
Want a job in Silicon Valley? - justinwi
http://hiring.customerdevlabs.com/work-in-silicon-valley/
======
ryanSrich
I used to really be attracted to SV. The companies, weather, opportunities;
all of it seemed great. Then I realized the living expenses, the government
regulations set forth by the state, and the overall smugness of some people
and it really turned me off.

Case in point. This websites says "work with the smartest people in the world"
as if SV has the highest concentration of intelligent people in the world and
as if that's even a measurable statistic.

~~~
binarycrusader
The living expenses are a real burden, and the average rental rates in the
core of the San Francisco Bay Area have increased ~20-30% over the last three
years.

They're building new apartments all around the bay now and the greedy realty
vultures somehow think it's reasonable to charge as much as $3500-4000USD per
month for them (one and two bedrooms). That's easily a mortgage payment on a
brand new home out here.

The older apartment complexes have seen this and have been raising their rates
as well (the monthly market rate on my apartment went from $2150 USD to $2750
USD in the last six months I've lived there even though it's in the south bay
area).

The worst part of all of this is the realization that I'll likely never be
able to afford a home out here (median house price is currently ~$500K USD):
[http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23249121/bay-area-
med...](http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_23249121/bay-area-median-home-
price-soars-april)

~~~
lquist
Yeah, shame on the greedy realty vultures for charging what the market will
bear. </sarcasm>

~~~
jerrya
Funny, you should read Adam Smith's opinion of landlords:

<http://geolib.com/smith.adam/won1-11.html>

or quoting from mises.org(!)

 _Smith was even less kindly to the role of landlords, where he recognized no
economic function whatever that they might perform. In pungent passages, he
writes that 'As soon as the land of any country has all become private
property, the landlords like to reap where they never sowed and demand a rent
even for its natural produce'. And again: 'as soon as the land becomes private
property, the landlord demands a share of almost all the produce which the
labourer can either raise or collect from it'._

------
Glyptodon
I would love a better job, but when it comes to the Bay Area I have a really
hard time with:

1\. Housing costs (too expensive)

2\. Transportation time / locality (takes too long to get elsewhere in the Bay
Area, probably can't live near the job because of #1)

3\. Climate - San Fran is rather cold nearly all year round.

4\. Because of 1 and 2 likely would not have a garage or space to do projects
in.

5\. Sometimes things seem rather legally onerous in CA/Bay Area.

6\. Regional tunnel vision. When I lived in Northern California I got sick of
hearing how it was 'the best place on Earth.'

~~~
scarmig
re:6

Isn't it?

I kid, I kid. Mostly. But the revealed preferences of where people choose to
move and at what price does say a lot about places. Most people, given a
choice of buying a nice house in Fargo or Macon for $150k or a nice house in
San Francisco or Palo Alto for $150k, probably will go for the latter.

~~~
Glyptodon
Until they realize their $150k in SF or PA bought a 11'x11' one room shed with
no bathroom or driveway anyhow.

~~~
scarmig
I think you overestimate how far $150k will go in SF ;)

The point is about what people are willing to pay to live in an area, though.
The fact that people are willing to pay so much more to live in the Bay Area
is revealing.

------
bjpcjp
I live in Austin. Same concentration of crazy smart people, only with less
attitude. Did I mention that you can actually buy a house here? With a chance
of paying it off? And a 25 minute commute?

THIS is why 1 of every 50 cars in Austin has a California license plate.

EDIT: there's less access to VC money here. But that doesn't seem to be
stopping people.

~~~
fistofjohnwayne
I think it would be good for you to realize that what gives your life
fulfillment (mortgages, shorter average commutes than SF) might not mean
anything to other people.

~~~
bjpcjp
I do - an excellent point. Don't get me wrong, I love coming out there to
visit. (Especially in June/July/August.) But the cost/benefit seems way out of
whack unless you've already done a startup & have an inside straight to more
startup $, or already have family in the area.

It's not just me: [http://www.quora.com/Silicon-Valley/Whats-the-dark-side-
of-S...](http://www.quora.com/Silicon-Valley/Whats-the-dark-side-of-Silicon-
Valley)

------
NDizzle
I mean this in the nicest way possible - not as a troll.

The site needs checkboxes for 'are you young and innocent' and 'are you single
and/or do you not care about your family and personal free time'

Those are two huge requirements for most companies out here, but they can't
admit this kind of stuff by law.

~~~
johnjlocke
Amen brother. As a wise man once said, it's not what you earn, it's what you
keep.

------
codex_irl
I currently work from home and am interested in a new job in SV, however all
of the companies I have spoken with will not allow me to telecommute 2-3 days
per week.

I don't see any reason why I need to give up 2 hours of my day traveling to /
from work on the days when I need to work exclusively on coding.

So I'll stay where I am.

------
blhack
I don't _terribly_ want to move to SV, but I am a bit curious what this will
return.

Sorry if I'm wasting your time customerdevlabs! I mostly signed up out of
curiosity.

Obviously, though, if you want to pay me $150k/year, give me 3 months of
vacation, let me telecommute 2/5 days, pay my moving expenses, and give me fun
problems, I will move tomorrow.

~~~
justinwi
The only thing SV doesn't offer is 3 months of vacation - unlimited vacation
on the other hand is fairly popular: [http://www.quora.com/Startups/Which-
companies-have-an-unlimi...](http://www.quora.com/Startups/Which-companies-
have-an-unlimited-vacation-policy)

There's a war on for talent now. Be careful what you wish for.

~~~
potatolicious
"Unlimited vacation" is also grossly misleading in SV though. I have seen
_very, very_ few companies that _actually_ live up to their own hype about
encouraging employees to take off as much time as they need.

More often than not, in SV at least, "unlimited vacation" policies is really
just code for "don't take any". The small print is also "if you really do take
a lot of time off, even if you're great, you don't belong in our Red-Bull-
shotgunning startupy experience".

