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hey guys/gals, I am in the process of packin up my stuff and moving to san francisco from houston. this decision is based on my skill set, mind set, and perception of the area as "the place to be" given my aspirations. the issue is that everything (listed below) about this situation is new to me and, so, am looking for answers. -i know absolutely nothing about san francisco (where to live? how to find a job? etc.) -i need a job (ideally as a developer/engineer), my skills would be best utilized in a start-up but will settle for anything just to make this move happen and not have to sleep on the streets for awhile (although, if it is streets or not moving, id take the street) -what kind of salary range should i aim for that would allow me to live somewhere relatively close (can get there without driving) to the relevant community, high and low estimations would be lovely -and anything else you guys feel like adding, everything is/will be greatly appreciated oh and it may be useful for context to mention that i am 28 and do not have a wife/fam/girl friend/whatev alright guys, thanks for anything and everything and wish me luck,
philip rea |
As far as working at a startup, don't worry. If you're halfway decent, people will be falling over themselves to hire you. Of course some skills will stand you in better stead than others; a GitHub full of Ruby/Python/Javascript is a lot more attractive in SF than a resume full of C# jobs.
The real worry right now is housing. You state that you'd like a convenient place to live. Given that a great many startups these days are in San Francisco, that means paying SF rents, or sacrificing convenience. You can afford SF rents by taking a roommate and living cheaply for surprisingly little - I know people doing it on $50-60K, but they have partners who earn significantly more.
If you want to do it solo, shoot for at least $130K or above. You're in a fiercely competitive rental market, and as someone without friends or connections should expect to pay $2-5k/mo just on rent, depending on your area. If that sounds extravagant, consider the numbers. At the high end of the range (and that's something like a good-sized one-bedroom apartment in SOMA), you're potentially spending $60K per year just on housing, in one of the highest-tax areas of the country.
The good news is that, if you're halfway decent, that's a very achievable salary. If you're good, you can earn far more, but generally that requires moving south.
As far as finding friends and jobs, I had good luck hanging out at hacker spaces like Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, Noisebridge in SF, Sudo Room in Oakland, and a host of others. You'll find like-minded friends, housing connections, and jobs there. Programming meetups are a great way to connect professionally. Dolores Park in the Mission is a glorious place to spend the spring and summer, and it's always full of people on nice days.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that my company is hiring for Android, iOS, and JVM/Python backend roles - if that's up your alley, we'd love to talk to you, my username at Google's fine webmail service.