> As someone who has been remote, even pre-COVID, I can tell you this is not at all how it works. Trust me, a dev based in North Dakota who has Google, Lyft, St

> As someone who has been remote, even pre-COVID, I can tell you this is not at all how it works. Trust me, a dev based in North Dakota who has Google, Lyft, Stripe, etc. on their resume will have no problem making within 10-20% of the same pay as someone based in San Francisco. I've been remote also for 10 years pre-Covid. How did those people originally get Google, Lyft, etc on their resume? They were smart and skilled. There is no reason someone can't land those positions in an area where the CoL is 500% less than what it is in San Francisco. If we expand this globally, they could live like a king on $50k USD locally. Stretching out the timeline, there is no reason companies will continue to pay SF salaries for these positions when they don't have to. If you move to Thailand, but the local developer in the unit next door is more skilled than you, you have to prepare for the invitable. > Being a good coder doesn't necessarily make you qualified to work on production systems for a large company. It will once you are onboarded and learn the ropes. How else do you get that experience? What you are suggesting is a temporary gap in knowledge. This gap can be rapidly closed moving forward.