4 ms·

Is the Bay Area no longer a good place to start a career? I'm close to finishing up my PhD, and my original plan was to apply to work at the tech companies tha

Is the Bay Area no longer a good place to start a career? I'm close to finishing up my PhD, and my original plan was to apply to work at the tech companies that I find most interesting. For the most part, these are located in the Bay Area — although some are in New York, Austin, Boston, Seattle, Raleigh, and Atlanta. I figured I would stay there 2-4 years tops though, since my family and girlfriend live in the southeast. I don't mind living in a box-sized apartment for a while, but if there's no longer a career benefit to doing this, then perhaps I should focus my job search efforts on other cities?

autotune 11y ago
As someone without a degree working in tech, I would argue The Bay Area is the best place to grow a career, maybe rather than start (didn't start out looking in SF for tech jobs. Most places want someone mid-senior level). You having a PhD probably opens the door for a ton of good companies though depending on what your field of study is in, which I assume is CS, and if you can pass the interviews. As long as you don't mind living in a box-sized apartment with other roommates despite having that or a studio in one of the more stab-y parts of town the opportunities for career growth are incredible.
- Xcelerate 11y ago
  Oddly enough, my degree is in chemical engineering, however all of my work is entirely computational (molecular dynamics, high performance computing, machine learning, data analysis). In fact, my research for the last year has been on a large-scale nonconvex optimization problem — hopefully employers read further than my resume title... But yeah, I don't really mind where I live as long as it's not in too dangerous of a location. Once I have children I'll want something more comfortable though.
cylinder 11y ago
Nothing wrong with that. The costs only start to bother you as you get older and have been there a while and want to plan your next 10 years. Especially nice if you know you want to settle in the SE eventually (although your prferecnes may change...).
- davidw 11y ago
  Yeah, when you're young you can get by with a room in a shared house. When you have a wife and kids... the calculation changes a lot.
hkmurakami 11y ago
I'm slightly older than you (my college friends finished their PhDs 2 years ago), grew up in SV and still work here. With respect to cost of living, I think it is fine to start a career here. A PhD starting salary at most (big) places will cover a 1 bed room in a good area with decent transit options like San Mateo just fine. You won't live like a king but you won't like like a miser either. That being said looking for places while still being Tennessee will be hard, so you might get a sublet for 2 months and look for a more permanent place after you arrive. Where it gets really hard is when you start looking for homes to buy when you start a family, and care about school districts. If you're open to moving out to the South East after getting established in your field (not sure if you want to stay in chemistry/pharma or head towards purely data oriented roles), you would be able to mitigate this [1] One thing I'd consider is how feasible moving across the country will actually be. Anyways, happy to answer questions over email. Contact is in profile. [1] you should definitely look at Cambridge/Boston if you want to stay in pharma/chem.
- Xcelerate 11y ago
  Thanks for the advice. I'll check out the Boston area too.
freyr 11y ago
There's still opportunity here (in terms of good experience and good salary) but it's not guaranteed. There are also plenty of startups will try to convince you work for $100k/year plus a lottery ticket (equivalent to $54k in Austin, $57k in Georgia). That would give me pause. While a lot of companies will try to lowball you, others will pay well if you apply some pressure. There was recently a post here by a guy who learned to programming at a coding bootcamp and soon after got an offer for $210k+ total compensation. At that level (depending on how liquid that offer is) you won't really be suffering nor living lavishly.

autotune 11y ago

As someone without a degree working in tech, I would argue The Bay Area is the best place to grow a career, maybe rather than start (didn't start out looking in SF for tech jobs. Most places want someone mid-senior level). You having a PhD probably opens the door for a ton of good companies though depending on what your field of study is in, which I assume is CS, and if you can pass the interviews. As long as you don't mind living in a box-sized apartment with other roommates despite having that or a studio in one of the more stab-y parts of town the opportunities for career growth are incredible.

Xcelerate 11y ago
Oddly enough, my degree is in chemical engineering, however all of my work is entirely computational (molecular dynamics, high performance computing, machine learning, data analysis). In fact, my research for the last year has been on a large-scale nonconvex optimization problem — hopefully employers read further than my resume title... But yeah, I don't really mind where I live as long as it's not in too dangerous of a location. Once I have children I'll want something more comfortable though.

cylinder 11y ago

Nothing wrong with that. The costs only start to bother you as you get older and have been there a while and want to plan your next 10 years. Especially nice if you know you want to settle in the SE eventually (although your prferecnes may change...).

davidw 11y ago
Yeah, when you're young you can get by with a room in a shared house. When you have a wife and kids... the calculation changes a lot.

hkmurakami 11y ago

I'm slightly older than you (my college friends finished their PhDs 2 years ago), grew up in SV and still work here. With respect to cost of living, I think it is fine to start a career here. A PhD starting salary at most (big) places will cover a 1 bed room in a good area with decent transit options like San Mateo just fine. You won't live like a king but you won't like like a miser either. That being said looking for places while still being Tennessee will be hard, so you might get a sublet for 2 months and look for a more permanent place after you arrive. Where it gets really hard is when you start looking for homes to buy when you start a family, and care about school districts. If you're open to moving out to the South East after getting established in your field (not sure if you want to stay in chemistry/pharma or head towards purely data oriented roles), you would be able to mitigate this [1] One thing I'd consider is how feasible moving across the country will actually be. Anyways, happy to answer questions over email. Contact is in profile. [1] you should definitely look at Cambridge/Boston if you want to stay in pharma/chem.

Xcelerate 11y ago
Thanks for the advice. I'll check out the Boston area too.

freyr 11y ago

There's still opportunity here (in terms of good experience and good salary) but it's not guaranteed. There are also plenty of startups will try to convince you work for $100k/year plus a lottery ticket (equivalent to $54k in Austin, $57k in Georgia). That would give me pause. While a lot of companies will try to lowball you, others will pay well if you apply some pressure. There was recently a post here by a guy who learned to programming at a coding bootcamp and soon after got an offer for $210k+ total compensation. At that level (depending on how liquid that offer is) you won't really be suffering nor living lavishly.