Forget Silicon Valley, move to the Research Triangle Park area. We have great weather, a burgeoning startup scene, great food, good public schools, great universities, "day trip" access to both the mountains and the beach, reasonable cost of living, a decent (but not spectacular) live music scene, and the largest research park in the world[1].
Want a job in Silicon Valley?
41–50 of 76 posts
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#42I 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 m…
> and don't forget the ever-present parking enforcers. I pay $100/month in accidental tickets
A sad reality.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#43I don't terribly want to move to SV, but I am a bit curious what this will return. Sorry if I'm wasting your time customerdevlabs! I mostly signed up out of curiosity. Obviously, though, if you want to pay me $150k/year, give me 3 months of vacation, let me telecommute 2/5 days, pay my moving expenses, and give me fun problems, I will move tomorrow.
The only thing SV doesn't offer is 3 months of vacation - unlimited vacation on the other hand is fairly popular: http://www.quora.com/Startups/Which-companies-have-an-unlimi...
There's a war on for talent now. Be careful what you wish for.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#44I 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…
re:6
Isn't it?
I kid, I kid. Mostly. But the revealed preferences of where people choose to move and at what price does say a lot about places. Most people, given a choice of buying a nice house in Fargo or Macon for $150k or a nice house in San Francisco or Palo Alto for $150k, probably will go for the latter.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#45Earlier 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…
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.
How does a good private school for your children contribute nothing to your equity? That doesn't seem rational to me. I'd think that a great school of any type is going to be very beneficial to equity and life in general.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#46I 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…
re:6 Isn't it? I kid, I kid. Mostly. But the revealed preferences of where people choose to move and at what price does say a lot about places. Most people, given a choice of buying a nice house in Fargo or Macon for $150k or a nice house in San Francisco or Palo Alto for $150k, probably will go for the latter.
A bit of a false dichotomy, no? The choices aren't necessarily Palo Alto vs. Fargo.
I moved out of SF about a year ago, I am now paying less for housing, in a better neighborhood, in Manhattan.
The alternative to paying ridiculous sums to live in SV/SF isn't a complete change in lifestyle.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#47I 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…
re:6 Isn't it? I kid, I kid. Mostly. But the revealed preferences of where people choose to move and at what price does say a lot about places. Most people, given a choice of buying a nice house in Fargo or Macon for $150k or a nice house in San Francisco or Palo Alto for $150k, probably will go for the latter.
Until they realize their $150k in SF or PA bought a 11'x11' one room shed with no bathroom or driveway anyhow.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#48I 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.
If you know who's hiring in Austin, feel free to drop me a line.
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#49I don't terribly want to move to SV, but I am a bit curious what this will return. Sorry if I'm wasting your time customerdevlabs! I mostly signed up out of curiosity. Obviously, though, if you want to pay me $150k/year, give me 3 months of vacation, let me telecommute 2/5 days, pay my moving expenses, and give me fun problems, I will move tomorrow.
The only thing SV doesn't offer is 3 months of vacation - unlimited vacation on the other hand is fairly popular: http://www.quora.com/Startups/Which-companies-have-an-unlimi... There's a war on for talent now. Be careful what you wish for.
"Unlimited vacation" is also grossly misleading in SV though. I have seen very, very few companies that actually live up to their own hype about encouraging employees to take off as much time as they need.
More often than not, in SV at least, "unlimited vacation" policies is really just code for "don't take any". The small print is also "if you really do take a lot of time off, even if you're great, you don't belong in our Red-Bull-shotgunning startupy experience".
Re: Want a job in Silicon Valley?
#50I 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.
Pleasantly surprised Austin's representation on this thread. My homage to you and your great city: http://hiring.customerdevlabs.com/work-in-austin/
Just submitted to https://news.ycombinator.com/newest if you'd like to get the word out.
Who do you suggest I pass interested people along to?