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Tech Workers Think Silicon Valley and Startups Are Losing Their Luster (qz.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Quartz report: The job site Indeed.com found Silicon Valley's hold on tech workers is slipping as opportunities, and the cost of living, changes the equation for living and working in one of the priciest places in the country. "There is more opportunity for tech professionals in more places than ever before," wrote Terence Chiu, vice president of Indeed Prime by email, citing cities such as Austin, Boston, Seattle, and New York City. "Obviously the San Francisco Bay remains the largest tech hub [but] what has made it so attractive has also made it expensive." Indeed's most recent survey of professional tech workers found more than 66% of tech workers say living and working in Silicon Valley is either "not that important" or "not at all important" for a career in technology. Just 12% consider it "very important." Opinions were split on generational lines. About half of millennial tech workers say it's important (26.5%) or very important (19%), but the number declined to 10.2% among the Boomer generation. "Seasoned talent is often searching for opportunity elsewhere," stated the report. New employees may see the high cost of living as an acceptable tradeoff for building up a reputation and experience in the Bay Area, but that seems to fade over time.Recently, Google co-founder Sergey Brin advised people to not come to Silicon Valley to start a business for the very same reasons.
If we used the same inflation metric as back in the 1970s and 1980s we'd still be officially in a recession - since 2006. And if you look at the stock market and correct for the 70s/80s inflation metric, you'd see it's basically flat since 2007 as well. We're "doing well" in the stock simply because of the massive influx of cash from the Federal Reserve, and it's papered over as "good" by fudging the inflation and unemployment numbers.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Fudge inflation numbers (artificially calculate them as low - like we're doing relative to the 1980 metric) and the GDP will rise. Inflation factors in to the nominal GDP, and understating inflation will cause the nominal GDP to overstated.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Yep! I know this might come across as a "slam" against younger workers -- but I agree without meaning it that way.
Younger I.T. workers bring a lot of things to the table, but a rich experience working with older technologies is not typically one of them. I see a lot of "re-inventing the wheel" going on with new web-based services many startups keep trying to launch. Sometimes they're a success, but a lot of older people in I.T. look at the stuff and just shake our heads. We've seen other ways the same thing has been implemented before, and can't see why it's worth all that money to rehash it with a pretty new web front-end.
I deal with this all the time with supporting a lot of younger professionals in marketing and creative work. They're always struggling to figure out ways to get very large files transferred to clients, when the attachments are too big to email. They resort to paid web services that aren't all that reliable, and then we field dozens of support tickets asking why someone can't get a download to start when they click the link, or why they were never emailed the invite to get the file.... on and on. All along, we had a secure FTP server set up which gets the job done quickly and reliably. But it's a battle to convince them that the person on the other side really *can* install a free FTP client easily and successfully log in to grab the needed files.
Almost every time we get that process going though? Everyone involved loves it and there's no more heartburn about getting files to or from that client. Whaddya know? Sometimes the decades old solution still works the best!
no one listens to 'workers'. the execs are full of ego and can do no wrong.
what they all have gotton used to: hiring a bunch of chair-warmers who are almost universally from south east asia, h1b mostly, and all are young. the exact formula for 'dont make waves, dont challenge the boss'.
the bosses are not used to hearing anyone voice opinions! we have the worst engineering now, walking the hallways of cisco, intel, you name it. they hire 'to a price' and you get monkeys if you pay peanuts.
they go out of their way to hire 'diversity' but that means NOT hiring the real minority, the US-born person who is over 35 and HAS the experience.
silicon valley is a sweatshop, becoming more like what we had 100 years ago when the US finally got fed up and 'did the union thing'. that changed history. things got better for a while.
now, they're back to being company-owned - the world, that is. people don't matter. companies do. and you just better do what you are told. there are 1000 more indians waiting to take your job, here or elsewhere, if you dare say 'no' to a boss.
similarly, raise issues of safety or product design and you won't be continuing there much longer (personal experience on that one).
fuck sillicon valley. it stopped being a place of innovation when it became a place to concentrate chair-sitters from across the world. quantity is all that matters. do we have 'body count'? did we save a lot on it? then we're good (that's how they think).
if you are young, sure, come here. but you won't be able to stay long-term. just be aware of that. and be aware of the fact that companies laugh behind your back when you are gullible enough to believe this 'loyalty' shit they want you to swallow. don't believe it, though. eventually YOU will be replace by someone even cheaper. my years are numbered, but then again, so are yours.
no one is safe in the bay area, job-wise. it stinks here.
love the weather and the culture (well, the old culture, that some people still remember). but the days of the 'hp garage' is long gone. now, its stupid social bullshit, twits and disgracebook lead the pack. ie, no product at all, just hot air and advertising.
The young complain that everyone wants experience. The old complain they only hire the young.
The execs says nobody tells them anything and the workers say nobody listens to them.
US workers say H1Bs are undercutting them. H1Bs says the enormous cost and complications of the H1Bs gets them stuck in undesirable low-paying jobs.
The white guys say minorities and women are being preferred for diversity. Minorities and women complain that they have no connections and no way to even get into jobs.
My point is that it's hard for everyone and everyone faces unique challenges. Nobody has it easy. Let's figure out how to get what we want out of life rather than blaming everyone else for why we are not getting what we want.