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Ah,the American dream. Go through four years of college and 100k of student loans so you can live in a $2400 dorm room while barely making ends meet. I'm movin
by briga 9y ago
Ah,the American dream. Go through four years of college and 100k of student loans so you can live in a $2400 dorm room while barely making ends meet.
I'm moving to the Bay area in a few months and these sorts of stories make me question whether it's the right move.
- taytus 9y agoRead your own comment again. It seems you already have your answer.
- dokem 9y agoYou go to SF to launch your career then GTFO ASAP to a less 'enlightened' part of the US where you don't have to worry about hyper sensitivity and your dollar actually counts for something.
- Consultant32452 9y agoHow does SF compare to LA? I've only been to LA within the last few years and it was a shithole. The whole city smelled like pot 24/7. There were more homeless/destitute people there than some 3rd world countries I've visited. I don't think I'll be visiting California again any time soon, no matter what Schwarzenegger says in the commercials.
- EggsOnToast 9y agoI can't speak for LA, but from the people I've spoken with Seattle and -maybe- Austin have the strongest ratio of tech work vs. cost of living.
- tytytytytytytyt 9y agoSeattle is pretty nice, especially if you can ignore the random junkies and homeless tent and RV encampments around town.
- Consultant32452 9y agoOh no, the last time I visited Seattle was in 2010. Has it gone to shit since then?
- EggsOnToast 9y agoI might be jaded but this sort've depends on your point of view. I grew up in San Diego, would weekend with friends in LA, and I've got family across the country. Most large cities that don't have overly deadly weather seem to have a visible homeless population.
- stagbeetle 9y agoSeattle's so full, it's budding into Portland.
- Teeer 9y agoNowadays LA is much worse than SF in terms of homeless people.
- freejulian 9y agoWhat nonsense. Sure, the valley can teach you some new JavaScript frameworks and how to best invade your users privacy to sell ads, but real programming happens everywhere. There’s plenty of ways to launch your career without working for Zuckerberg or Bezos.
- stagbeetle 9y agoI ask for one (1) example, that does not include any software hubs that mimic the valley (this includes Austin, New York, Boston, and Seattle, but is not limited to), that has an equal, or close to equal, impact on your career in comparison to the Bay Area. The only thing the valley has going for it is the saturation of talent and people who hire talent. The bad, is that without it it's got nothing to really show for itself (save a few niche items). The good, is the lack of any other notable qualities is overshadowed by the overcompensation of the only ones it has.
- freejulian 9y agoCitadel, located in Chicago. You guys out west are so smug it’s unbelievable.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- stagbeetle 9y agoThe topic was tech careers. I don't believe Citadel does any algo/prop work that could fall under the umbrella of tech. Off-topic: I'm from the East and #FreeMadix
- freejulian 9y agoYou’re just in denial now, you’ve clearly had plenty of the Valley’s koolaid. It’s hilarious that you don’t think the worlds largest market maker isn’t doing “algo/prop work that could fall under the umbrella of tech.” Don’t be afraid to leave your bubble.
- stale2002 9y agoIt depends. The big X tech companies, and hot unicorns in the bay area pay crazy salaries for engineers. 3k a month doesn't seem too bad when you are making 200k+, which is close to ~triple what you'd make in some rando mid sized city. Working for the average SF startup though? Yeah, you'd be better off somewhere else.
- Apocryphon 9y agoAnd yet, the housing market still makes buying prohibitive in that same region.
- BadassFractal 9y agoAre that many SF tech workers making over 200 grand a year?
- stale2002 9y agoThe ones at the big tech companies and hot unicorns are. The ones at your rando tech startup are not.
- pmorici 9y agoI hope so. If they aren’t then they would be better off finding work in some other part of the country.
- vladimirkon 9y agoPretty sure that not too many. Some do, but again, most are capped at about 180k (that if with 7+ years of experience) For some stock options make a difference, but again, that is if you're lucky
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- solotronics 9y agoWhenever I look at cost of living comparison it doesn't seem advantageous to me to be in SV unless you get lucky on equity ( how do you even measure that? ). $150k in Dallas is something like $265k in San Francisco. And I would think in SF your housing would be pitiful compared to the midwest at $3k/month mortgage. Engineers at my company can make upwards of $300k in Dallas and that gives a standard of living thats comparable to making $1m in the valley which is probably pretty rare.
- Teeer 9y agoNot to make you question it further, but after living in the Bay for a long time, I can't wait to leave. I seriously don't think it's a place worth living.
- BrainInAJar 9y agoNo, it isn't. Join an org doing something cool, then immediately start pushing to work remote. Or make sure that you'll see a good payout and cash out & gtfo.
- tehlike 9y agoSave as much as possible, and get out. Getting paid a lot means you will save a lot regardless.
- almostApatriot1 9y agoAccumulating 100k in student loans isn't the right move, let alone the American Dream. The "American Dream" isn't follow an exploitive option just because it's possible.
- tytytytytytytyt 9y agoIt is if your future job pays well enough and you can do the basic Math to figure that out.
- IntronExon 9y agoNobody here ever seems to bring it up, but in addition to all of the objections raised, I’d add the potential for a truly devastating earthquake.
- hellofunk 9y agoI spent a couple weeks in the bay area recently, touring around, seeing what it's all about. I left feeling quite underwhelmed and pretty happy I don't live there.
- lsc 9y agoEh, compare relative costs/relative income and cultural factors. Most of the people I know here in the south bay, if they rent, get some place reasonably nice all to themselves for around that kind of money, and the south bay is better for tech jobs, and at least for me, a much better 'culture fit' - That's the thing; I feel at home here in ways I've never felt at home anywhere else, and I'll pay extra for that. Things are expensive, but wages are also really high, (I don't know a lot of people in the computer industry for whom $2400 in rent would cause pain.) and I have a great deal of freedom because there are so many nearby employers. there's got to be at least 50 places that might hire me as a programmer or sysadmin within reasonable walking distance. I have to go further than that to get a decent burger! (which is my big complaint about this place; so little nightlife, so little food. But most of the employers feed you, and for weekends there are good delivery services, so it's not that bad.) San Francisco (and California, to a lessor extent) is setup to charge newcomers way more than long time residents. The density of employers in the bay area means that you can find your place... and just stay there, through many job changes.
- volgo 9y agoThose are some extremely skewed numbers. I live in a $1.7k one bedroom. Rent is like 10% of my pay and I'm just 2 years out of college. No student debt because my family is poor. San Francisco is an amazing place for technies if you're not bad with money
- jdpigeon 9y agoYou're saying you make ~200k/year 2 years out of college? That is not normal.
- vladimirkon 9y agoDon't believe it! maybe salary + stock options + benifits - that's a possibility (even though a pretty rare one). But 200k cash, BS, no employer would pay that to someone with 2 years of experience... One exception is if that guy possesses some unique skills of some hype industry (blockchain, AI, VR), but that really a very unique situation. Most of people here make around $130k/year + some stock options/rsu's
- volgo 9y agoNo, it's $210k cash. Additional RSUs and bonuses up to $70+ depending on company and individual performance. No hype. I work harder than anyone else and complete projects at least twice as fast. I constantly push for promotion and raises and hop jobs to get the raise.
- vladimirkon 9y agoYou definitely hustling :) Can you share what kind of tech work you do? And how often you hop jobs?
- pmorici 9y agoJust because you found a good situation doesn’t mean that is typical.
- kikki 9y ago