Advice/Resources for Someone Moving to San Fran

1 points by philrea 12 years ago | 4 comments

hey guys/gals, I am in the process of packin up my stuff and moving to san francisco from houston. this decision is based on my skill set, mind set, and perception of the area as "the place to be" given my aspirations. the issue is that everything (listed below) about this situation is new to me and, so, am looking for answers.

-i know absolutely nothing about san francisco (where to live? how to find a job? etc.)

-i need a job (ideally as a developer/engineer), my skills would be best utilized in a start-up but will settle for anything just to make this move happen and not have to sleep on the streets for awhile (although, if it is streets or not moving, id take the street)

-what kind of salary range should i aim for that would allow me to live somewhere relatively close (can get there without driving) to the relevant community, high and low estimations would be lovely

-and anything else you guys feel like adding, everything is/will be greatly appreciated

oh and it may be useful for context to mention that i am 28 and do not have a wife/fam/girl friend/whatev

alright guys, thanks for anything and everything and wish me luck, philip rea

pianoben 12 years ago |

Here's my perspective - I moved here in 2010 from Missouri, so my newbie info is a little out-of-date.

As far as working at a startup, don't worry. If you're halfway decent, people will be falling over themselves to hire you. Of course some skills will stand you in better stead than others; a GitHub full of Ruby/Python/Javascript is a lot more attractive in SF than a resume full of C# jobs.

The real worry right now is housing. You state that you'd like a convenient place to live. Given that a great many startups these days are in San Francisco, that means paying SF rents, or sacrificing convenience. You can afford SF rents by taking a roommate and living cheaply for surprisingly little - I know people doing it on $50-60K, but they have partners who earn significantly more.

If you want to do it solo, shoot for at least $130K or above. You're in a fiercely competitive rental market, and as someone without friends or connections should expect to pay $2-5k/mo just on rent, depending on your area. If that sounds extravagant, consider the numbers. At the high end of the range (and that's something like a good-sized one-bedroom apartment in SOMA), you're potentially spending $60K per year just on housing, in one of the highest-tax areas of the country.

The good news is that, if you're halfway decent, that's a very achievable salary. If you're good, you can earn far more, but generally that requires moving south.

As far as finding friends and jobs, I had good luck hanging out at hacker spaces like Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, Noisebridge in SF, Sudo Room in Oakland, and a host of others. You'll find like-minded friends, housing connections, and jobs there. Programming meetups are a great way to connect professionally. Dolores Park in the Mission is a glorious place to spend the spring and summer, and it's always full of people on nice days.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that my company is hiring for Android, iOS, and JVM/Python backend roles - if that's up your alley, we'd love to talk to you, my username at Google's fine webmail service.

philrea 12 years ago | |

Thanks a bunch, this is exactly the type of information I am looking for.

I figured housing to be expensive, nice to get a number ball-parked though. As far as rooming with someone, it is true that I do not know anyone but would accept living with an initial stranger. That said, do any SF social forums spring to mind where I can post such a wanted ad? And, by "south", do you mean working for one of the big guys?

As far as my skill-set and experience goes, I am pretty certain that my background is quite different from the typical developer. I would love to talk with you about it and can explain in much more detail if you would hear it.

So as far as possibly filling a role your company is looking for...

I would be a liar if I said that I am an expert/have a bunch of experience with iOS and Android but, I would also not be doing myself justice if I left it at that...

I know python and c# well (so, not unfamiliar to the concept of the JVM) and have done quite a bit of thinking/tinkering/learning about cloud computing and associated technologies. I guess what I am trying to say is if I am not qualified for it now I can get myself there in the near future. In other words, its up my alley and I would love to find out if I can hack it.

Before I go I gotta thank you again for the info and time, it really is much appreciated!

jtfrench 12 years ago | |

^what ben said, though I would tweak the "GitHub full of Ruby/Python/Javascript".

This is certainly great advice, but I think the most "to the point" way of communicating your skills is showing projects you've completed. Ideally mobile apps, which means you should add some Objective-C/Java to that list. These days good mobile devs are fewer than those who know the common web/javascript stacks (which are still important).

Overall — just make sure to show your future employer that you can "take it to the hole" and actually ship/create/finish a project. thats where the money is. Can you deliver? Or are you just another guy chasing APIs and buzzwords hoping to wear a hoodie and flip flops and be a snarky programmer?

(haha I'm sure that's not you!)

philrea 12 years ago | | |

Good advice...

I am new to the development community in most ways and have only recently learned that GitHub is important in demonstrating experience. (although pretty obvious when put in that light...)

I have worked on a project that I started, designed, developed and shipped (well, it was deployed in-house at the company I worked). Actually the whole thing is kind of a crazy story but I won't bore you with it here. Important thing is that I hadn't really thought about it and can't say for certain I would have brought it up, your notes will ensure I do.

And yeah, I definitely need some work in Objective-C, especially if I want to be considered a programmer in closed-toed shoes and a sports jacket...

Side Note:

Realizing that it may be extremely obvious... what is an API chaser?