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Old 08-05-2013, 04:00 PM
 
7 posts, read 11,111 times
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I'm looking for an apartment in the general Bay Area. I was thinking about looking in San Francisco, but I'm not sure quite how the economy is there. I'm in the computer science/software field. I know there are software jobs in San Francisco, but it seems like there are twice as many down near San Jose. It's not clear to me that it's worth moving to San Francisco if the jobs prospects aren't as good. Is my understanding correct? I hear there is currently a lot of growth in San Francisco due to start ups.
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Old 08-05-2013, 04:28 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,906,783 times
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There are likely twice as many in Silicon Valley, but it really depends on what sort of living situation you like. There isn't anywhere with an urban lifestyle in San Jose and Silicon Valley (save a little bit in Downtown San Jose). It is also car-centric as well.

It depends on what you want, and what you will give up.
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Old 08-05-2013, 04:34 PM
 
10,920 posts, read 6,919,267 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408 View Post
There are likely twice as many in Silicon Valley, but it really depends on what sort of living situation you like. There isn't anywhere with an urban lifestyle in San Jose and Silicon Valley (save a little bit in Downtown San Jose). It is also car-centric as well.

It depends on what you want, and what you will give up.
^ This.

Also, it's worth mentioning that many people that work in the south bay/lower peninsula choose to live in the city (for the reasons Jade mentioned above) and commute by train/bus/car.

Many companies offer their own corporate shuttles that sport wi-fi and let workers count that time commuting as work. If I had a gig like that, I sure wouldn't mind the commute. And some employers will help pay for your transit through incentive programs (mine does).
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Old 08-05-2013, 07:13 PM
 
Location: East Bay, San Francisco Bay Area
23,563 posts, read 24,089,586 times
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Silicon Valley (San Jose and surrounding area) will have more open positions in software than SF does. But, San Jose is a very different living environment than SF is (spread out and car centric, as mentioned above). It really depends on what you are looking for in terms of living.
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Old 08-05-2013, 08:36 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
6,825 posts, read 9,068,781 times
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I worked in IT for 10 years including time at two startups that involved very long hours. I lived on the peninsula. I was in my 30's in a relationship. I came from Chicago so it was a bit of a shock to live in a small town 30 or so miles from San Francisco. I really did enjoy living there though once I got used to it.

If you like to have any kind of social life you will have a better time living in SF. However, you could end up working long hours and not getting home until very late at night. Maybe you'd have time to hit the neighborhood bar or grab something to eat. You can have a pretty good life on the peninsula or in San Jose but some folks find it boring down there. Keep in mind there are lots of startups in San Francisco so you may never have to go to the valley.

If you want to work for the big guys like Facebook, Google, Apple, Intel, Cisco, then living on the peninsula in Palo Alto or San Jose could be a good idea.
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Old 08-05-2013, 10:29 PM
 
Location: South Korea
5,242 posts, read 13,084,969 times
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Land the job first then worry about where you'll live.
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Old 08-06-2013, 01:01 AM
 
Location: the illegal immigrant state
767 posts, read 1,744,730 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pseudogrunt View Post
I'm looking for an apartment in the general Bay Area. I was thinking about looking in San Francisco, but I'm not sure quite how the economy is there. I'm in the computer science/software field. I know there are software jobs in San Francisco, but it seems like there are twice as many down near San Jose. It's not clear to me that it's worth moving to San Francisco if the jobs prospects aren't as good. Is my understanding correct? I hear there is currently a lot of growth in San Francisco due to start ups.
why do you want to move to the san francisco bay area?

you can find high tech work all over the USA now that so many tech firms have relocated or originated to cheaper cities

why here?
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Old 08-06-2013, 07:55 AM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
4,521 posts, read 4,052,732 times
Reputation: 3097
Quote:
Originally Posted by sjnative View Post
why do you want to move to the san francisco bay area?

you can find high tech work all over the USA now that so many tech firms have relocated or originated to cheaper cities

why here?
The bay area still has the best availability of jobs in certain niche's in tech. A lot of those other "tech" cities are nearly vacant in some niche's. So if you want a career in one of these niche's then you probably have to start in the bay area.
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