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Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

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Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#121

Post by santaclaus »

dexwiz wrote: post #93
santaclaus wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty FAANG engineers minted from the top Midwestern schools - think CMU and other state schools - even if they rank behind the top schools on the coasts. CMU is a private school, ranked number 1 in CS, and is not in a Midwestern state! That said, there are lots of top CS programs in the Midwest.

CMU is on the wrong side of the Appalachian mountains to best East Coast. Pittsburg has much more in common with neighboring Ohio than it does with Philadelphia. Its regularly included in the Rust Belt which is a subset of the Midwest.

It’s certainly not East Coast, but it’s very North East - the rust belt spans well beyond the Midwest. Even culturally Pittsburgh feels like it has more in common with, say, Buffalo or other North Eastern rust belt cities than Wisconsin or Minnesota.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#122

Post by scarmig »

learc83 wrote: post #115
scarmig wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe they themselves have experienced discriminatory behavior in the Midwest? As an LGBT guy, I'm always direct when pointing out that I left the South partially because of discrimination, and someone is always happy to butt in to say I'm making it all up and the South is perfectly open and tolerant. It gets tiring.

>I'm making it all up and the South is perfectly open and tolerant. I'm sure you're not. But "the South" is diverse. Atlanta has a very large LGBT community (both in absolute terms and as a percentage) and culture that is completely different from areas just an hour away. It's very possible that you and the people you are talking to had completely different experiences. Both of you are almost certainly overgeneralizi…

Thanks for explaining my experiences to me, as someone who spent twenty years living in exurban Atlanta.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#123

Post by bobwall »

konjin wrote: post #102
bobwall wrote: post #52

Yup, just did this. Got an extra master suite, and 1.75 more bathrooms with much bigger yard and garage for $1100 less. And neighbors that actually talk to you. Not to mention half the price for gas and food. Oh, and the swings aren't chained up. Good-bye LA, I will not miss you one bit.

>And neighbors that actually talk to you. It's things like this that keep me living in the big city. I can have a mental break, run around naked for 8 hours and be back to normal with no one ever realizing anything happened.

Haha. Pre-kids I was right there with you.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#124

Post by rubidium »

cvhashim wrote: post #77
rubidium wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8150-Birchfield-Dr-Indian...

Seems like a 20-25min drive into the city

It’s in the city limits, and there’s tech firms located all over the city and suburbs. It’d be about 20 min to get downtown though, yes.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#125

Post by nightski »

encorekt wrote: post #10
blakesterz wrote: post #3

I'm not quite sure on the reliability of this site, but assuming it's reliable... "And, as icing on the cake, seven of the top 10 most affordable states in the nation are in the Midwest." Name any big city you've heard of in the Midwest, and it's on the list. Chicago, Detroit, and so on. The list is, for the most part, "rust belt" cities that are all doing pretty well these days. I'd say the one thing they all have w…

That's not wrong, but as a Midwesterner, I think you also have people have legitimately enjoy experiencing all four seasons. And in cities with good public transit systems (like Chicago and Minneapolis) the damper of driving in crappy weather isn't as present.

Agreed, winter has its hardships but having lived in the south I'd never give up winter, fall, and spring ever again. Winter is my second favorite season after fall.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#126

Post by jetrink »

ethanbond wrote: post #65
BurningFrog wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do people mean when they say a city is "vibrant"?

I'm not sure there's any one thing. When I think of New York City, which I would say is not only vibrant but nearly vibrating with energy, it's some combination of the following: * A ton of different languages being spoken within earshot at any one time * Lots of different smells at any one time, some delicious and certainly some much less so * Lots of music where you do and do not expect it, all sorts of different g…

> "in the city, anything is possible"

I am reminded of this and grateful anytime I get interested in a new hobby. I started indoor rock climbing and discovered there are at least six gyms in my city that I can bike to. I got interested in film photography and found there was a great community darkroom with all the equipment needed to develop film and make prints. I discovered I enjoy board games and found there are dozens of clubs that meet regularly that I can choose from, depending on what types of games I like and how competitive I want the atmosphere to be. (Asterisk on all of this currently, due to the pandemic of course.)