~~~
johnjlocke
It's the present day version of machismo.

------
hkarthik
The housing situation in the Bay Area is a real mess. That's the reason so few
experienced engineers are willing to pack up and move there.

It's surprising to me that despite being so innovative and forward thinking,
startups and companies in the Bay Area aren't realizing they have to accept
this as a constraint and start hiring remotely and find ways to make it work.

Yes, it's sub-optimal to have a remote team in many ways when you're in the
early stages. But you have to balance that against fighting for every new hire
and then trying to avoid watching them get poached by the newly funded startup
across the street. If I were starting a company in SF, this would be a major
distraction and something I'd want to avoid at any cost.

~~~
johnjlocke
You hit the nail on the head. It kills me how much technology we have yet
working with a remote team isn't even something a lot of top design teams will
even consider. We have video conferencing in our pockets, but nope, gotta
drive 3 hours (or more) every day in order to produce good design. It's
baffling.

------
cjwake
Interesting proposition. Seems like a no brainer given the dynamic of things
today — the biggest problem is connecting the right candidate with the right
opportunity, and half the time it's an awareness problem whereby the right
candidate isn't aware of the opportunity b/c they don't sit in the bay area to
hear about things through traditional channels.

~~~
thaumasiotes
I sit in the bay area. I hear about nothing. This site assumes that "I want a
job in SV" necessarily entails "I don't already live there". Could I, already
having a job there, try to find a different one via this site?

~~~
justinwi
absolutely! If you're already here you're in even higher demand. Please send
your details via the form or email me at justin at link's domain.

------
seanconaty
Does this remind anyone one else of the Grapes of Wrath?

------
donretag
Want a job in Silicon Valley?

NO.

You should never lead off with an open-ended question. And I seriously do not
want a job in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't stop the recruiters from
contacting me. If a developer with tons of experience hasn't worked in SV by
now, they probably never will.

~~~
acjohnson55
I think you proved the usefulness of the open-ended question: filtering out
people like yourself, who clearly aren't interested.

------
EternalFury
I have been here for the past 13 years. The cost of living has risen so much
that I am considering a relocation. Housing prices are insane, pretty much
every else is more expensive than anywhere else too. The traffic is now back
to .com-boom levels and highways are constantly congested.

If you are young (20-30), single, and are willing to have roommates to group
up into some apartment, then SV may be an adventure for you. However, as you
grow in life, you will need a pretty high level of income to feel secure in
this environment.

Start-ups would be better off setting up shop in underdeveloped parts of the
country, however, as the cost of labour here puts a serious overhead over any
fledgling company.

------
mindcrime
Forget Silicon Valley, move to the Research Triangle Park area. We have great
weather, a burgeoning startup scene, great food, good public schools, great
universities, "day trip" access to both the mountains and the beach,
reasonable cost of living, a decent (but not spectacular) live music scene,
and the largest research park in the world[1].

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle_Park>

~~~
EternalFury
Any site to get jobs there?

~~~
mindcrime
Here's one listing of some local startups who are hiring:

[http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/content/job+board/1604...](http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/content/job+board/16048)

Also, there is a "Tech Jobs Under The Big Top" job fair that is held
periodically at the American Underground in Durham, where startups pitch
prospects to come work for them. There was just one in April, not sure when
the next one is. But check <http://bigtop.it> for more info.

------
PeterisP
Why do you want to move people physically there? I could work there, but I can
afford to choose and I don't want to move my family out, it's not worth it.

------
conductr
Taking a cue from another post currently on the front page;
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5799838>

If you live in the future, want a job in Austin?

~~~
wyclif
I love Austin! Vastly prefer it to the Bay Area for a number of reasons.

------
catkin
This is actually remarkably similar to the Silicon Valley Internship Programme
(<http://www.siliconvalleyinternship.com>) except that SVIP targets itself
towards British CS/SE grads specifically.

------
makerops
According to some random cost of living calculator I just pulled up on google,
I would need 150,000$ to live in SF based on my current salary, and that is a
lateral move, are there dev jobs paying 2-300k in SV?

~~~
potatolicious
Yes. If your'e senior enough and are in a vertical that's in-demand enough,
$200-300K is possible.

That being said, don't trust cost of living calculators, they are full of
crap. Go on Padmapper and _really_ scope out the cost of housing in your area.
If you really are thinking about it, fly there and look at the actual costs of
things.

Taking the mean/median of anything when it comes to cost of living just means
you have a systemic way of calculating a number that has no relevance to
reality.

------
hayksaakian
The OP is implying that there are an adequate number of qualified 'business
people' and they just want hires that will do the dirty work.

~~~
justinwi
There are an adequate number of funded startups that want devs/designers to
help build their empires.

<https://angel.co/jobs>

------
fm1102
Does the "fly you here" idea apply to candidates on different continents?

~~~
justinwi
Absolutely.

------
acjohnson55
Cool idea. Make one for NYC!

------
Matt_Mickiewicz
Interesting arbitrage...

------
mgarfias
No.

------
michaelochurch
Inspired by this, I think I came upon a startup idea that could actually work.

I'm probably not to pursue it (my job search is going really well and I'll
probably take something else) but anyone who's interested can reach out. I'm
not afraid to share the idea.

