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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

#51

Post by oh_sigh »

_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…

What are 'engineering style hobbies'? Do you mean doing engineering stuff in your free time as well as work, or stereotypical things like getting into flame wars over vim/emacs, watching Star Wars, etc?

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

#52

Post by starwind0 »

look_lookatme wrote: post #50
_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…

> Seriously the drug use is pretty Rampant in Denver too. Not a turn off to all, but given the places I did work, you wouldn't expect it. Texas is so much better. What does this mean? If you mean cannabis use, who cares? It's legal and it's harmless. If you are talking about opioid abuse or something else, that's a different story. It sounds like you had some subjectively bad individual experiences because you mixed…

Feel free to move to Denver :-) Just remember you were warned. I only lived there about 25 years. Trust me I am not talking just coworkers. People in Texas are in general more friendly. You will notice these things if you move around like I have.

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

#53

Post by souprock »

Two typical problems with this study:

1. There is a failure to clearly specify what is meant by a given city. In this case, linkedin is at least kind enough to use the word "region". For "SF Bay Area", would that count Davis or Santa Cruz? For "Boston", would that count Chelmsford or Braintree? For "Washington D.C.", would that count Arlington or Annapolis Junction or Ballston or Dulles?

2. Anything below a certain size is not considered. If the big city has 54321 people fighting over 12345 jobs, while the small city has 123 people considering 321 jobs, going for the big city might not be so wise. This is before even adjusting for quality-of-life problems in cities.

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

#54

Post by starwind0 »

oh_sigh wrote: post #51
_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…

What are 'engineering style hobbies'? Do you mean doing engineering stuff in your free time as well as work, or stereotypical things like getting into flame wars over vim/emacs, watching Star Wars, etc?

Sure, gaming, tech interests, programing.

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

#56

Post by kylixz »

stevenwoo wrote: post #11
electricslpnsld wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What type of position were you looking for? I have friends who do backend dev in Denver (lots of Go and Rails folks), and recruiters are beating down the doors to hire them. I haven't heard of anyone going for more than a few weeks before landing a solid gig in the area.

Maybe it's also an issue of job seekers not looking/knowing the right place to search? Off the top of my head there were not too many Denver postings in last months hiring post but hacker news might not be the best place to look.

I hate to hijack this post, but I need help in Denver. And no, I'm not a recruiter... I'm a tech lead. Chesapeake Technology also supports remote opportunities and have a few sites around the country. I think we have a pretty relaxed, yet get stuff done culture that I've had a hard time finding at other work places. In our Denver office there are about 10 people that come in semi-regularly but work remote as life happens.

If you're into IoT, Software Defined Radio, and know the JVM pretty well... you'd be a perfect fit but we'll happily embrace people that demonstrate motivation and a desire to learn. We have a few core products that we work on for the defense industry as well as a random one-off research work. Some travel required periodically.

Apply here: https://cticinc.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=4&source=ycomb... or ask me questions.

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

#57

Post by tropo »

throwaway_woxx7 wrote: post #48
starwind0 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had no shortage of suiters. Granted I say that as a single dude, but I know a few who would date me. MANY more times that of Denver. Just because I know more people because everyone is so friendly. I mean there is a whole university to offset from the software engineers.

Maybe age is part of the problem for me. I'm about 10 years older than the undergrads, so they're not really in my dating pool. Most of the dates I've gone on were with fellow graduate students, but I didn't go on many dates before stopping.

The ancient philosopher Plato tells us that the ideal marriage ages are 16 for women and 30 for men. One might suspect that he was 30 at the time, but Plato is quite respected. Consider taking his advice. Biologically it makes sense, leading to large families that can be financially supported.

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

#58

Post by u801e »

look_lookatme wrote: post #50
_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…

> Seriously the drug use is pretty Rampant in Denver too. Not a turn off to all, but given the places I did work, you wouldn't expect it. Texas is so much better. What does this mean? If you mean cannabis use, who cares? It's legal and it's harmless. If you are talking about opioid abuse or something else, that's a different story. It sounds like you had some subjectively bad individual experiences because you mixed…

> If you mean cannabis use, who cares? It's legal and it's harmless. If you are talking about opioid abuse or something else, that's a different story.

Whether or not people use drugs or alcohol when they're not working shouldn't be relevant. If it leads to impairment in the workplace such that they cannot perform their job, then it becomes a problem.

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

#59

Post by ryandrake »

oceanghost wrote: post #35
jdhn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 le…

The balls on some of the C2H people are amazing. I had been at a position for 10 years-- some CEO calls me and says my skillset would be PERFECT for his company, would I be interested in talking. We get into details, its C2H, I decline. He was absolutely incensed, he says, "well, its just to make sure you're a good culture fit!" To which I reply, "I'm not going to leave a stable job for what is essentially contract w…

You likely dodged a bullet there. A CEO getting “beyond pissed” over what is essentially a business deal is weird. Does he also get beyond pissed when he loses a customer or when a deadline slips? Super red flag when a company rep (let alone the CEO) loses their cool during something as pedestrian as hiring!

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

#60

Post by reducesuffering »

purplezooey wrote: post #55

I don't know why Bay Area companies don't open more in the East Bay. Many of their employees live there. Less commute. It's baffling why companies are so focused on the misery that is Mountain View or Palo Alto.

It is pretty astonishing how little tech companies there are in Hayward, Union City, Fremont, and Milpitas. Tens of thousands of available tech workers commuting to the Valley. Companies opening up there could drastically reduce the extremely constrained traffic, then residents all around the bay would allow for more housing. What's the downside?
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