

Silicon Valley newcomers are still dreaming big - johnnyn
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/us/silicon-valley-newcomers-are-still-dreaming-big.html?_r=2&src=recg&pagewanted=all

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victork2
Sorry to be cynical here but I see that the myriad of new Tech companies do
all pretty much the same thing and users don't stick to their product. However
at the end of the day these companies do not survive and I don't even know if
workers see that fact. For Business Investors it's a typical situation where
it's "Make a lot of cash, fast, SELL". They all know that the company is not
going to survive past the buzz, but they don't care because in the meantime
they can make money out of it. People if you want to dream, do a product that
is really useful, forget the "social", "new consumption" keywords that we hear
everywhere and build a product that will last.

Also 70k in Silicon Valley is not great. Living there is very expensive. I
know they have stocks but look at the fine prints to resell them! Remember
that a salary is relative to an area.

But anyway keep on dreaming, it is not forbidden.

</cynicalguyrant>

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gxs
You know, I'm tired of hearing this. I live very comfortably and my total
expenses are <$1500/mo. This might get a small bump if I go out more than
usual in a particular month. But really, I wonder what everyone else does so
differently.

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ipince
Rent alone (in SF) will _easily_ put you above 1500/month

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lansing
That's not really accurate. If one insists on living in a new building with
amenities, or in an ultra-yuppified neighborhood (e.g. Marina), then yes, the
sky is the limit on rental costs and there are no bargains. If you're more
flexible, then you can go a lot lower. My last 1BR (in SOMA, on a rough block
but the apartment was perfectly nice) was $1100, and another 125 for parking.
I have friends who have 1BR and studios in Tendernob, Panhandle, and other
decent but less-popular places for around the same cost. Mainly it just takes
patience and persistence to nab the deals when they become available.

That said, living in SF on a total budget of 1500/month is going to take some
compromises.

~~~
timr
_"My last 1BR (in SOMA, on a rough block but the apartment was perfectly nice)
was $1100, and another 125 for parking."_

I haven't seen a rent like that in SOMA since 2008...at least, not anywhere
that I'd consider safe. There are some bedbug-ridden firetraps in down near
6th, but there's a limit to what I'm willing to sacrifice for cheap rent. And
I'm saying this as a guy who lives in a not-so-great part of SOMA....

Rents have gone up. Decent 1BR rents land at around $2,000, even in
inconvenient/less-than-great locations. There seems to be this general
delusion/denial trend regarding San Francisco rents, when they're easily
verified by going to craigslist. It's an expensive place to live, and that's
the greater point -- $70,000 isn't making anyone wealthy in San Francisco.
It's enough to have a comfortable single-20-something lifestyle, and maybe put
a bit of cash away for retirement if you live frugally.

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t342
"Bansi Shah, 23, picked up her undergraduate diploma, then took a job at
Lattice Engines, a small San Mateo startup, where she makes “near the top” of
the company’s $80,000 to $130,000 range for an entry level product manager,
plus equity"

Is this the norm in silicon valley, entry level positions making close to 130k
plus equity? If this is the exception great!, but where does someone go from
there? If right out of school your making 130k, does that mean your going to
make 200k after 6 years?

~~~
johnnyn
Pretty sure that's the exception. She actually has a Masters degree as well,
so I think that line is pretty misleading. $130k is still high for an entry
level product manager though I think.

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jsherry
"They go hiking rather than clubbing, look with a hint of impatience at their
less social-media-savvy elders, are picky about their sushi and unhappy with
iceberg lettuce."

There is nothing necessarily wrong or untrue about this statement, but it's
definitely an unflattering generalization that made me chuckle during my
lunchtime HN binge.

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RobPfeifer
This: “My guess is that at some point the music stops and we find out that
there’s not just one less chair but hundreds of thousands of less chairs, and
we’ll have thousands of kids who haven’t learned anything because they’re all
expecting to learn from each other,” he said."

A lot of people are going to come out of this boom with less useful experience
than is commonly assumed.

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gxs
>>Still emerging from their student years, most have yet to translate their
earnings into material tokens of success.

This sentence rubbed me the wrong way. I don't think it's a coincidence that
the same people who command these salaries are the same people that would be
smart enough to drive a Ford or Honda and not splurge on a 5-series.

~~~
pork
Now see, your comment rubs me the wrong way. After I got my first job, I
splurged on a used 911 Turbo. It got terrible mileage, but made me smile every
single day I drove it (which wasn't everyday).

Attitudes to money are varied, and the accumulation of wealth, like squirrel
nuts, is not everyone's goal.

~~~
gxs
I agree, you make a valid point. But the reason her comment rubbed me the
wrong way is precisely because it seemed to gloss over the point you just made
- a great one at that- "attitudes to money are varied, and the accumulation of
wealth ... is not everyone's goal."

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jteo
This time it's different..

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jpdus
changing the world instead of hitting the jackpot? Sounds like what business
majors are pretending too nowadays...

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kmfrk
The salary listings in <http://angel.co/jobs> are a decent way to get an
impression of the amount of money people are paid in the business. It's quite
high by my standards.

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funkah
130k for an entry-level product manager. Whew.

