5 ms·

I went through the same thing for years. If I were young (early 20s?) and single, I'd probably consider it. But keep in mind that's the high end. Most people

by axaxs 6y ago

I went through the same thing for years. If I were young (early 20s?) and single, I'd probably consider it. But keep in mind that's the high end. Most people in the valley also don't come close to that number, so it's a gamble without an offer in hand. I'm in my 30's now, with a family. There is no reasonable amount of money that could convince me to uproot and go to the valley. Sure I could come out ahead financially, but at what costs? Commuting for hours each day, working long hours, living in a smallish house with no yard, high crime, high pollution, etc. Those are just some negatives, but there are of course some positives too. For me, my time with family is my most valuable asset, and I don't think I'd sell it for $500k. Sure you could go there and make a lot of money and basically retire in 10 years, but I'd rather have those 10 years back in time at the end I'm sure.

psoy 6y ago
This is called "rationalization", and to be honest, it looks worse than you may realize.
- axaxs 6y ago
  Please elaborate.
notJim 6y ago
You're making a lot of assumptions that are not necessarily true. You'll never know if you don't look. * Commute/housing: you can afford a lot of house in a good location on $500k (or even 250-300k which might be more attainable). * Long hours: varies a lot from team to team, and company to company. From my own experience, there's not a lot of correlation between long hours and salary, and a lot of people who work long hours do it because they want to. * Crime: crime in the US is at historic lows, not sure what you're worried about here.
- axaxs 6y ago
  Yeah, I realized after I reread it some of those negatives are contrary to one another. eg insanely expensive housing vs commute time and whatnot. I include commute time into long hours. Many people I knew there, admittedly NOT at FAANG, would spend an hour or more each way on a bus or train, plus 8 or more hours working, that's a huge chunk of the day. I'm remote, if that helps give a frame of reference. As for crime, I guess it's just culture shock. I've had people tell me not to drive, and if you do drive and park, to leave your doors unlocked and empty your car, or else someone will break the windows and take things. And I've seen the broken windows. That, along with being harassed by mentally ill folks, was just a big turn off to me. Though, this may just be more of a SF thing specifically.

by axaxs 6y ago

psoy 6y ago

This is called "rationalization", and to be honest, it looks worse than you may realize.

axaxs 6y ago
Please elaborate.

notJim 6y ago

You're making a lot of assumptions that are not necessarily true. You'll never know if you don't look. * Commute/housing: you can afford a lot of house in a good location on $500k (or even 250-300k which might be more attainable). * Long hours: varies a lot from team to team, and company to company. From my own experience, there's not a lot of correlation between long hours and salary, and a lot of people who work long hours do it because they want to. * Crime: crime in the US is at historic lows, not sure what you're worried about here.

axaxs 6y ago
Yeah, I realized after I reread it some of those negatives are contrary to one another. eg insanely expensive housing vs commute time and whatnot. I include commute time into long hours. Many people I knew there, admittedly NOT at FAANG, would spend an hour or more each way on a bus or train, plus 8 or more hours working, that's a huge chunk of the day. I'm remote, if that helps give a frame of reference. As for crime, I guess it's just culture shock. I've had people tell me not to drive, and if you do drive and park, to leave your doors unlocked and empty your car, or else someone will break the windows and take things. And I've seen the broken windows. That, along with being harassed by mentally ill folks, was just a big turn off to me. Though, this may just be more of a SF thing specifically.