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#128

Post by _qulr »

dexwiz wrote: post #17

Moved from the Midwest to the Bay Area, and tech comes in two forms: IT departments at major industrial firms (manufacturing, chemical, pharma, etc), or companies that are eventually bought by West Coast companies. The pay cap is much lower. Becoming a millionaire through stocks and wages is harder, but you will still be in the top 10% of earners overall. If you want to live in a mansion, the Midwest makes this dream…

The "Midwest" is approximately 20% of the US population.

Therefore, all generalizations about the Midwest are false stereotypes. The Midwest is large and varied.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#129

Post by dogman144 »

vdnkh wrote: post #24
swashboon wrote: post #12

I worked with two developers in Boston who were DINK (Double Income No Kids) and they sold their Boston condo, moved to the Midwest (Minneapolis) and bought a six bedroom house on a lake and two jet-skis for the same price as their condo. Their cost of living went down tremendously. By their own standards they lost nothing compared to Boston (food/services/entertainment actually got better) except that they had to de…

This is a very consumerist world view (get big house, get fun toys) that not everyone believes in. I choose to live in a more vibrant city where I essentially trade my money for opportunity, experiences, and community.

Those 3 tend to have diminishing returns past 35/40, which is around the time lifestyle concerns that more trend towards safety (financial and otherwise) and stability start mattering much, much more.

It's like the professional equivalent of finally owning a paid-off car and realizing what a difference it all makes.

A nuked mortgage by a tech salary, a home with an extra bedroom that can support your ailing parents who lost their retirements in '08 and then again in '20, a stable school system that balances non-urban but also not bible belt, and the concept of actually being able to save up nearly full college for 3 kids.... all lives in midwestern tech jobs. Of course there are some cultural tradeoffs the less Minneapolis/Chicago and the more Boise/Des Moines you get, but it's a spectrum that's worth considering.

Re: Hiring for tech jobs has increased more than 100% in these Midwestern cities

#130

Post by bmd3991 »

Edit: The below applies to people who don't want kids. I get why you wouldn't want to raise kids in somewhere like NYC (though I can also see the inverse).

I don't comment often on HN but I feel like I had to chime in here with a bunch of questions. These may sound inflammatory but I mean them sincerely, I just don't see where people are coming from. I understand that a lot of the things I'm listing are negatives for some people, I'm just shocked that it seems like they're negatives for 99.99% of people. Like, I'd expect at least a little more of a balance

I don't understand all of the hate for big cities recently. I mean do THAT many people truly hate living in a big vibrant city? Do that many people really want to have to get into their car and drive 25 minutes to the only (probably subpar) ramen shop in town. Does everyone just want a big 6 bedroom house that they can sit in and read/watch TV all day? Are you gonna go out on all that land more often then you would go out to eat world class, multicultural food? No one likes/wants public transit anymore? Having tons of theaters, shops, bars, etc around? You don't want access to the [some of the] most interesting jobs in the world? Surrounded by people who are world class at what they do? Being able to go to a bar and find someone who's a musician, someone who's an actor, someone from wall street, someone who sells hotdogs, etc all in the same place? How could you go from NYC to Madison, WI and not be so bored that you want to blow your brains out? It's a completely different world.

Maybe it's just the midwestern cities that I've been in, but they're all so dead. Everyone just seems to be ok with the status quo. Everyone just goes home and watches TV until work the next day. Maybe once a year they take a beach vacation, and then the other week they have off they see family for the holidays.

I mean yes, I get that it's expensive. I'm just surprised that SO may people have been seemingly staying in this place that they hate, driving up rent prices for everyone who wants to be in the city, just so they could keep whatever job they have. I mean if you really hated the city wouldn't you have looked elsewhere by now? It's not like it's competitive to get a job in one of these midwestern cities, so surely that great job you had in NYC that tied you there would guarantee you a way out of the city.

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