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Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

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Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#91

Post by sjg007 »

quantumhobbit wrote: post #33
sndean wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fiancee is currently going through the same process. She's going to, but not taking seriously, the interviews she has in Manhattan. OTOH, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and a few other cities look promising. Some of the programs in Manhattan and Brooklyn are paying ~55000. She's in (we're in) >400000 in debt from the med school loans. There's no chance we can go there. (Maybe if they paid ~100000.)

Medicine/Tech relationships seems to be super common. I am one half of one and know of several others. I wonder if it is some sort of nerds attracting nerds phenomenon, or just overachievers meeting in college. Either way I feel your pain with residency and debt.

I thought loans are deferred in residency and fellowships?

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#92

Post by Retric »

DrScump wrote: post #57
meritt wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hype? It's an hour+ commute between East Bay and UCSF. All my friends doing a residency put in close to 80 hours a week at other facilities. I'm not sure how that's remotely sustainable to waste that much time commuting.

If it's purely wasted time, sure. If she has reading, research, or other "portable" work to do each day, however, commuting with somebody else doing the "driving" isn't wasted time at all. That's part of why I take Caltrain to SF whenever suitable.

11 hours commuting a week + 80 hours working = 13 hour days 7 days a week.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#93

Post by declan »

drudru wrote: post #39

The wealth that has been created here since the last market crash has been enormous. Given the limited amount of land, the cost for RE has been driven incredibly high. As a result, the cost of everything is also way up. I'm sure the congestion on 101, the BART, and the bridges is worse than it has ever been. In the past cycles, people left the city because of costs and moved to the peninsula. Now even the peninsula i…

"Also, don't get me started on the construction here in the Bay Area vs. some of the amazing craftsmanship like the one seen in the article."

Drive around Menlo Park south of Santa Cruz Ave and west of El Camino and you'll see many beautiful houses with craftsmanship at least as high quality. This is new construction but with a traditional design, interspersed with 1950s ranchers that haven't yet been torn down. Of course you may be paying $1,000+ a square foot to build these new custom homes, so your 3,000 sq. ft home is closer to $5M including land.

So only an order of magnitude more than these "New Silicon Cities..."

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#94

Post by boulos »

jostmey wrote: post #4
benmaraschino wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that salary include the housing stipend? AFAIK, UCSF residents get a decent stipend to use for housing expenses, on top of their normal salary. May not be enough to swing the balance either way, but it's worth knowing about...

I think 65000 is with the housing stipend, but it is possible the website doesn't tell us everything. https://medicine.ucsf.edu/education/residency/application/co...

Does she need to be at UCSF Parnassus or Mission Bay? Either way, there are still housing options at the edges that actually let you get to UCSF quickly and cheaply (like Sunset/Richmond for Parnassus, or Lower Dogpatch for Mission Bay).

For a reasonable place in a good location, you'll end up at about $3000/month (there's a 1 bdrm at 246 2nd St). That's definitely expensive compared to nationwide averages, but you won't need a car if you both work in the city. As another poster mentioned, UCSF at Mission Bay (and elsewhere actually) has lots of purpose built housing at below market rates. Contact them!

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#95

Post by exBarrelSpoiler »

muzz wrote: post #67
Retric wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SV ~doubles your burn rate, when you are sucking up VC funds that's not an issue. But, a lot of SV failures may have succeeded in other places.

Can you provide some examples of "SV failures may have succeeded in other places"?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/business/economy/bay-area-...

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#96

Post by warlox »

dtnewman wrote: post #78
warlox wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't hire the people working for megacorps if your company is in Virginia because they are more likely than not bound by noncompete clauses. Only California throws them out as a matter of public policy, which is one of the main reasons why Silicon Valley is where it's at.

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is only true if you are looking to compete with the megacorps, which probably isn't the case if you are a startup. It's called a non-compete, because it means you can't work for a competitor. Having to do with tech doesn't make you a competitor.

A noncompete typically bars you from holding any type of related position within a specific radius of your employer.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#97

Post by massysett »

tyre wrote: post #44

There are many reasons YC requires you to be in Mountain View during the program. When you finish YC, every partner will tell you to stay in the Bay Area. As CEO of a post-seed company, I had to start building relationships with Series-A investors. They are all here, so I could meet them in person without much travel, or they could come visit our office. That matters. When our investors hold events, they are here. I…

Often the promise of technology and communications is that it allows people to be and work anywhere. Yet SV is determined to cram itself into this tiny area that has an extraordinarily hostile attitude toward growth, thus leading to crippling affordability issues. There is no more perfect example of the enduring importance of physical proximity, despite the promise that SV companies themselves often push.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#98

Post by chaostheory »

libria wrote: post #22
muninn_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stay away from Atlanta if you value quality of living. Look to places like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Columbus, etc.... big healthcare areas without being the biggest sprawl on the planet or having insane cost of living.

> Stay away from Atlanta if you value quality of living Can you elaborate on Atlanta's poor QoL?

Crime has gone up ever since I left. Before 2010, it seemed to be on a long term decline. That's no longer the case.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#99

Post by chaostheory »

meritt wrote: post #8
pj_mukh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't believe the media hype, I have a couple of friends doing their residency out of UCSF and loving it. Look at places in East bay (or slightly south of it) online. It is all on the BART so it is convenient to get SF. Yes, you can't live in SoMa or have a three bedroom house with that salary but SF city is not the center of the universe.

Hype? It's an hour+ commute between East Bay and UCSF. All my friends doing a residency put in close to 80 hours a week at other facilities. I'm not sure how that's remotely sustainable to waste that much time commuting.

The area south of SF (Daly City, South SF, San Bruno, and Pacifica) is still semi-reasonable in cost and there's no bridge to cross. The crime rates are also much better than East Bay (excluding Fremont). As a semi-general rule for crime in the SF Peninsula (with some exceptions), try to be west of 101 and El Camino Real. Ideally try to be west of 280 as well.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#100

Post by curun1r »

jostmey wrote: post #2

My wife is looking at residency programs (she will be an MD). She has an interview at UCSF, but we are not sure we will go--San Francisco is just too expensive. Salary is only $65000 and we have to pay back student loans. I cant't imagine any doctor wanting to train in San Francisco. The city is pricing itself out of existence.

Depending on what type of medicine you're wife is interested in, she may want to avoid SF for completely different reasons.

I had a roommate who was an ER nurse. She worked shifts at an SF hospital and also commuted over to Oakland (Highland) to work shifts for lower pay. I asked her why she'd drive all that way when she could just pick up more shifts for higher pay in SF. She said the experience she got in Oakland was so much more valuable. In SF, it was lots of concerned parents bringing in their children because they'd had a fever of almost 100F for over an hour! At Highland, it was gunshot victims, illegal immigrants with obscure tropical diseases and just a much larger variety of medical needs. She claimed that on a per hour basis, the experience in Oakland was 10 times more valuable than in SF.

So not only is the city pricing itself out of existence, as you mentioned, but it's pricing itself into a monoculture that takes away a lot of the diversity of the people there. And doctors might want a bit more of that diversity during their training. Then again, if she's studying for a specialty in treating carpal tunnel syndrome or interested in doing Lasik surgery, there's probably no better place on earth to be :-)

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