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A comment on Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 in Two Locations: NY and VA. Parent comment

Re:Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 in Two Locations: NY and VA by dunpeal on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @01:27AM (#18388836)
> If Apple’s HQ were Albuquerque or El Paso, you’d have talent moving to those places. For startups, obviously proximity to Silicon Valley, Austin or NYC is very advantageous because nobody wants to move across the country for a low percentage startup. But for a FAANG company— the talent will follow, perhaps even more merrily.

Nope.

FAANG companies want top talent. Top talent has many options. Most top talented engineers, in this market, get multiple offers and can basically choose where they want to live.

Not to mention that all FAANG companies have offices in attractive locations. So the office in Buttfuck Nowhere would be competing against offices in cool cities like LA and NYC, for the same position with the same FAANG. Good luck with that.

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Re:Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 in Two Locations: NY and VA by gregw2 on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @09:46AM (#18391400)
The slight problem is that if top talent wants to live in Houston, there are fewer options of interesting companies to work for than on East/West coast. It's a symbiotic thing, not wholly controlled by top talent's desires.
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Re:Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 in Two Locations: NY and VA by dunpeal on Tuesday November 06, 2018 @09:52AM (#18391461)
It's a simple quantitative question:

How many candidates are already in or willing to relocate to NYC versus Houston.

That's all Amazon really cares about: the absolute numbers.

They're looking to hire tens of thousands of engineers and that's pretty much the only reason they're going through with this huge investment in new campuses.

Regardless of my personal preference, I think it's pretty obvious that the numbers work in NYC's favor.

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