The distribution of jobs around there seems to be non-obvious and may require a lot more effort to find certain market sector jobs. For example, I literally jus

The distribution of jobs around there seems to be non-obvious and may require a lot more effort to find certain market sector jobs. For example, I literally just looked 30 min ago in Atlanta for jobs at Google and there's not a single software engineer / operations engineer job listed. Meanwhile, there's a hundreds, maybe thousands in jobs for well-known software companies in SV while in Atlanta I can see pretty generic jobs at Coca Cola, GE, or a smattering of entertainment. Otherwise, I've only seen cost-cutting outsourcing jobs (typical for technology dinosaurs) that are likely for customers that are terrible at software by executive decision. Despite the dollar utility value difference I'll still assert that the most optimal career path for ambitious, diligent tech workers regardless of whether you're looking for money or for long term life balance is to go for as high as you can comfortably go in the Bay Area or maybe NY when young and with few expenses and go somewhere lower cost of living to settle down. Finance people aren't being stupid by going to NYC early in their career I'd imagine. This career pattern is supported by a study linked on HN a while ago (sorry, can't find link at the moment) with a report on expected earnings when going from the Bay Area elsewhere - starting with as high of salary as possible helps negotiate your pay when going to a lower cost of living area. Your marketable skills should have grown better working at a tech company doing cutting edge projects than for the usual enterprise shovelware projects that are the bread and butter of tech companies outside tech hubs as well.