Taking a cue from another post currently on the front page; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5799838 If you live in the future, want a job in Austin?
I love Austin! Vastly prefer it to the Bay Area for a number of reasons.
Want a job in Silicon Valley?
31–40 of 76 posts
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#32I would love a better job, but when it comes to the Bay Area I have a really hard time with: 1. Housing costs (too expensive) 2. Transportation time / locality (takes too long to get elsewhere in the Bay Area, probably can't live near the job because of #1) 3. Climate - San Fran is rather cold nearly all year round. 4. Because of 1 and 2 likely would not have a garage or space to do projects in. 5. Sometimes things s…
All fair points, and don't forget the ever-present parking enforcers. I pay $100/month in accidental tickets despite being here for years knowing all the rules.
On the positive side there, there's an "energy" (please excuse hippie nonsense) to people here I haven't seen in other places. A kind personal momentum that is intoxicating - hard not to get crazy shit done around here.
Certainly not for everyone, including me on occasion, and it's got its downsides...but I haven't seen a place better for the ambitious to design their future than SV.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The living expenses are a real burden, and the average rental rates in the core of the San Francisco Bay Area have increased ~20-30% over the last three years. They're building new apartments all around the bay now and the greedy realty vultures somehow think it's reasonable to charge as much as $3500-4000USD per month for them (one and two bedrooms). That's easily a mortgage payment on a brand new home out here. The…
Yeah, shame on the greedy realty vultures for charging what the market will bear.
But the housing market in California is arguably distorted; it doesn't actually reflect "free market" economics. So I think you're being a bit petulant trying to claim it's just about what the market will bear.
The market only bears it because the government (federal, state, and/or local) in some cases has arguably helped place realty companies and others in a position where they essentially hold a monopoly over vast areas of land and housing.
California also has a unique problem in the form of proposition 13:
http://www.nber.org/digest/apr05/w11108.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-19/jerry-brown-s-last-...
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#34According to some random cost of living calculator I just pulled up on google, I would need 150,000$ to live in SF based on my current salary, and that is a lateral move, are there dev jobs paying 2-300k in SV?
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good call Ryan, on both accounts. On the wording, I've tweaked it to include "some of" the smartest people in the world. But doesn't address the bigger issue of smugness, which I've noticed too. Certainly something in the SV attitude that includes a holy-than-thou vibe, but now that I think about it, I get that vibe whenever I'm around successful entrepreneurs - no matter what city I'm in. Re the living expenses - it…
> from what I've seen, the increased pay more than offsets the increased cost of living Only if you're willing to downsize. Some people are, but it's a tough sell to lots of people.
Absolutely right. But who needs all that space anyway? Apartments are for sleeping...you'll spend all your waking hours at work ;)
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#36I used to really be attracted to SV. The companies, weather, opportunities; all of it seemed great. Then I realized the living expenses, the government regulations set forth by the state, and the overall smugness of some people and it really turned me off. Case in point. This websites says "work with the smartest people in the world" as if SV has the highest concentration of intelligent people in the world and as if…
The living expenses are a real burden, and the average rental rates in the core of the San Francisco Bay Area have increased ~20-30% over the last three years. They're building new apartments all around the bay now and the greedy realty vultures somehow think it's reasonable to charge as much as $3500-4000USD per month for them (one and two bedrooms). That's easily a mortgage payment on a brand new home out here. The…
Wait until you have kids and you want to put them through a decent school...then house prices go up to $1M easily. For a good public school district. Or you can try a private school, but they are crazy expensive and contribute nothing to your own equity.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#37I live in Austin. Same concentration of crazy smart people, only with less attitude. Did I mention that you can actually buy a house here? With a chance of paying it off? And a 25 minute commute? THIS is why 1 of every 50 cars in Austin has a California license plate. EDIT: there's less access to VC money here. But that doesn't seem to be stopping people.
Any tips on figuring out good startups/tech companies in the area?
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#38This is actually remarkably similar to the Silicon Valley Internship Programme (http://www.siliconvalleyinternship.com) except that SVIP targets itself towards British CS/SE grads specifically.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#39Want a job in Silicon Valley? NO. You should never lead off with an open-ended question. And I seriously do not want a job in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't stop the recruiters from contacting me. If a developer with tons of experience hasn't worked in SV by now, they probably never will.
I think you proved the usefulness of the open-ended question: filtering out people like yourself, who clearly aren't interested.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#40Cool idea. Make one for NYC!