I do have citizenship, which made things a lot easier for me. As the others pointed out, it is possible to transfer between jobs on an H1B. People do it here

I do have citizenship, which made things a lot easier for me. As the others pointed out, it is possible to transfer between jobs on an H1B. People do it here all the time. The easiest way to get out here is to go through your university. Industry approaches postgrad students all the time to come work out here. I had Google, IBM and Microsoft, Sun, Intel and a few others all stop by my department, looking for candidates to relocate specifically to California. Failing that, it would be best to have a holiday over here and line up some interviews for while you're in the area. I can't recommend it enough by the way.