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.

Comments

Cost of Living Tradeoffs

[Fire_Wraith]

When you're fresh out of college, cost of living really isn't on your mind, or at least it wasn't for me. I wanted to live in the area where I knew there were all the things I wanted, from food to entertainment to job opportunities. Fast forward a bit, and I realized that the area I was in was ridiculously expensive for no good reason, had insane traffic that would never get better, and that I could get 90-95% of the things I wanted in a far, far cheaper area, cutting my housing costs all but in half.

It should be no surprise that the older people get, the less they're willing to put up with the kind of things you have to suffer through in the SF Bay area. Living 4 to an apartment is fine in your early 20s, but when you get older, you want a place of your own, nevermind the space to have a family.

Re:Cost of Living Tradeoffs

[drinkypoo]

Thing is, these companies don't want to hire anyone over thirty anyway. So really, it makes sense for them to stay in expensive places that adults want to move away from.

Re:Cost of Living Tradeoffs

[Drethon]

Thing is, these companies don't want to hire anyone over thirty anyway. So really, it makes sense for them to stay in expensive places that adults want to move away from.

Probably explains why so many startups struggle to profit. Their workers don't have the experience to tell the non-technical entrepreneur they are an idiot.

Re:Cost of Living Tradeoffs

[TheGratefulNet]

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.

Re:Cost of Living Tradeoffs

[drinkypoo]

The young complain that everyone wants experience. The old complain they only hire the young.

End result, they hire young liars.

The execs says nobody tells them anything and the workers say nobody listens to them.

Nobody wastes their time telling execs anything if they don't listen to workers. I've talked to an exec before and had good results. I've also talked to an exec and essentially been told to fuck off about six months before the company folded and proved me right — apparently he was in on the scam. He got his final paycheck, and I (along with most others) didn't, so that backs that up pretty solidly. I've been ignored more than listened to, though.

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.

And yet, both things are true. There's no conflict there at all.

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.

The truth is that those job requirements are designed to disqualify everyone who is not a H1B who can be treated like a slave.

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.

The fact is that a tiny percentage of the population holds the vast majority of the wealth, and they are not spending it. If they were, the rest of us would have money, because it's the "little people" at the bottom who have to act in order to make things happen. We need to take steps to force them to spend their money, and not just by shuffling it around between corporations that they (or their cronies) control.