AvoidDebt Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Hi, Are there any techies out there who have either relocated or considered relocating to the US particulary the Silicon Valley area? - what are your thoughts? - how difficult is it to obtain a green card? - are there many jobs for experienced techies with good academic and commercial experience? - what are the salaries like? - living costs most importantly house prices? - best areas to live for families in terms of schools and commuting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son of Taeper Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Sure. I posted on a related thread only yesterday. You have to be talking California right? Large state. It's a bit like asking the going rate for any tech job in the UK, a hundred miles can throw the pay scale through the window ......or just trash it. Depends on your level though I guess. I would opt for Northern Spain or Southern Germany myself. Barcelona, Munich. You could just get out of engineering and move to Canada though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvoidDebt Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Was thinking about the Palo Alto, CA area. Monster throws up some interesting jobs for skilled developers and there's also some decent properties on Zillow. House Prices in Palo Alto are still inflated but there's some decent drops in surrounding suburbs. I've done Zurich before, loved it as a newly wed but too much of a mission with kids. Language is a tough barrier and the state schooling system wasn't too good. Most of the other Brits that I met there loved it thou. Coder at heart so its not something I would consider giving up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son of Taeper Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Was thinking about the Palo Alto, CA area. Monster throws up some interesting jobs for skilled developers and there's also some decent properties on Zillow. House Prices in Palo Alto are still inflated but there's some decent drops in surrounding suburbs. I've done Zurich before, loved it as a newly wed but too much of a mission with kids. Language is a tough barrier and the state schooling system wasn't too good. Most of the other Brits that I met there loved it thou. Coder at heart so its not something I would consider giving up! I knew what area you would be looking at before you mentioned it. Just trying to figure it wasn't a pipedream. Anyway, Cupertino was the area I was looking at which is about 5 miles from Palo Alto. I'm hardware so I need to be onsite mostly. By the way, I said Munich, not Zurich. I did the Zurich thing some years back around Lake Constance, Nice area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticus Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 > - what are your thoughts? Generally, its a 'grass is greener' situation. If you have issues finding well paid work, or if you have the luxury, interesting well paid work with good career prospects, then they are unlikely to be solved by moving to California. Of course, there are exceptions. > - how difficult is it to obtain a green card? Can't comment, but I'd guess that it has to do with how much companies over there want you. Which comes back to my previous point. > - are there many jobs for experienced techies with good academic and commercial experience? Sure yes, but there are also plenty of such jobs in the UK. > - what are the salaries like? Higher but > - living costs most importantly house prices? high, plus medical insurance etc. > - best areas to live for families in terms of schools and commuting? expensive. One trades off like one does with power, cost and clock speed. If you can't find a good computing or hardware job in the UK, then best to examine why that is rather than just thinking that its just because one is based in the UK. Ultimately what differentiates you from other UK techies. Or indeed any in Bangalore or Shenzen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swissy_fit Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 > - what are your thoughts? Generally, its a 'grass is greener' situation. If you have issues finding well paid work, or if you have the luxury, interesting well paid work with good career prospects, then they are unlikely to be solved by moving to California. Of course, there are exceptions. > - how difficult is it to obtain a green card? Can't comment, but I'd guess that it has to do with how much companies over there want you. Which comes back to my previous point. > - are there many jobs for experienced techies with good academic and commercial experience? Sure yes, but there are also plenty of such jobs in the UK. > - what are the salaries like? Higher but > - living costs most importantly house prices? high, plus medical insurance etc. > - best areas to live for families in terms of schools and commuting? expensive. One trades off like one does with power, cost and clock speed. If you can't find a good computing or hardware job in the UK, then best to examine why that is rather than just thinking that its just because one is based in the UK. Ultimately what differentiates you from other UK techies. Or indeed any in Bangalore or Shenzen? I don't think this post is accurate, while it contains good points it's based on the assumption that there is a correctly-functioning global labour market, which is very far from being the case. The OP may well be able to improve his quality of life in material terms by moving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticus Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I don't think this post is accurate, while it contains good points it's based on the assumption that there is a correctly-functioning global labour market, which is very far from being the case. The OP may well be able to improve his quality of life in material terms by moving. Well that's why I said that there are exceptions. Certainly a given skillset (especially if quite specialised like say analogue chip design or safety critical software or something) may well be much better off being located in an area which happens to be a major worldwide hub for that kind of activity. Note from this article that Silicon Valley tech unemployment was 9.9% in 2011. http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/peninsula/2011/08/unemployed-techies-learn-sell-skills Now, if you were going to move to the valley you had better be damn sure you can out-compete that 9-10% of native job seekers since as natives not needing green cards they have a massive advantage. The reason I am suspicious of the thinking in the OP is that he hasn't really said what his exact specialisms are, which would be critical to determine whether the Valley is the best place rather than say, Munich or Canda or the UK for example. It depends on the field and ones skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvoidDebt Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 My skills and experience is in RIA development. There’splenty of work in London and well paid too. It’s a great city for working andlearning, particularly in my trade, one of the best globally however even on agood salary the housing costs are crippling. Someone posted a rightmove link onanother thread - a three bed 1920’s semi in Barnet for 550k. Evenif you had the means to purchase that would you really want to? No need to evenpost any links showing you what the equivalent amount of money will buy you inthe US. My personal plan is to still give London another 12-18mthsto sort its act out. It looks like the writing is on the wall however we’vebeen here before (remember 2008?). If the HPC fails to materialise this time, innominal terms, then those of us with young families will have no choice but to emigrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Son of Taeper Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I think we have a good op. 3rd in a week on the same subject. Tech in the uk is dead imo. Those that do move into it from the likes of Bangalore don't last long. Never saw anyone moving from the california silicon valley to the thames valley silicon valley long term. It's dead Jim. Barcelona and Munich maybe. California has a while to run I think. China - who knows? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvoidDebt Posted April 1, 2012 Author Share Posted April 1, 2012 IT never really took off in the UK like it did in the US. CNN produce an annual 'Best Jobs In America' supplement and IT is always at the top. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2010/full_list/index.html I imagine if our MSM produced one for the UK it would be littered with jobs in finance and property! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scepticus Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 My skills and experience is in RIA development. There’splenty of work in London and well paid too. It’s a great city for working andlearning, particularly in my trade, one of the best globally however even on agood salary the housing costs are crippling. Someone posted a rightmove link onanother thread - a three bed 1920’s semi in Barnet for 550k. Evenif you had the means to purchase that would you really want to? No need to evenpost any links showing you what the equivalent amount of money will buy you inthe US. Have you tried contacting US IT recruiters? Why not send these folks your CV and ask them the questions in the OP? http://www.gdhconsulting.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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