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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

#61

Post by clumsysmurf »

_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 agree. Have been here for about 6 mos now, was hoping to have a good work / life balance (to me, that means running outdoors in open trail areas, not necessarily mountains - and not having a bad commute). I'm now working downtown and can not find any acceptable commute to a sparsely populated area. The W line to boulder is way too damn slow, I could probably ride a bicycle faster (it takes about 1:15 to go from boulder to downtown). The sprawl is larger than I expected.

I also notice it stinks pretty bad from whatever those smoke stacks are doing near Colfax & I25, and north of Denver - like some metallic smell.

In areas like North Thornton there is hydraulic fracking, so I'll pass on that, along with Arvada near Rocky Flats.

There is a lot of homelessness, but i read about 75% of those people have jobs - but can't find a place to live affordably. Rents might not be as bad as SF or Seattle but they are going up, apparently from the influx of people coming for legal weed and affordable housing shortage (luxury stuff is being built)

Oh, and avoid the 16th Street Circus. Centennial, Parker, Boulder, or Golden all look nice if you can find opportunities there - but the commutes from those (also nice to live places) are too much into downtown.

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

#62

Post by reducesuffering »

tropo wrote: post #57
throwaway_woxx7 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Consider taking his advice and marrying 16 year olds?

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

#63

Post by snow_mac »

_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…

How's the pay in austin?

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

#64

Post by woolvalley »

reducesuffering wrote: post #60
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?

Offices tend to be close to where the CEO lives. Where do CEO and founder types tend to live? West bay.

Also an informal poll of coworkers find most of them live in SF or the south bay today.

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

#65

Post by souprock »

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…

It is not legal. Federal law has not changed. The fact that enforcement in Colorado is minimal does not make usage legal.

The federal government sure does care. You won't be getting a security clearance if you are a user. This cuts you off from over a million jobs.

It's not harmless either, particularly if you breath it. Even non-drug stuff like Lysol and candle smoke will mess up your lungs. The drug aspect is real too; we don't have the term "pothead" for no reason.

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

#66

Post by dionidium »

starwind0 wrote: post #54
oh_sigh wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sounds great, honestly. I do program in my spare time, but I don't play video games, or board games; I don't care about comic-book movies; I'm not interested in prognosticating about cryptocurrencies; I don't think repetitive "sportsball" jokes are funny; and I really, really don't care about the specs of your new drone, tablet, phone, etc.

It's nice having programmer co-workers who like to talk about almost anything else. If having other interests makes you a "brogrammer" then, well, OK, I guess I like brogrammers.

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

#67

Post by kornish »

clumsysmurf wrote: post #61
_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 agree. Have been here for about 6 mos now, was hoping to have a good work / life balance (to me, that means running outdoors in open trail areas, not necessarily mountains - and not having a bad commute). I'm now working downtown and can not find any acceptable commute to a sparsely populated area. The W line to boulder is way too damn slow, I could probably ride a bicycle faster (it takes about 1:15 to go from bou…

As far as commute: the express Flatiron Flyer (FF2) makes getting from Denver to Boulder about 35min or so.

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

#68

Post by weirdkid »

tropo wrote: post #27
bittermang wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Or, it's the sandy base you get when geographically surrounded by water. Or, it's the laws that removed weight limits for the trucking industry. Or, it's the lack of funds in poor areas. Or, it's the extreme changes in temperature combined with high water tables and wet weather. Or, it's a combination of all the above.

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

#69

Post by fbdjskajxb »

reducesuffering wrote: post #60
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?

There are lots of devs who live in the East Bay (I used to live there myself), but most don’t. The more successful devs (who you are looking to poach) generally live on the other side, and they live there because they don’t want to drive across the bay twice a day.

It’s more of a Moneyball move - go for the underappreciated talent you can get cheap. There are companies doing that, but it’s not for everyone. If you get specific with the location, you realize Oakland and Pleasanton, Walnut Creek and Hayward are pretty far apart, so you don’t even get great access to the whole East Bay. You might as well move to Austin, Denver, or Detroit at that point and pay the same price for a better location.

Although you might see major companies open offices if there is a critical mass eg. maybe it would make sense for Google or Facebook to open a satellite office in Newark if enough employees are commuting across the Dumbarton.

Uber was going to make a big office in Oakland, but apparently canceled those plans.

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

#70

Post by username223 »

_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…

> ... 0 engineering style hobbies...

I can't comment on the rest of it, but many people move to Denver because they have outdoor style hobbies, and think that it's near the mountains. They are probably disappointed to find that it's more or less the standard Great Plains sprawl -- Dallas within a few hours' drive of Longs Peak -- and that Boulder is an overpriced NIMBY colony.

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