Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#421

Post by dang » Sat, May 16, 2020, 6:01 PM UTC

viklove wrote: post #183

bhupy wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's literally just the lowest they can get away with paying you. Um, yes? That's exactly how this works. Google doesn't pay software engineers what they do out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it because that's how much it costs for a highly skilled engineer to come live in the Bay Area and work there. Humans aren't necessarily commodities, but labor is ABSOLUTELY a commodity. We have to start decoupling t…

fuck hn

If you vandalize the site like this and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23182472 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23182533 again, we will ban you.

Please stop posting flamewar comments in the first place. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys the curious conversation that it is for: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: I had to ask you this just a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22886991.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#422

Post by aantix » Mon, May 18, 2020, 3:47 PM UTC

bhupy wrote: post #384

aantix wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Push back on this. You deliver the same value from SF or Denver. They have the budget. They can (and will) pay you.

That works...right up until someone else in Denver is willing to do the same work for less. The salary needed to afford the median home in San Francisco is about $183,000. In Denver, the salary needed to afford the median home is about $87,000 [1]. What happens when another Denver software engineer is willing to accept what they would have accepted working for a firm in Denver , because it affords them a satisfactory…

And that's true to a certain extent. Especially if you're building commodity software. Or better stated, you're a commodity programmer.

But if you're a talented engineer, you've been on a few large scale projects, can discuss architecture - scaling, algorithms, have a public portfolio, you're in a different group.

The hiring company - their resources are finite. Time from other engineers to screen engineers. The may have infinite applications, but their time isn't infinite.

And if they're going to filter you out because of comp requirements, they will do so in the beginning.

The really senior devs take a long time to screen - so if you've gotten past the high salary filter and have gotten past the really hard technical screens, you now have the upper hand.

It costs a company a ton of time (and money) to let a senior dev with an offer slip away.

More succinctly - if you're a talented engineer, there are companies that will pay a premium for your services. Yes, even SF prices.

Hold your ground on the salary. Take as many job calls as possible, tell them your number. You're filtering them as much as they're filtering you. It's the only way to test if it's too high. Look at levels.fyi, paysa, glassdoor, try to get a handle on baselines and the outlier deals.

Filter out those companies that are trying to hire on the cheap. And then kill it in the interviews with the companies that remain.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#423

Post by lunaticlabs » Wed, May 20, 2020, 12:57 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #344

toomuchtodo wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot recommend an Aeron chair enough. It is worth it. I'm sitting in one right now, the one I picked up for a song in 2001 after the dot com bust from (ironically enough) a liquidated startup. It has lasted me that long.

Unfortunately my ~15-yo Aeron which was getting increasingly wobbly seems to be down for the count. I'll look into repair when I can. Fortunately I have another chair at home which is by no means an Aeron but isn't bad.

Contact herman Miller, it can generally be repaired, and it may even be under warranty still. I’ve gotten an aeron repaired, it was easy and relatively painless.

Re: Tech workers consider escaping Silicon Valley’s sky-high rents

#424

Post by ruffrey » Thu, May 21, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #248

ruffrey wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where'd you go, if you don't mind me asking...?

Midwest, college town, house in the country on 80 acres. My kids grew up, they could walk around outside all day and still be at home. They could invite friends to visit, do projects, shoot, saw, drive carts, dig holes. All three are Eagle Scouts, Engineers, black belts. Wife and I have 7 gardens plus landscaping projects. Two sheds 20X50, tractors and implements. Orchard. All for less than that old house in San Jose…

Incredible. I wonder, how different were sub-cultural an social aspects, versus the Bay?