4 ms·

Due to proximity and similarity of lifestyle, and how crazy things are in the bay, I keep assuming that any minute now companies and engineers will start moving

Due to proximity and similarity of lifestyle, and how crazy things are in the bay, I keep assuming that any minute now companies and engineers will start moving up to Portland in droves. (Well, I wouldn't expect companies to move here, but certainly open offices.) But looking at available jobs and so forth, that doesn't seem to be panning out. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Is Portland too small of a city for that, still? It just seems like a no-brainer to me.

jonny_eh 11y ago
I'm a Bay Area resident that just got back from my first visit to Portland. It's an amazing city, great food, and pinball in every bar. But the weather sucks (I'm still wet), and it's missing the critical mass of tech that the Bay Area has. The tech scene reminded me of nearly any other similarly sized city in North America. One or two interesting employers (New Relic, Puppet Labs), and the rest is enterprise. And even if Google, Facebook, Apple, and all the other smaller interesting companies moved there overnight, the cost of living would skyrocket overnight too, blowing away Portland's main advantage. And if you thought the hipsters' resistance to tech in SF was bad, I feel that Portland's would be worse.
- accountatwork 11y ago
  I interviewed at one of the two companies you mentioned and their total comp package was about equivalent to my signing bonus at a company in Seattle. I like Portland, but not enough to take a 3x-4x hit in compensation to move there. I know of one company that opened an office in Portland because compensation is so low there. That's great for them if they can hire people at local rates, but it's not really appealing for people who have the flexibility to relocate anywhere.
seathrowa2 11y ago
It's what that other guy said. If you open an office in Portland, there isn't a big native pool to hire/poach from. It's hard to attract people from out of town in when they'll have to move out again to switch jobs.

jonny_eh 11y ago

I'm a Bay Area resident that just got back from my first visit to Portland. It's an amazing city, great food, and pinball in every bar. But the weather sucks (I'm still wet), and it's missing the critical mass of tech that the Bay Area has. The tech scene reminded me of nearly any other similarly sized city in North America. One or two interesting employers (New Relic, Puppet Labs), and the rest is enterprise. And even if Google, Facebook, Apple, and all the other smaller interesting companies moved there overnight, the cost of living would skyrocket overnight too, blowing away Portland's main advantage. And if you thought the hipsters' resistance to tech in SF was bad, I feel that Portland's would be worse.

accountatwork 11y ago
I interviewed at one of the two companies you mentioned and their total comp package was about equivalent to my signing bonus at a company in Seattle. I like Portland, but not enough to take a 3x-4x hit in compensation to move there. I know of one company that opened an office in Portland because compensation is so low there. That's great for them if they can hire people at local rates, but it's not really appealing for people who have the flexibility to relocate anywhere.

seathrowa2 11y ago

It's what that other guy said. If you open an office in Portland, there isn't a big native pool to hire/poach from. It's hard to attract people from out of town in when they'll have to move out again to switch jobs.