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A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

blog.ycombinator.com

131–140 of 232 posts

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the concentration of tech talent means that it's always easy to find a new job, or even to start your own company. I've never been there, but I see this echoed a lot. Is it actually true? I'm interested in both, but I'm wary of the exaggeration that may be "it's easy".

>but I'm wary of the exaggeration that may be "it's easy". It really is. It's why I cant bring myself to leave this place even with all it's warts. Knowing that you can just screw off and do whatever you want for a year then have a dozen interviews lined up for six figure jobs with nothing more than a few emails is really empowering, actually. I can't imagine the anxiety of living somewhere else and being dependent o…

I'm in Sydney. While not compatible to SF I do feel I can leave a job after a year and grab another one quick. I'm about to start a new job. It took 2 weeks of looking to land a good one.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook pays $50k to relocate to Bay Area!

But then you have to work at Facebook.

Say what you want about the business side, but everyone I've talked to from Facebook on the engineering side loves it.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never realized it until you wrote it down explicitly, but you're right. Landlords laugh all the way to the bank, while the rest of the economy pays their tax. Amazing.

Silicon Valley can be thought of as a gigantic wealth transfer machine from rich investors to rich landlords.

I wonder what the overlap is between the groups?

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#135
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We will not adjust your salary downwards if you take the "delocation package".

Does that mean that location is not taken into account for salaries, or does it mean that if I start in Croatia I get $30k, but if an American starts in the Bay Area and relocates to Croatia, he'll get $120k plus a $10k bonus while I'm still getting $30k?

I think your expectations are backwards. Do you want your employer to leverage your CoL to pay you less because they know you'll take it?

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#136
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a dev working for the summer who got a job at an SF startup this past week. He's making $2k a week, but his rent for his apartment costs $3k and he's got roommates. As someone who has lived off of $40k and rented a $1.4k a month loft that was absolutely palatial, in the middle of the city with great views, this sounds like insanity. My coworker who is from the Boston area was similarly aghast at the difference…

FYI, you don't need to pay $3k - I lived in the Mission / Potrero Hill area (with roommates, mind you) for a few years, and my rent had always been between $1000-1850/mo. Centrally located, safe(-ish), and beautiful. You can run through Bernal Heights Park, get ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe, and bike to the 24 Hour Fitness on 16th and Potrero. If you're in tech, you can definitely live well in SF :)

Or commute a little. If you're paying multiples the cost to live 30 minutes away and commute, that's because you've attributed a high value on that locality, so complaining that it's too expensive doesn't make much sense.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#137
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you have to work at Facebook.

Say what you want about the business side, but everyone I've talked to from Facebook on the engineering side loves it.

Don't get me wrong, it would be a lot of fun to work with world class engineers, it's probably a blast, but life is too short to work for unethical organizations run by egomaniacs.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a collective realization happening in the Bay Area that the landlords are the real winners and everyone else is just playing their game. Employees hate seeing 3k/month fly out the door in rent just as much as CEOs hate paying it, just as much as investors hate seeing their capital ultimately end up with landlords. Big companies in general are conservative. They've made it and don't want to take unnece…

I never realized it until you wrote it down explicitly, but you're right. Landlords laugh all the way to the bank, while the rest of the economy pays their tax. Amazing.

I guess both commercial and residential landlords at that.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denver is even better—competitive wages w/ washington & lower cost of living.

There is nothing competitive about the wages in Denver when you're comparing to CA. Cost of living is lower than SV, but still one of the highest in the country.

Have any numbers you'd care to furnish? Cost of living may be one of the highest, but you can easily get a 2 bedroom or a house in the burbs for $1500. It's quite easy to allocated less than a third of your take home to rent, unlike SV, Seattle, NYC, Boston, etc.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#140

Move to Washington State. Don't pay California income tax. Instant 8% boost to your take-home pay.

That, and Washington kicks hella ass. Washington State. Not that Washington. The good one.(tm)

No, don't tell anyone. There are no jobs in Seattle, it's all a lie from Amazon, microsoft, facebook, hulu, google, tableau, memsql, and 1000 other startups.
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