No one has ever said that 100% of software engineers need to be in the Bay Area. Yes there are plenty of people living elsewhere who have had fulfilling careers in the industry. Yet it is undeniable that – just like being an actor in LA or an investment banker in New York – your opportunities for job search, networking, career growth etc. are significantly higher by being where the ecosystem is concentrated.
> Yet it is undeniable that – just like being an actor in LA or an investment banker in New York
This is what I object to: the comparison to acting or investment banking tends to exaggerate the centralization of tech jobs.
If you want to be in a film and aren't in LA then you don't really want to be in a film, because a solid majority of the jobs are there. I imagine the same is true for investment banking and New York.
San Jose and San Francisco, on the other hand, represented ~180k of the nation's ~1650k software developers in 2023 [0]. That's ~10% of all US-based software developers and about 0.6% of all software developers in the world [1]. Not a tiny percentage, but nowhere close to Hollywood's dominance in film.
Most programmers are $90k/year code monkeys. The $400k+/year jobs are very heavily concentrated in a small number of tech hubs, and mostly in the bay, and that’s the relevant statistic that should inform your decision making if you want to make that type of money.
And this is the condescending attitude that makes the 99.4% of us who aren't overpaid Silicon Valley types resent the valley.
According to the BLS stats above the median salary for a software engineer is $130k, which is nearly double the median household income in the USA and more than enough to enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle in most areas of the US.
But sure, feel free to look down on those of us who choose to stop optimizing for wealth after realizing we already are earning in the top 10%.
The problem is there's also alot of competition ... if your'e not in say, the top 5% then the Bay Area can be a real wash ... you really need to be making $150k+ in order for it to be worth it in general, or have some other reason to be there (e.g. family)
