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After reading this article, here is my advice to a developer in the Bay Area 1. Definitely don't move to Switzerland. Your cost of living will be very similar
by gregkerzhner 7y ago
After reading this article, here is my advice to a developer in the Bay Area
1. Definitely don't move to Switzerland. Your cost of living will be very similar, you will have to work more than 40 hours a week, and your salary will go down.
2. Move literally anywhere else in the USA. I live in Boulder, Colorado and its awesome. Mountains and trails out my door with a great city scene as well. People snob at Boulder because its getting expensive, but you can still rent a 1 bedroom for 1300, and get a room in a house for $800. Google, Twitter and Uber are here if you want FAANG level compensation, as well as a bunch of other small companies.
3. Or better yet, get a remote job and move to somewhere even cheaper. I work remotely and it was really hard not to move to Bend, Oregon. I could have bought a nice house there for what I paid for my small townhome in Boulder. The only reason I didn't do it is because I am a fanatic rock climber and the climbing around Boulder is better.
One thing I have found about working remotely is that its pretty easy to work 35 hours a week and produce the same output as a full time, in office employee. Less distractions and in-office chitchat, and more working time. In practice this means that you can wake up at 7:30, make a coffee, be online at 8am, and then be free by 3pm. The Swiss 9 to 6 is a hard sell with this lifestyle.
- 0xffff2 7y ago>One thing I have found about working remotely is that its pretty easy to work 35 hours a week and produce the same output as a full time, in office employee. Less distractions and in-office chitchat, and more working time. In practice this means that you can wake up at 7:30, make a coffee, be online at 8am, and then be free by 3pm This is highly individual. My company lets me work remote whenever and as much as I want. I still spend the vast majority of my time in the office because I'm far less productive when working from home.
- armandososa 7y agoI've been working remotely for twelve years now and I think that today I wouldn't be able to write a single line of code in a crowded space with other people.
- 0xffff2 7y agoMe neither, which is why I refuse to work for a company with that kind of work environment. So far, my personal experience is office>cubicle>home. If I ever do find myself unfortunate enough to be forced to take an open office job, I expect it will rank below working from home.
- dmode 7y agoBoulder only has a handful of companies and a very high cost of living. I don't think it is a wise choice for all. At the end of the day, if you are making bank in FAANG, there is nowhere in the world remotely comparable. Everything else is a massive compromise