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Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

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Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#21

Post by jonny_doe »

_raaq wrote: post #6

EX Denver developer here. Colorado Native. Now an Austin Dev (I'm a senior / lead android dev) I can safely say that the job market in Denver is terrible. Yes you can find work, but the company culture are terrible. I found myself with brogrammers that had 0 engineering style hobbies or being asked to work 60 hours every week. There are a few gems.. But the Jobs you want, aren't hiring mobile devs because their offic…

I second that (..culture, practically no great opportunities, etc..). My story - if you're a c/c++ & linux & kernel & backend & network & .. & senior sw guy who doesn't do camping (gaming term), I wouldn't recommend Denver, unless you are ready to 'convert' to python, java, .. I've moved from the Bay Area.

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#22

Post by vonmoltke »

jupiter90000 wrote: post #18

Does the Dallas story (low demand for devs, high availability of devs) line up with the experience of those here familiar with the market? Based on just looking at job postings, it didn't seem like there was a lack of demand for devs in that area, but I know that postings don't necessarily equate to high demand. Also if that's true, do alot of the Dallas devs in need of work go to Austin? Or is that not done for some…

> Does the Dallas story (low demand for devs, high availability of devs) line up with the experience of those here familiar with the market? Based on just looking at job postings, it didn't seem like there was a lack of demand for devs in that area, but I know that postings don't necessarily equate to high demand.

That was my experience when I ejected 18 months ago. Yes, there are a lot of postings. There are also a lot of shitty or picky companies.

> Also if that's true, do alot of the Dallas devs in need of work go to Austin? Or is that not done for some reason?

Not sure. I tried, but I could hardly get interviews down there, either.

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#23

Post by markcerqueira »

matwood wrote: post #17
starwind0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android devs. We can find iOS easily. No one wants to do Android. Seems weird given that android is OS. But I live in Austin now, not Denver. Denver is terrible.

> Android devs. We can find iOS easily. No one wants to do Android. Seems weird given that android is OS. Having done both, Android development is a pain and just not fun. The simulator/emulator situation has improved a lot which helps, but it used to be a terrible development experience.

When did you last do Android? I've done both for about eight years and while the development tools at first on Android were total trash I cannot stand Xcode and the iOS development ecosystem these days.

Throw in Swift and things get worse. On the other side, Java/Kotlin interoperability in Android Studio is great and the tooling keeps improving.

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#24

Post by enraged_camel »

I have lived in Austin for 3 years now and I work in tech. It's a fantastic city. Great weather throughout the year (very hot though - not everyone's cup of tea!), lots of gorgeous outdoor environments within very close proximity to the city center, and plenty of nice people, many of whom are newly-arrived transplants and are optimistic about life and looking to make new friends.

I'm the organizer of a bouldering meetup[1]. We started back in September but already have 250+ members. I'd say more than a third of them work in tech so it's great for networking too. :)

[1]https://www.meetup.com/Bouldering-in-Austin

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#25

Post by pxlpshr »

For anyone looking for engineering positions in Austin, we are hiring at athenahealth ($ATHN). Senior-level positions in C#/.NET (+Azure), JAVA (+AWS), ReactJS/Native, iOS/Android.

Our Austin office is where a lot of R&D happens and there is a huge push to re-platform into micro services. athenahealth also owns Epocrates, a very popular mobile app used by more than 600K providers. That product team is based here, too.

Great place to work, beautiful office, downtown location with parking included, and a very mission-driven culture. Find me on LinkedIn or my Gmail in my HN profile. Happy to connect you with the hiring managers.

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#26

Post by jdhn »

enraged_camel wrote: post #24

I have lived in Austin for 3 years now and I work in tech. It's a fantastic city. Great weather throughout the year (very hot though - not everyone's cup of tea!), lots of gorgeous outdoor environments within very close proximity to the city center, and plenty of nice people, many of whom are newly-arrived transplants and are optimistic about life and looking to make new friends. I'm the organizer of a bouldering mee…

As someone who wants to move to Austin and has dabbled in bouldering but enjoyed it, thanks for the link!

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#27

Post by tropo »

bittermang wrote: post #3
padobson wrote: post #2

Detroit engineer here. There may be a lot of openings around here as Detroit industry continues to modernize and the startup scene matures, but salaries are still lagging. Some of the large companies (autos, insurance, etc) will occasionally offer higher-paying gigs, but competition is fierce and interviewing (like everywhere) is a crap shoot. I'm currently contracting remotely with a company in the Los Angeles area,…

Last time I was in Detroit the roads were the worst I'd ever seen. You couldn't even call them pot holes, they were just scars in the earth. For a place nicknamed The Motor City, it was a sad state of affairs. And that's the crux of it. It's not just the money, in fact it's never the money for me. It's a total quality of life scenario. Being across a bridge from Windsor Canada is cool, the Detroit museum is a great p…

Suppose that The Motor City wanted to help the local car industry. Would they build roads that favor keeping a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry for 20 years, or would they build roads that require yearly purchase of a huge SUV or a full-size AWD pickup truck?

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#28

Post by jdhn »

padobson wrote: post #2

Detroit engineer here. There may be a lot of openings around here as Detroit industry continues to modernize and the startup scene matures, but salaries are still lagging. Some of the large companies (autos, insurance, etc) will occasionally offer higher-paying gigs, but competition is fierce and interviewing (like everywhere) is a crap shoot. I'm currently contracting remotely with a company in the Los Angeles area,…

Same goes for UX designers. Very few direct hire positions, and almost everything is a 6 to 12 month "contract to hire" that magically never turns into an actual position. Plus, I'd say that for every job that a company advertises, there's at least 5 or 6 recruiters who will post ads for that same exact job.

Anecdotal story: I interviewed at a well known ad company here in the Metro Detroit area, and the recruiter let it slip that he had sent 16 people their way before me. While I'm sure that this guy was just throwing warm bodies at the position in hopes of earning a commission, it's kind of unbelievable that competition is that fierce here.

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#29

Post by throwaway_woxx7 »

I've lived in Austin for about 5 years. Grad school, not work. My programmer friends seem to have no problem getting jobs, and I have no shortage of male friends, but the gender ratio of singles is pretty heavily skewed towards men for introverted nerds. I'm a single male who doesn't have a lot of free time, so I gave up on dating in Austin. The city doesn't seem to attract many people I'd like to date. Particularly compared against where I lived previously. Many of the people under 35 in Austin seem to have been attracted to the city for the music festivals and relative lack of cold weather. I'm an introvert who finds the summer heat here worse than the cold on the east coast. As I said, Austinites are typically not my kind of people.

Something to keep in mind if you believe you might be similar to me. Austin is probably not worse than SF, but I don't intend to live there after I graduate either.

Re: Austin, Denver, Detroit: Good Places to Be a Software Engineer Looking for a Job

#30

Post by pm90 »

jupiter90000 wrote: post #18

Does the Dallas story (low demand for devs, high availability of devs) line up with the experience of those here familiar with the market? Based on just looking at job postings, it didn't seem like there was a lack of demand for devs in that area, but I know that postings don't necessarily equate to high demand. Also if that's true, do alot of the Dallas devs in need of work go to Austin? Or is that not done for some…

Speaking purely from anecdotal evidence: Dallas certainly does have a lot of good jobs, but its not a liberal enclave like Austin. In some ways its more representative of Texas than Austin, which is definitely more like SF (except maybe the rents, which are definitely far more reasonable).

But Dallas has its own charms for sure. You can get really huge houses close to work for pretty cheap, the school systems are pretty great. The big Software firms (Google, Apple, Facebook etc.) are all moving to Austin though.

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