Atlanta major player in High Tech Industries

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I'm not.

Those industries characterize those cities entire economies more, but ultimately they are far smaller cities.

Their per capita investment in this is huge though and this is a big deal for a city their size.

Another thing missed is we actually have much of our development in very lucrative places, but places they aren't trendy or exciting.

To no small part financial transaction, data-basing firms, and credit firms create a large demand for this in Atlanta.

This is why we have First Data, NCR, Equifax, amongst others. There is an ecosystem of contractors and smaller firms in this industry too. Atlanta is the largest Fintech/payment processing hub hub outside of northern Cali and NY.

Not exciting or talked about as much as Apple and Microsoft, but there is a great deal of money and jobs there.

Great post.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Right. Because....

"I just busted my hump for 4 years at Georgia Tech and am totally marketable and can do whatever I want....why don't I go work for a credit card processing company!!!"

is something that has probably never been said.

The problem is the volume of tech Atlanta has, the problem is it isn't the kind of tech that most people find very exciting. But it does contribute to the economy, so we've got that!

Some isn't so bad. I play with airline-related software, for example, and I love it. Atlanta has Delta, Travelport, SITA, and others in that domain.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Right. Because....

"I just busted my hump for 4 years at Georgia Tech and am totally marketable and can do whatever I want....why don't I go work for a credit card processing company!!!"

is something that has probably never been said.

The problem is the volume of tech Atlanta has, the problem is it isn't the kind of tech that most people find very exciting. But it does contribute to the economy, so we've got that!

Yet many people do...

Money talks and there is a great deal of money in that industry and they need top talent, because of how much money is on the line with financial transactions and the potential ill effects of poorly written software. If you really have a marketable talent it is a great place to build a career. I can see some computer science graduate students that spent years learning software security doing very well and being interested in those jobs.

You will probably find some of the brightest minds in the software industry making top salaries in senior positions in that industry.

[sedimenjerry]

Airwatch is a major player that was founded in Atlanta. Salesforce has an office in Buckhead. Mailchimp is in PCM. Some good companies are here that's for sure.

[AnsleyPark]

Wonder why, with GT, we don't have a more robust hard engineering industry here.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I'm not.

Those industries characterize those cities entire economies more, but ultimately they are far smaller cities.

But Seattle's economy is almost as large as Atlanta's despite being significantly smaller.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

But Seattle's economy is almost as large as Atlanta's despite being significantly smaller.

Their per capita is really high and impressive, but it still falls a bit short... so none of this changes the previous points

[Data Donut]

Your post tells part of the story.
Atlanta is above Seattle in "Leading Metros for Software Investment"
Ahead of Seattle in "Leading Metros for Biomedical Investments"


But other maps show Atlanta behind Seattle in "Leading Metros for IT services investment"
Behind Seattle in "Leading Metros for Biotech Investment"
Behind Seattle in "Leading Metros for Media and Entertainment Investment"


but hey, 2 out of 5 ain't bad.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by Hokiehaven

Tad surprised that ATL is ahead of Austin and Seattle, would have thought they would be ahead, good to see.

It could have happened just recently. The IT sector has grown a lot in Atlanta the last few years.