Most of these telco comps aren’t headquartered in the Bay Area or Seattle, which I think influences significantly lower TC. I’m currently located in Dallas. For you non-Bay Area/Seattle ppl what are your thoughts on moving to these higher COL locations? Do you think it’s ultimately worth it? I have a family and moving to these locations would be a big change for them as well, so I really only want to move/leetcode/interview if the pros significantly outweighs the cons. Btw if I were to move to Bay Area/ Seattle I wouldn’t necessarily apply to FAANG, would apply mostly I think to second tier companies that have better WLB. Given all of this, please vote your choice. TC: 135k
You need an absurd annual income to buy a house in the bay. Less than that means dealing with shitty landlords. “Cost of living” calculators fail because they don’t weight this high enough. https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18256378/tech-worker-afford-buy-homes-san-francisco-facebook-google-uber-lyft-housing-crisis-programmers
Move to Austin. You can get a significant TC bump with similar CoL to Dallas, depending on your YoE. Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are here which are all pushing the market up.
Austin is significantly more expensive than Dallas although still much cheaper than SF or Seattle.
Hotter housing market though
Seattle area has some of the best public schools in the country, so that might factor in. Real estate is expensive but there's a lot of range of options in the right school district for under $1M.
There is no TC that would get me to move to the Bay Area.
Bay area has got its share of beauty , things to do etc . But the people ( assuming you are in engineering ) are one of the most arrogant self centered ones that I have ever encountered. The home prices and what you get for that price are a joke. I mean both homes and rentals.
I think you should with some caveats: 1. Not everyone makes 350k in bay area, 🌲50 is just a blind meme. Get some offers BEFORE you move 2. Calculate your breakeven point. If rent goes up from $1500/month to 4000, you need an extra 40k or so pre-tax increase. So that’s 175k for you. To this add difference in the cost of schooling etc. Most people can easily get 200k TC in Bay, even at non-FANG 3. Does your partner work and can they find work quickly? Do they care about living in a large house? 4. You want some financial buffer/savings since moving is involved. You offers need to be liquid. Not 150k base + 150k paper money which may be worth nothing Overall I think if you’re swe, you’re underpaid enough at 135k that moving will make sense. Keep in mind you’ll need multiple offers to get offers above 200-220k TC unless you’re in ML or something. You don’t get that TC just by asking and saying “hey I’m moving to Ba with family and my living costs are going up..”
Grew up in the Seattle area and am still here. Not worth moving here unless you're making $400k+ (with a family), and that is a bare arse minimum, and even then you're only affording a modest home in decent area with a tolerable commute. Make too much less than that and you're living in sketch areas with terrible crowding and even worse commute.
Bay area not worth it if just a traditional telco background. Need to be able to transition that to something else (e.g. connected car, cloud systems, IoT). TMO and ATT have a presence in Seattle so that would be more in line, however Seattle is not for everyone with families. If you have kids, may be tough for them to integrate with the culture if all they know is TX. I've worked in both Dallas and Seattle as former telco. What do you do in with ATT right now?
Don’t move to Bay Area, not worth it!
Health & Wellness
Yesterday
2322
Guys who don’t work out: why?
India
Yesterday
624
Duniya me Vishwaguru ka Danka
Ask Blinders
Yesterday
1374
Top red flags in guy to see before saying yes to marriage (arranged)
2024 Presidential Election
2d
1849
If Trump wins the election again , will you cry?
Personal Finance
Yesterday
1304
Are we ready to buy our forever home?
Not worth it...135k in Dallas would be equivalent top making 200k with less living space