Is Austin’s tech scene that great?

Mar 12, 2021 34 Comments

I’ve been searching for a new job and looked at Austin and did some research. What’s the appeal? Are there that many tech jobs there?

From what I’ve seen you have a couple big players remote offices (Apple, Amazon , Facebook) . Most aren’t huge. The big players are really the only ones offering large salaries. The rest are very average / maybe slightly above average when compared to the rest of the country’s tech sector.

The rest of the tech jobs/companies looked very “meh”. And that’s not to insult Austin’s scene. It’s more a comparison to other medium sized tech cities . Austin didn’t seem all that much better when it really came down to number of opportunities.

Am I missing something here in regards to Austin?

(Not a shit post on Austin. I just would like to know what everyone else sees as far as career growth and opportunities in Austin)

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TOP 34 Comments
  • Amazon / Eng
    eos$block

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    eos$block
    It’s overrated, believe me. Decent numbers of jobs are there but the majority of them are really not that good.

    Back in the days we had few unicorns startups and VC scene was very active and they started calling Austin as the Silicon Hills. But most of them had bad exits, notables VCs also left the scene as well.

    In a nutshell- if you are making less than $200k and having hard time to maintain a decent quality of life - Austin is for you.

    But if you are making more than $200k, want to continue working on interesting projects, looking for future growth - stay away from Austin. Once you cross 250-300k mark, your options will get very very limited.

    Bay Area, Seattle, NYC, even LA - much better options if you are good at what you do.
    Mar 12, 2021 4
    • I think that’s a fair assessment. There are really only like 5 companies here that can pay 300+, and probably 20 that can pay 200+. But if you can grab one of those spots, it’s pretty sweet given that a new 3000sq ft house goes for 500k. COL and lifestyle can be very good here, but it’s less interesting if you’re looking for cutting edge tech. That’s starting to change post-covid though with more companies going remote
      Mar 12, 2021
    • Amazon / Eng
      eos$block

      Go to company page Amazon Eng

      eos$block
      @salesforce - it’s a good problem to have, specially when you consider age

      I’m < 40, TC: 430k+ and I don’t give a shit to FIRE. I want to work as long as I can but I don’t see many options in front of me after I just promoted to L7

      Also, I hate long term remote
      Mar 12, 2021
  • I recently moved from Bay Area to Austin - almost 60% companies I interviewed with are allowing remote work Post COVID era as well. I have spoken to unicorns such as Brex, Stripe, Robinhood, Plaid, Instacart, mid-sized ones such as SumoLogic, Zillow, Dropbox etc and big companies like Facebook are allowing remote/ increasing footprint in Austin as well. My husband and I really like it here - yes you have to be okay with permanent remote work but it will really save you a lot of money. All of them offered not more than 10 percent pay cut from Bay Area - some just cut base by 10 percent but kept stocks same. Negotiate well with multiple offers. I always first get offer for Bay Area and then say I am willing to sign it if you give me the same in Austin. Lot of them agreed with minimal pay cut. I got 400k plus offers with 8years work ex plus 2 years masters. Some are almost 500k
    Mar 12, 2021 7
  • Probably less than 25% of total tech jobs available in the Bay Area, no where close to being a tech hub
    Mar 12, 2021 8
  • New
    hugh jarse

    New

    hugh jarse
    you’re not missing anything except the hype train
    Mar 12, 2021 0
  • As long as you prepared with the heat, allergies and boring
    Mar 12, 2021 0