Re:Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis
by twblalock on Friday March 11, 2016 @08:08PM
(#11270761)
Quite a few of the best software engineers in the world live in the Bay Area and do not want to leave, and the larger players want to hire them. They could hire engineers elsewhere for a lot less money, but they want to hire these specific engineers, and are willing to pay what it takes.
Re:Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis
by toomuchtodo on Friday March 11, 2016 @08:20PM
(#11270801)
> Quite a few of the best software engineers in the world live in the Bay Area and do not want to leave, and the larger players want to hire them. They could hire engineers elsewhere for a lot less money, but they want to hire these specific engineers, and are willing to pay what it takes.
Unless its more financially advantageous to train new engineers then keep paying the ones in SFBA? 7 billion people? Its not like only the brilliant ones are in SF.
Re:Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis
by ryanobjc on Saturday March 12, 2016 @03:30AM
(#11271904)
It doesn't quite work like that... being a brilliant engineer isn't a matter of "training". And because of the attraction factor, yes, a lot of the brilliant ones end up in the bay area. For years the only place to do cutting edge tech was here, and it's pulled them in, from far away. Out of the country even.
So more than you think in fact.
Re:Blame Zoning, Not Tech, for San Francisco's Housing Crisis
by tptacek on Saturday March 12, 2016 @11:29AM
(#11273386)
None of the big software companies have remote development cultures, and most don't even have serious offices away from HQ. You can work for Google or Facebook away from SFBA, in a couple of smaller satellite offices, but it'll limit the kinds of things you can work on.
None of those companies are going to restructure their engineering cultures just to relieve housing pressure in SF. Just like the rest of the mainstream, they probably see the problem in SF as one of artificially limited supply, not demand.
The high salaries of developers in the Bay Area are a reaction to that feedback loop. The companies you listed offer lower salaries to workers outside of the Bay Area, using what they call Prevailing Market Rate to determine pay bands.
I don't really understand why Apple, Facebook, Google, et al. spend so much money on hiring in the Bay Area instead of hiring aggressively outside of it in cheaper regions. Are they benefiting from the network effect anymore? I can understand startups needing to be close to VC funding sources, but how does it benefit the larger players?