5 ms·
Tech is moving out of silicon valley. Tech hubs in other cities are sprouting up like weeds. And quite frankly there are people that simply don't want to live t
by paulie_a 8y ago
Tech is moving out of silicon valley. Tech hubs in other cities are sprouting up like weeds. And quite frankly there are people that simply don't want to live there. I know a number of people that moved away. I personally wouldn't even consider moving there unless the pay was 1 million+ a year. The shine of SV is dimishing rapidly.
- kilroy123 8y agoI'm one of these people. I refuse to live there and I agree, some what, I wouldn't move there unless I made the equivalent of $400k+ a year.
- scarface74 8y agoI have a friend who works at a FAANG company with a total comp of around $200K a year in a non technical role (managerial). There is no way that I would move to the west coast from the metropolitan area where I live for that amount.
- paulie_a 8y agoPersonally 400k is substantially more than I make now but it would be an instant "no". A million, now I could endure the culture of sv, save enough in a few years and run like hell to somewhere better.
- jarsin 8y agoI feel the same way. Just to get a job with them (FANG) you have to jump through tons of hoops and study programming questions for months. Then after all that if your lucky you get to move to the bay area and rent a studio for $3k+ with a commute. Is it even possible to get a 1 million+ a year offer from these companies?
- twtw 8y agoThere are more than 4 companies in Silicon Valley.
- Hydraulix989 8y agoThe distribution is Pareto-like -- FANG compensation is at a 2-5x multipler compared to the modal Silicon Valley tech company. Coding talent at FANG relative to others almost certainly also follows a similar multiplier, given the market dynamics at work.
- paulie_a 8y agoNo the fang talent is not exceptionally higher than anywhere else. Good but basically nothing special.
- Hydraulix989 8y agoTalent concentrates, especially when incentivized by much higher compensation. One recent HN trending article even attributed wage competition with FANG as a cause of startup stagnation in the Valley. People don't work for "charity," especially in a high cost-of-living area, so the choice between FANG and others is a no-brainer when it means the difference between having roommates and not living in a converted living room -- or commuting two hours a day and living downtown. This means that the FANG companies' applicant pools become highly competitive, allowing them to be very selective about hiring the best talent. Similar dynamics happen with universities (Ivy League vs others), VC investors/accelerators (YC vs others), immigration (US vs others), and many other societal gateways. Sure, there are always outliers and exceptions (and they are, by definition, outliers and exceptions), so I'm speaking in the broadly general case.
- nradov 8y agoThere is no quantitative evidence that FANG engineering talent is higher than other employers. In fact, talent itself is largely a myth. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myth https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myt...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ummonk 8y agoNot really, unless there is something exceptional about the person. 400-500k is the general total compensation for most fully promoted engineers at FANG. (E.g. L5 at Google).
- pm90 8y ago> I personally wouldn't even consider moving there unless the pay was 1 million+ a year It really depends on where you're at in your life. As a young unmarried person with no debts and family, it wasn't hard to justify moving to the valley; I wanted to learn a lot and diversify my skills and work with really smart people who get things done. The learning aspect was a greater pull than the financial one precisely because I didn't have other costs (childcare, mortgage etc.) that would blow up enormously with moving to the Valley.
- masonic 8y ago"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."