[tmccrmck]

I've always been confused as to why Chicago isn't more of a tech hub. Great city, great people, cheap housing, good transportation (by US standards), good schools, etc.

Are the Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offices engineering offices? I know that the Microsoft one is not.

[closeparen]

When I looked, Chicago had:

- Cost center IT departments for the healthcare and insurance sectors out in the exurbs (presumably low respect and high risk of outsourcing).

- Quant trading for the commodities market downtown (and really nothing else, unless finance is your cup of tea).

I'd love to work for a SV-style technology company in Chicago.

[wenc]

I don't think there is an SV-style company outside of SV because the SV ecosystem is not really replicable.

That said, Chicago has quite a few non-finance tech companies: - Vividseats - Grubhub - Spothero - Sproutsocial - Uptake - Orbitz - HERE technologies - Trunk Club

There are a myriad of smaller startup companies you've never heard of, as well as traditional corporate types like IBM, etc.

[wenc]

You know what, I'm not sure. I just a did a quick google, and Amazon is hiring a lot of architects and consultants but no open SDE positions. Google has SDE positions open.

A lot of the tech folks here work for financial companies.