What are your thoughts on Austin as a tech hub? Definitely doesn’t compare to the Bay Area as of rn, but I’m hearing that it’s experiencing a lot of growth

Is this a joke?

Respectfully, I don't understand how anyone intimately familiar with both locations could ever come away with this take from a data-driven perspective. Personal preferences are a different story, of course, but, average QoL is higher in Seattle across the board. I've only ever heard the Bay Area > Seattle argument from myopic, young tech bros with severely limited life experience outside of their career. Bay area dudes need some hobbies fr fr + they get no bitches. Gotta enjoy life a little rather than wasting away worrying about receiving a max TC offer letter from Meta with your one-note, copypasta resume boiler-plated by a washed FAANG coaster

No way, I won't live in a deserty looking place near a desert. I want lush greenery, rivers and lakes, rain and storms, snow.

I don't believe that, living in the bay area is very costly, not everyone can afford that. People also have to balance life with their friends / family and not everyone's parents live in bay area

For junior engineers I completely disagree, it’s convenient sure, but personally I learn the most in the office & I know I’m not the only junior engineer feeling like this.

@@darrellrayford3817 I’m a senior dev but I still learn tons every job. I just learned how to learn. How to use KZfaq and Google and Pluralsight and look at templates that other ppl have made. The ability to unblock yourself. In general I don’t like the idea of limited to liberal azz cities like SF and California owning the tech world. Maybe you do an internship there…maybe you do put in 2-3yrs max but no one wants to raise a family there. Opposite morals and values and absolutely the opposite of family life. If your goal for your life is a legacy and family - to establish yourself - then no Silicone valley is definitely not the end goal - it’s just a dirty gas station along the way that you were forced to use bc you had to pee and it was either that or a tree in the woods.

@@jaredalbin5658, it's easy to mention resources like Google, KZfaq, pluralsite, etc. But it remains easier to learn from other people physically. Physical works teach you a tons that remote wouldn't. I'm an advocate for hybrid.

I'm also a remote worker and I like it. Though I still live in a liberal area in the Midwest and we love our families too 😂 But my remote company pays more than my local market, is pretty remote-first, and I also know how to unblock myself as a senior swe. Not only is my family and partner here, but I love my lifestyle here, I get nature, good food, _and_ I can afford to buy a house! If I want different weather, I'll travel to it, because I can afford to.

I don't think he touched on productivity at all in this video. His argument is that you might miss on informal talks/discussion that might lead you on to better opportunities in the future. For e.g. it's very hard for you to interact with people outside of your team if it's not for work-related purposes, whereas if you work in an office you might randomly meet another person from the company during breaks/lunch/etc. Ofc that's not to say that it's impossible pursue these interactions remotely. And everyone has their own priorities so what might seem important to someone else might not be for you and vice versa.

Almost all new grad engineers I've talked to prefer working in the office (and a good amount of more senior eng as well)

@@RahulPandeyrkp wouldn't new graduates have zero experience in the office to base their opinion on vs remote? I've not met many engineers that would rather go into the office than work wherever they want, but that could be bias from being remote myself. I've worked in bay area tech for 5 years now and I can't think of anyone but management who wants to go back to the office. I'm sure they exist, but I don't see them. Typically, I see a complete disconnect from ELT and Management on RTO when compared to ICs.

From what I’ve experienced, the best part of in-office collaboration has been early on in new projects or early in tenure at a new company. It’s hard to onboard, learn a culture, and people’s work mannerisms without informal face to face time. These are important to build trust if say… your coworker that left your message on read isn’t ignoring you on purpose. If you are remote it also becomes harder to network and understand office politics (promotion decisions).

That being said though, if you work at a great company, using great tools, with a great online infrastructure built up these advantages of in person collaboration won’t hold as much weight, but just know if you are remote and the rest of your team is in-person there will be things/information you will inevitably miss out on. If you want to work remote you’ll be best off to find a completely remote team.

Seattle is still good! I think it depends on the team though -- how much of your team/manager/director is also in Seattle?

Lot of people and companies fleeing the west coast. Austin or TX/FL in general will have better property value futures when you buy a home

Mostly this comes from creating deeper relationships with your coworkers, which is best done in person. As they go off to join or start other companies, you'll be well-positioned to get unfair advantages for your next gig.

​@@RahulPandeyrkp That's one way of looking at it. I'm coming from the perspective that job hopping internally is still job hopping, without taking a hit on your resume(for being a flake). Hypotehically, one can do this well where they hop from "new hot product" to "new hot product" and as a result always deliver massive impact. I would like to see a video discussing how to do this well. Regardless of company(MS, FB, Google, Amazon etc)

Those are good! Try to coordinate so you all get facetime

My team doesn’t trust me much rip

Where do your parents live? How far is it from a tech hub/ can you still do trips to the HQ?

A Taro Premium member actually just shared his thoughts about the European tech market: www.jointaro.com/blog/a-comparison-of-european-tech-hubs-amsterdam-barcelona-and-london/

@@RahulPandeyrkp Thank you!

depends on the circumstances of course, but in general I think for young people you still end up ahead in the Bay Area. I talk about it a bit in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ndN8YNx-ltjDqqM.html

I do consider them as part of Big Tech, but historically Amazon has had longer hours and worse pay (at least for engineers)

The Big Tech Cos all have pretty huge eng offices in NYC, I think that's a great choice if many other people in the org are also there.

@@RahulPandeyrkp Yeah my whole team is here, actually not sure Apple/Netflix have offices here but the other 3 FAANGs certainly do

I don't know much about the current best locations in India, but the same principles should apply

hii 🥳

ideally you have occasional in-person meetups, but fully remote teams can work

@@RahulPandeyrkp Id love to do that if my company would pay for it. But everyone is distributed across PST->EST so I'll never meet my coworkers.