Anyone with industry knowledge can look at those median salary numbers and instantly tell that the data set is faulty.
If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
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Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#12This is bad. If your metric for best city for software engineers excludes from its top 10 not only SFBA but Seattle, New York, Austin, and Atlanta, your whole piece better be a prolonged and detailed explanation of how you concluded that metric was valid. I love Chicago and think we benefit in a lot of ways from running a tech company (mostly) from here, but there is no way Chicago is a better place to be a software engineer, careerwise, than SFBA.
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#13I think many people would still rather make $55k in SF than $91k in detroit, even if these numbers weren't completely bogus
You're joking right? A quick googling shows the median price of a home in Detroit as $35k. I don't care how bad you are at budgeting, with $91k/y in Detroit you could buy two homes.
I don't have to google San Francisco to tell you that you'd be lucky to afford to rent with three roommates on $55k in San Francisco.
I get where you're coming from in terms of crime and such, but cost of living is a major part of choosing where to live and on that front there's no question.
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#14If you were only earning the median salary, why on earth would you pay the median amount for an apartment? A much better metric would be where is the best place to live, assuming you're making significantly more than the median salary and living in an apartment with below average monthly rent.
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#15I think many people would still rather make $55k in SF than $91k in detroit, even if these numbers weren't completely bogus
I don't know, when you factor in homeless population and traffic Detroit may have the edge. I would prefer living at least 150 miles from both though
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#16The "Median Salary" figures are surprising to me for a number of reasons. To isolate Denver specifically (where i live, work and hire routinely) i do not know a single developer who is making Perhaps this figure is brought down from the sheer quantity of code school (Galvanize, Turing, General Assembly) grads we have in the city, but even then i find it hard to believe 50% of the se's in Denver are making south of $67/yr.
Edit: I'm dumb. The median salaries are adjusted for cost of living of the city.
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#17San Antonio is interesting. Have only visited. Enjoyed touristy bars on the Riverwalk. But its less than an hour from Austin. And I'm guessing even more affordable.
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#18Anyone with industry knowledge can look at those median salary numbers and instantly tell that the data set is faulty.
They're cost of living adjusted, so 100k in SF is going to be 30k in other places
Re: If you’re a software engineer, where should you live to maximize your income?
#19Work remotely, live in Budapest like a King.