in SD.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#218

Post by stuxnet79 »

ng12 wrote: post #213
laughfactory wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Can you blame them for not wanting to take the gamble? I was once given a new hire who had a degree in a different field and later went to one of those hacker schools. He was smart, friendly, and a good worker -- but just not cut out for a job writing software. Not only was he unproductive, but he dragged down the rest of the team who had to fix his code and spend extra time going over his code reviews.

Can you go into more detail regarding why he wasn't cut out? Did he just not have enough experience at the time to work on software?

It's always interesting to me what makes a 'bad' hire, a 'bad' hire because I'm starting to realize it is very subjective. My motivation level and productivity varies significantly depending on work conditions, and how well I am getting along with colleagues.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#219

Post by ng12 »

stuxnet79 wrote: post #218
ng12 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you blame them for not wanting to take the gamble? I was once given a new hire who had a degree in a different field and later went to one of those hacker schools. He was smart, friendly, and a good worker -- but just not cut out for a job writing software. Not only was he unproductive, but he dragged down the rest of the team who had to fix his code and spend extra time going over his code reviews.

Can you go into more detail regarding why he wasn't cut out? Did he just not have enough experience at the time to work on software? It's always interesting to me what makes a 'bad' hire, a 'bad' hire because I'm starting to realize it is very subjective. My motivation level and productivity varies significantly depending on work conditions, and how well I am getting along with colleagues.

He could write code just fine (he passed the interview) but he couldn't seem to grasp engineering. He couldn't look at a mock or a system diagram and figure out how to translate that into code. Given multiple approaches a problem, he wasn't ever able to formulate the advantages and disadvantages to each (and would inevitably pick some crazy, obfuscated approach).

Maybe it was just lack of experience, and he'll eventually come into his own -- but he definitely wasted an unacceptable amount of resources for a small company.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#220

Post by luizb »

niels_olson wrote: post #115
roadnottaken wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on which part. North-east PQ (over by Rolling Hills) homes were built in the early 70s and are still going in the low 600's. I believe west PQ (Black Mountain Rd area) homes are newer and more expensive.

we could start a PQ HN meet-up. My treehouse accomodates 4 and has a pulley system. We can haul up buckets of beer :) Note to self: uptownfunk, falkenb0t also in PQ. That's 5

+1 , would love to
Post reply on HN