- Remote-- We've moved out of the bay area and it would take a lot to move back. It's stupidly expensive, dirty, unsafe, and not diverse at all. Let alone the time and money saved by not commuting is significant.
- Compensation. People love to harp on good comp for engineers until they realize how much execs make. I'll deliver excellent value if compensated appropriately.
- Work life balance. It's good if people are working hard but the key is "balance". Being constantly stressed out grinds you to the bone, kills morale, and breeds a cutthroat culture.
- Team expertise-- I prefer to work on a small team with highly experienced engineers vs. a large team w/ enormous numbers of juniors. It typically means we can be very strategic on what exactly to work on vs. building a ton of unmaintainable bloat.
- Team/Manager culture-- Again, cuthroat is a no-no. I like to collaborate with others on a team. If I'm having to watch my back or I'm on a team w/ stack ranking where everyone's clawing over each other to not end up on the bottom then everyone who's able to will leave at the first opportunity.
Only thought I have - the Bay Area is a very large place both population and footprint wise. If it doesn’t “seem diverse at all” that’s probably more a reflection of where one is within the Bay Area rather than the place itself.
Portland area-- my partner was up there already and although COL is not drastically lower we've enjoyed living in that area (not downtown for the same reasons we disliked SF).
- Compensation. People love to harp on good comp for engineers until they realize how much execs make. I'll deliver excellent value if compensated appropriately. - Work life balance. It's good if people are working hard but the key is "balance". Being constantly stressed out grinds you to the bone, kills morale, and breeds a cutthroat culture.
- Team expertise-- I prefer to work on a small team with highly experienced engineers vs. a large team w/ enormous numbers of juniors. It typically means we can be very strategic on what exactly to work on vs. building a ton of unmaintainable bloat.
- Team/Manager culture-- Again, cuthroat is a no-no. I like to collaborate with others on a team. If I'm having to watch my back or I'm on a team w/ stack ranking where everyone's clawing over each other to not end up on the bottom then everyone who's able to will leave at the first opportunity.