Pittsburghers thoughs on more tech jobs/workers (Slippery Rock, Penn: mortgages, credit card)

[cardinal2007]

To be honest I was talking more about high tech jobs, like the Google satellite office and startups. People are correct for that kind of job you will likely need to offer 6 figure salaries to get people to move out to Pittsburgh.

Silicon Valley is packed, a lot of it is suburban in character and entrenched politics will keep it that way, limiting housing for the foreseeable future. A lot of people like it that way, but it means for every high tech job that comes up, housing gets more expensive, and it becomes a rat race to keep up, so you can still pay the rent next year. Eventually people get priced out and leave. Economically speaking a high paying job should lead to a bunch of other lower paying jobs being created as well, but that doesn't happen here, lower paying jobs disappear and the workers leave as costs go up.
An area with more affordable housing and more willingness to develop housing could benefit more from such jobs, I am not saying Silicon Valley is bad or anything, but I think at least in a national scale, spreading high tech to a new hub, and one that doesn't have expensive housing, would be better.

And yeah employees go to where there is more than one employer because jobs change, people get more skills and want to work at a more senior level and they don't get that promotion at work. It gives employees more leveraging power.

But if it is going to be more of the same as it is in SF and Silicon Valley, people oppose new housing for new residents, then you will hit a point where poorer residents are displaced, and it doesn't help the economy as much as it could.

I am really trying to gauge what kind of place Pittsburgh is in that regard, I left 9 years ago, and didn't really know more than the Oakland/CMU/Squirrel Hill/Shadyside bubble at the time, I didn't even have a car then, so yeah, I would love to know how Pittsburgh is these days.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

I'm working for a company as I type this that meets your requirements for "hi-tech". We are a startup. Our salaries can't even come close to the fantasy world you speak of, but they are higher than the big companies (as I referenced earlier in the thread).

So here's the breakdown from a guy who has been in this business in Pittsburgh for 8 years:

- Redonk Ultra-rare tier: CMU, Google
- Ideal tier: small startups who want to attract talent
- Below average tier: your banks/healthcare/mega corps aka the bulk of the city
- Sad whydidichoosethispathinlife tier: any company who puts people into indentured servitude aka a large portion of the industry here

I have seen the best and the worst of this field locally and I stretched out in many directions. This highly specialized CMU robotics portion of the industry is a very small fraction of the field and I don't think you realize that.

The 'pyramid' you describe above makes sense, and I have no idea where the 'layers' fall. I bet there's salary survey information around that might be illuminating?

The trick, as I think the OP was asking, is how we grow the proportion of jobs at the pointy end. And there's a lot more from CMU than robotics, and CMU acts as a magnet for other hi-tech labs to be here.

Good luck with your startup, BTW ...

[Geeo]

I agree with an earlier post that it will take a lot of time, if ever, for Pittsburgh to apporach the problems of Silicon Valley. The economy here is changing, but it's going to be more incremental. Plus, we certainly don't want to have a boom economy with the attendant bust that always comes. We've been successful in attracting a good number of new companies and the new people that come with them. Lots of people know about Google, since they keep expanding and making the news, but there is also Disney animation and lots of other companies housed in the technology center along Second Avenue and in pockets of the east end and south side. The university base is excellent and a lot more of the grads are staying here. It's a slow process and we're making good progress.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

I moved back to Pittsburgh from Tampa, FL.

There were hundreds of small firms providing software and services in niche insurance businesses there. For some reason, you don't see that here.

Possibly that's because we don't have as much of an insurance industry because our houses don't get blown over nearly so often.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Possibly that's because we don't have as much of an insurance industry because our houses don't get blown over nearly so often.

The perfect demonstartion of cause and effect

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by gortonator

Next time I fly through Denver, I'll bring my spoon

First I have to eradicate the imaginary ex-colleagues from my mind, who now work in Pittsburgh (not all for search engine companies) and who earn well over 6 figures. I'm sure they used to work for me, but hey, my memory must be playing tricks on me. And A_T_C, CMU pays fresh postdocs about $50K. to work at a university .... google it

Huh? I was talking about the "urbane" business. I said nothing about salaries. I have no doubt CMU pays that much for postdocs, nor do I really care what they pay them. Trust me, I know a lot of 20-early 30 somethings, and I don't think they have anything on any of the rest of us (as a group) in the "urbane" department.

BTW, just about every family around here has at least one person working in some sort of high tech job. If that makes one urbane, we all are.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

And yeah employees go to where there is more than one employer because jobs change, people get more skills and want to work at a more senior level and they don't get that promotion at work. It gives employees more leveraging power.

I don't know what kind of experience you have with these high-tech companies. They're constantly laying people off, especially the startups. If you don't want to move every few years, you need to live someplace where you can find another job in your field.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Huh?

sorry - was just using your spoon for poorly executed comedic effect, and then went on to refer to other people's (unreferenced) posts.

You're spot on about startups/etc BTW ...

[XRiteMA98]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

What are people's thoughts on companies opening new tech companies, or tech companies opening satellite campuses in Pittsburgh. I imagine more tech jobs means more people would move to Pittsburgh from elsewhere (or more Carnegie Mellon students sticking around after college). Do you think this would be good, bad, mixed thing for Pittsburgh in the long run? Without new housing for people moving to Pittsburgh any new residents would lead to an increase in rent until either people crowd into shared housing situations or they leave for cheaper areas, that could change the character of some neighborhoods.

Would new residents be welcome in Pittsburgh, or shunned for not really fitting in with the prevailing culture?

Pivoting a City: Can Startups Help More Than Themselves? - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic

Note this isn't as far fetched as some may think, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle, NYC and Boston are getting to be pretty dang expensive and companies have to shell out quite a lot of money to get people to move there. Pittsburgh has a top-notch university for computer science right in its borders and it is way more affordable place to live than any place I listed.

OK, if I was able to fit in, sort of speak, coming from overseas and going through a cultural shock and find out IT employment without any difficulties (in a start up) and adapting and working myself through the ranks, anyone can do it. Trust me. Oh, and did I mention then when I came here French was my strong foreign language and English so and so? I mean if someone spoke too fast I'd understand the beginning but lose the end? And I wasn;t able to understand anybody in the bus station, old or African-American people?

The thing is I stood at the start-up until I had my green card then I found a job in a big corporation.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

you can literally pay people 1/2 the salary you can on the coastal cities. A software developer will easily make 6 figures in Boston and here they will be lucky to get out of the 40's here.
.

That is completely absurd. The average Senior Software Engineer earns about $78k in Pittsburgh. Although personally, I don't feel those numbers are quite accurate. In my own personal experience (which I can assure you is much more extensive than yours) the range for a senior engineer is probably $70k to $120k. I'm not an engineer, but I have direct knowledge across dozens of local companies.

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

So here's the breakdown from a guy who has been in this business in Pittsburgh for 8 years:

- Redonk Ultra-rare tier: CMU, Google
- Ideal tier: small startups who want to attract talent
- Below average tier: your banks/healthcare/mega corps aka the bulk of the city
- Sad whydidichoosethispathinlife tier: any company who puts people into indentured servitude aka a large portion of the industry here

There is no way you have 8 yrs software experience and think that... Just go to UPMC career site (they list salaries) and search for software engineer. You will see exactly what I told you above... and they pay about market.