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Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

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Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#11

Post by beatpanda »

sincerely_ wrote: post #8

There's a tech boom going on in the bay area, and it seems like I'm constantly reading comments here on HN about how companies are having to scramble to find enough people with programming skill to fill the jobs being created. I hope this is true, and I have a related question. Let's say you have a 22-year-old living in the bay with no post-high school education and no programming experience. How far does this boom g…

1) Create Github account 2) Make cool things you are interested in in your off time 3) Parlay into job

This works. Really. Block Hacker News in your hosts file until you have a job.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#12

Post by yen223 »

sincerely_ wrote: post #8

There's a tech boom going on in the bay area, and it seems like I'm constantly reading comments here on HN about how companies are having to scramble to find enough people with programming skill to fill the jobs being created. I hope this is true, and I have a related question. Let's say you have a 22-year-old living in the bay with no post-high school education and no programming experience. How far does this boom g…

By living in the bay, you already have access to jobs most of us can only dream of. Treasure the opportunity :)

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#13

Post by beatpanda »

Can some of these jobs please go somewhere else?

Pretty please?

There's no good reason all of this growth needs to be concentrated in the Bay Area, and it is hurting long-term residents in favor of people who will, in all likelihood, not be here in 5-10 years.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#14

Post by reissbaker »

sincerely_ wrote: post #8

There's a tech boom going on in the bay area, and it seems like I'm constantly reading comments here on HN about how companies are having to scramble to find enough people with programming skill to fill the jobs being created. I hope this is true, and I have a related question. Let's say you have a 22-year-old living in the bay with no post-high school education and no programming experience. How far does this boom g…

There's hope: I know plenty of successful mostly-self-taught to entirely-self-taught engineers at great companies. One of the best engineers I know is a former nurse. You have to be incredibly dedicated, be willing to put in many many hours before it seems to click, and try to find good peers or mentors to learn from... But it's doable, and you can get very good in a few years.

Don't just do it for the pay or it'll be a hard road through. But if you love technology and think you could love programming, then try it out.

Tiny little secret: once you get good enough that you can reliably [make dynamic websites with Rails / write iOS apps / insert technology you're interested in here], try freelancing on something like elance to get experience. You'll probably mess up enough that you'll be making minimum wage or less after the time spent fixing things, but you'll grow your skillset pretty quickly.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#15

Post by cageface »

espinchi wrote: post #7

It's a great time to be a software developer. However, this can't last forever. For those of you that have also experienced the low times in this industry. What do you recommend in order to be ready for a potential big change? By a big change, I mean when the moment comes where developers are not so highly demanded, so well paid, so nicely appreciated.

Always be learning something new and try to anticipate what specific skills will be in demand a year or two from now. My favorite thing about this profession is that you have to be learning new things constantly.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#16

Post by dasil003 »

beatpanda wrote: post #13

Can some of these jobs please go somewhere else? Pretty please? There's no good reason all of this growth needs to be concentrated in the Bay Area, and it is hurting long-term residents in favor of people who will, in all likelihood, not be here in 5-10 years.

Tech job growth is happening everywhere, it's just that macroeconomically it only moves the needle in places like SV where it's a big enough percentage of the overall job market.

I'm curious how to figure that a strong job market is hurting local residents though. If you plan on living in a place for a long time the worst thing that could happen is job loss.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#17

Post by speeder »

I wish this were affecting São Paulo, here we do have a kinda thriving tech industry but if you are earning 60k you are the manager with 20 years of experience.

I code mobile games here and get around 20k, and this is already way more than my peers, and don't pay my bills ( and I don't have a car, or a house, a videogame, or even a watch, my most valuable possessions are my glasses and my phone, and the last one I never paid, it was a gift )

I am sure if more SV companies learned how to use telecommuting they would have a decline in costs, as all those third world coders are crazy to get even scraps is SV and work for 40, 50k.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#18

Post by pkorzeniewski »

espinchi wrote: post #7

It's a great time to be a software developer. However, this can't last forever. For those of you that have also experienced the low times in this industry. What do you recommend in order to be ready for a potential big change? By a big change, I mean when the moment comes where developers are not so highly demanded, so well paid, so nicely appreciated.

I don't think this will happen soon, maybe you will have to learn new technologies, but demand for software developers should still be high in the near future. Let's be honest, everything is being automated and moved to the internet and there is still a lot to do, I would even say we're just at the beginning of the path.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#19

Post by seanmcdirmid »

speeder wrote: post #17

I wish this were affecting São Paulo, here we do have a kinda thriving tech industry but if you are earning 60k you are the manager with 20 years of experience. I code mobile games here and get around 20k, and this is already way more than my peers, and don't pay my bills ( and I don't have a car, or a house, a videogame, or even a watch, my most valuable possessions are my glasses and my phone, and the last one I ne…

So why not move? Ideally, you should compete on a global market. Even an entry level programmer from a good university can do better than that in Beijing.

Re: Silicon Valley job growth has reached dot-com boom levels, report says

#20

Post by speeder »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #19
speeder wrote: post #17

I wish this were affecting São Paulo, here we do have a kinda thriving tech industry but if you are earning 60k you are the manager with 20 years of experience. I code mobile games here and get around 20k, and this is already way more than my peers, and don't pay my bills ( and I don't have a car, or a house, a videogame, or even a watch, my most valuable possessions are my glasses and my phone, and the last one I ne…

So why not move? Ideally, you should compete on a global market. Even an entry level programmer from a good university can do better than that in Beijing.

I won't move without a solid offer first. (and not for 50k).

I have things to take care here, and if I ever move, I need to be stable enough and have money enough to return here sometimes to see how things are going.

I cannot just go adventuring and move without a chance of getting a job first.

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