Ask HN: Should I move out West? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I move out West?

4 pointszaq1235 comments

I live on the East Coast, near Washington, DC to be precise. I work in a typical programming job out here; which is to say that I work for a firm that works on security conscious contracts for the government. I work for an atypical employer; we are not very big, and I've come to love the idea of the small company. We always have a hard problem to solve given the constraints (on limited hardware, and even specific versions of software) but lately it really hasn't been enough to keep me interested. I fell in love with Linux in the late nineties, followed by Python in the early 2000s, and thankfully I still get to use both professionally today. But the programming problems of the government get boring fast and I think I've hit my limit.

I'm feeling stagnant.

As a long time participant in HN, I feel like I'm living on the outside of a world of awesome. This world provides a virtual porthole with which I am able to peer inside. As a Mid-Atlantic voyeur, I get to read about so many interesting startups and small companies that are all working on the cutting edge. Live or die, they all get to have fun doing it. I envy this.

I seem to be locationally challenged. I'm contemplating a move.

Is the West Coast still the place? By the numbers, of course it is. But since I don't live there, I don't get a feel for the situation on the ground. Is the West Coast going to be The Place for some time to come?

If so, it's at the top of my list. If not, where should I go?

If the West Coast is still teh hotness, where specifically? I'm drawn by the awesome weather of San Diego, but it seems like everyone has set up camp outside of San Francisco.

As someone who worked in the Boston area for a dozen years starting in 1980 and then moved to the D.C. area for a dozen years, I can tell you that D.C. is indeed not the place you want to be, especially after the telecom crash early last decade which zapped a whole swath of interesting jobs.

As far as I can tell Silicon Valley, not "the West Coast", has been the place to be, probably tracking the development of the single die microprocessor (although there are many other reasons, and some clear reasons why e.g. Route 128 all but died by the early '90s).

If I were you I'd get enough money in the bank to cover the usual contingencies and then move to SV.

The one exception is if you have a serious clearance. Ignoring for the moment that SV is reputed to be particularly bad when it comes to age discrimination, if you're approaching the 35-40 year old range and can't hide that and you want to continue programming, you need to be thinking really hard about how you'll do that. As far as I can tell, the three best ways normal mortals can are by holding a serious clearance, getting into the embedded field, or going into multi-client consulting.

But if you're somewhat before that age range, now could be a good time to try out the startup scene in SV.

Very interesting insight, thank you. I had no idea that age discrimination was a big deal there. I am younger than 35, and I won't go into clearances, so it seems like I can get by.

My current plan is to take some trips to visit the area and see if it's a good fit. Ideally I guess I would get some company to finance that in trade for a job interview.

Yes. If you want to do tech, you want to be in the Bay Area.

However, rather than just blindly moving out West and hoping you'll find a job, I'd recommend that you apply to a bunch of jobs at the big tech companies out here (Google, Microsoft, Oracle, O'Reilly, etc.) Many of them are hiring right now, and if they like you, they may pay your moving costs. It's also much easier relocating when you have a large corporation with an organized HR department helping you. And you'll have a built-in social network through coworkers and their friends, instead of having to build up your network from scratch.

Then, when you've been out here for a couple of years and have a sense of what's going on and who you'd like to work with, you can look at jumping into or founding a startup.

Good point about how to move. I had already planned to try to visit friends and possibly arrange interviews around the same time. There was no chance that I would move without a job lined up.

The companies you mention sound a little soul sucking to me though (well maybe not O'Reilly). Is that the only way to get in to the club?

yes. i moved from dc to sf. different climate in many ways especially if you're interested in startups and tech.

Like my mom said, you are who you associate with.

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