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Best LCOL or MCOL city?
Senior Front End Dev in the Phoenix area, 5 YoE as a dev, 5 YoE as a designer, TC ~$95k. Thinking about moving my family to Seattle for more opportunities. I have 2 kids, a wife, a dog and a cat. My one-way commute is about 45 minutes. We have Amazon, PayPal, GoDaddy, Intel, Carvana, etc here, but I'm concerned WLB will be significantly impacted for a small increase in TC. I've interviewed at a few places around here and gotten offers much higher than mine, but WLB and benefits were worse than my current employer. Carvana looks interesting, but I'd like to move into full stack and I don't want to be a .NET developer (which most of the higher paying companies in AZ are .NET shops). Seems like I'm already pretty close to capping out on TC in my area unless I go to Amazon (and that's about the last place I want to work) or move to management. Anyone from the area that's moved to Seattle from Phoenix or vice versa? Anyone in the area that knows about opportunities I don't? Thoughts?
What’s Seattle TC
What culture do you prefer? Seattlites are outdoorsy but a bit introverted and reserved. Even if you get a good support network, lack of sun is real and SAD is real. However, it's nice not owning a car and having a bunch of medium to high TC tech companies. I've never been to Arizona but if it's anything like the rest of the southwest: friendly tan people who like to socialize outside of work and have other priorities besides tech and TC, I would stay in Phoenix unless you really are looking to up your career.
It rains 64 days a year here on average. I'm sure less than half of those are during the day, when we'd actually see it. I was born and raised in AZ and LOVE the rain, as most natives do. It'd be a nice change. I'd say it depends on your age and where you work. I have some good friends I've made from work but we all have families and rarely socialize outside work. The younger guys have more time to socialize with coworkers. Most places I've worked, the culture is more about getting your work done and going home, no one really cares to make friends. Generally, not a lot of people tend to make their work and TC a way of life, most companies I've worked at, the engineers have been there for 4+ years. My biggest concern is affording a similar quality of life and having a WLB that allows me to still spend quality time with my kids. That said, I want a sense of purpose from my work and to feel like I'm being compensated fairly vs peers. I'm not the type of person to do the bare minimum to scrape by, but it seems like my efforts, while appreciated, don't afford me any real rewards. There's little room for me to grow anymore and even if I move to a new company, it seems the payoff would be minimal.
Seattle is cloudy with light showers and mist in the morning and evening from like October to March. I know it really bothers some. I’m an outdoorsy person so I always had a good time in the mountains rain or shine and it never bothered me. Some people just can’t stand it though.
I left AZ for FAANG and it worked out, but cost of living adjustment was rough at first
Can you elaborate a bit more? Did you move to Seattle or SF?
I went from Mesa with TC of ~80k to Bay Area (South Bay) with TC of ~155k and it felt like below poverty compared to the lifestyle we had in AZ
Move if you have an offer, no point otherwise
Definitely. I wouldn't move my family without already having a job and decided we truly like the area.
Completely different cultures and weather. Visit once or twice - ideally at least once during the winter - before making a decision to move.
Definitely intend to visit. We have some friends up there but they don't work in tech, so it's hard to compare CoL to them. Portland was another place we had thought about but, while housing is more affordable, it doesn't seem like my salary would go up much, so the cost difference would be greater.
With your YoE you might be able to get a remote job from a west coast tech company. You can usually talk them up to a good TC with negotiations. It won’t be Seattle TC but it will be way more than AZ TC.
Hmm... Any suggestions of places to look at? Gitlab is the only one I know of that seems to pay more than a job I could get locally. Most remote positions pay less or about equal from what I've seen 😟
Yeah AZ sucks... and everyone that I’ve worked with is complacent AF. I love Seattle, and I’m sure your kids will appreciate it when they’re older.
LOL, good to know it's no better at Carvana. I interviewed over there last year but decided to back out because I just wasn't feeling it then. I've been contacted by recruiters a few times since and the opportunity has intrigued me, but I'm still hesitant. I don't know that I really want to join Amazon and the other options aren't very enticing 😔
Move