Ask HN: How Is the job scene for Software Engineers in Florida? - sbmthakur
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davismwfl
I am in Florida, and pretty familiar with the market. Like anyplace, it
depends on where you are at in the state. Overall there are plenty of jobs,
some places just have more and pay better than other areas.

Tampa area has a good number of jobs usually but is also a little depressed
salary wise.

Jacksonville is pretty solid, but skews towards Microsoft/.NET people, but not
excessively. Pay is usually really solid, and startup scene is good. Larger
employers are banks, and JM Family.

Central Florida (excluding Tampa), so basically Orlando East to Volusia and
Brevard Counties is pretty solid as well. More defense contractors in this
area, pay is decent for the low cost of living. There are also a decent &
growing amount of space based positions popping up. They use to be huge, but
it died down for about 10 years but has started picking back up. Startup scene
is pretty good, and growing.

East South Florida (Ft Lauderdale - Miami) is solid and growing all the time.
Pay is good and again cost of living isn't crazy for being a known city.
Startup is growing more and more with a few good successes in the past few
years.

South West Florida - Ft Myers area, I rarely see anything advertised down in
that area but there are some larger enterprise employers.

Key in Florida is you don't find a ton of tech only companies, usually it is
businesses trying to solve problems not invent new tech. That said, there are
a number of name brand tech companies in the Orlando and Miami area. Miami and
Jacksonville are the best overall for startup environment with Orlando and
Tampa respectively.

There are some other areas like Gainesville which kinda falls into the Central
Florida category. The panhandle outside of Jacksonville is kinda weak except
for state government from what I have seen.

~~~
catacombs
> Pay is good and again cost of living isn't crazy for being a known city.

The Miami metro area has one of the most expensive housing and rental markets
in the country.

In addition to that, Miami has awful traffic. If OP, or anyone for that
matter, plans to live there, make sure you have a good car and be prepared to
sit in traffic for hours.

The city does have it's high points -- food, culture, beaches \-- but at what
cost? A four-hour commute roundtrip to bum-fuck Kendall? No thanks.

~~~
davismwfl
I don't know where you get your data but I can't say I agree. Having owned
real estate in South Florida and having many jobs there over the years I don't
agree overall with what you are saying. Except we agree, the culture and
beaches are definitely a high point.

In real estate terms the median home price is ~$400k (in 2019), of course
there are choices in life. If you chose to live on South Beach or Key Biscayne
etc you'll pay a lot more to live there. Likewise, if you chose to move up
into Wellington or parts of palm beach you'd could easily spend in the 7
figures for housing, but that is not where most working middle to upper middle
class people live, so not sure it is relevant. I have been involved in a lot
of real estate in South Florida, it can be expensive but it definitely isn't
one of the most expensive in the Country on a median basis. Specific sub
sections of the state do have some of the highest price real estate in the
nation, but again, not relevant for the average job seeker.

As well, if you compare San Francisco to Miami, you can earn significantly
less in Miami to live a more comfortable life.

Traffic in South Florida can be a bitch, but compared to most major cities it
isn't horrid. It doesn't rank in the top 10 for bad traffic nationwide. So
yea, for Floridians that have been here for a long time the traffic sucks and
is a constant source of pain. But for someone moving from Boston, LA, Chicago,
NYC, SF etc it is not as bad. The one thing that drives me the most nuts in
regards to traffic is still the lack of good solid public transportation
options, that is something I'd love to see increased across the state -- and
it is happening just so damn slow.

Everything is relative of course.

