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Ask HN: Got laid off. Stay in NYC or move to SF?
Got laid off yesterday and I have been given 2 months of time to get a new gig. If I don't, then I have to get back to my home country.
I have 3 years of professional Java/J2EE experience. I want to move into web development. I build all my side projects in PHP/RoR/JavaScript. But I am not a pro in web development.
I am a bit rusty with my DS and Algos. Need at-least 2 weeks to feel confident.
I always wanted to move to the Bay Area and work as a web developer there. Given the short time frame. Is it a good idea to pack my bags and move there or is it better to stay in NYC and try to find a gig here and later on relocate to SF?
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoYou can start applying in SF right now, while still in New York. I have a few San Francisco companies that I will be listing at http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/united-states/california/san-francisco/san-francisco/ http://www.warplife.com/jobs/computer/united-states/californ... (I haven't posted any online yet, but I have them in an OOo spreadsheet. I'll post them today, I promise.)
- somona 12y agothanks! will be counting on it. >> You can start applying in SF right now, while still in New York. Won't they prefer local candidates?
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoMake it clear you intend to move there. You can certainly get a local - area code 415 - phone number. If you want to keep your current NYC number, you could get a second phone, or alternatively use something like Google Voice for a 415 number. Do you know anyone in San Francisco? Perhaps they would be willing to receive mail for you. Alternatively you could get a post office box. After getting the box, immediately file a USPS change of address form. It's good for I think 90 days. However if someone wants you to interview without much advance notice, you'll have to cop to the fact that you're in New York. There are some companies that are willing to pay relocation. Careers 2.0 at http://careers.stackoverflow.com/ http://careers.stackoverflow.com/ indicates that. The job market in SF is very hot right now, so I expect lots of employers, even if they cannot pay relocation, would be happy with non-local candidates.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoI just looked, I have roughly 40 companies in my spreadsheet. However I have incomplete info on most of them; I'll post the companies whose info is complete, then I'll go back and get the rest of the information for the other companies. What I list are the name of each company, which links its homepage, it's Jobs or Careers page (if any), it's Contact page (again, if any), and the city it's located - all San Francisco in this case, but for, say, Vancouver, Washington, I also list Camas employers on Vancouver's page.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoI just posted an actual marked-up page, but with only two companies. I'll be posting more Real Soon Now, however at the moment I am not feeling so good, so I need to spend some time doing something other than hunting for Careers pages. But have faith, I'll dig up lots of companies for you. I have some friends in SF, if it would help for me to introduce you to them. Two of them are coders, one is a website project management consultant. That is, if you need a website, he'll get it done for you, but he hires other people to do the actual work.
- lingua_franca 12y agomove 2 SF if u r a hardcore dev. NYC is for lawyers and finance guys...
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoYou must not know much about NYC. There are lots of hardcore dev jobs in New York. That's because all the finance guys use Sun Workstations. Someone has to write that code. I have first-hand knowledge that the very highest-paid software development work to be found is writing quantitative investment code in C++ for Manhattan investment banks. I used to do that - but for a hedge fund in the Bahamas. As a result, Bloomberg, Solomon-Page and the like are all over me like a cheap suit. I don't do that kind of work anymore as I came to regard it as unethical. If I do a good job, then my clients are taking money out of your retirement fund.
- lingua_franca 12y agolol am writing C++ for trading in a big investment bank in Manhattan everyday. many of my colleagues are not hardcore dev at all, neither can they make similar amount of money as counterparts in CA.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoI must say I am growing weary of being unemployed. I speculate that I know how to time certain specific parts of the market, however I don't want to do myself what I won't do for a bank. My current theory is that I could contribute much of my ill-gotten gains to the Portland Rescue Mission as well as the Blanchet House of Hospitality.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoThis Bud's For You: Self-Employment: Even On A Good Day Things Are Hard http://www.warplife.com/mdc/essays/business/self-employment.html http://www.warplife.com/mdc/essays/business/self-employment.... tl;dr I got nothing but crap from some guy who had $200,000,000.00 in his own personal hedge fund, because all his other coders were completely cool with working at one-quarter my pay, despite that their code often crashed, thereby costing that jackass tens of millions of dollars per year. Nobody else at that firm had ever even heard of such things as C++ initalization lists, alone alone used them in their code.