San Antonio's favorable cost of living not enough (Houston, Austin: 2015, homes)

[Quattro72]

This is a gut-check article for San Antonio. This has been happening for a long time and glad someone is calling attention to it.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...ot-enough.html

“Rackspace Hosting Inc. CEO Taylor Rhodes said recently that the San Antonio-based tech giant is confronting what it calls a “talent gap” in its sales, marketing, product and engineering teams.

The “elevated turnover” in those areas is an example of a general citywide problem with recruitment and retention of people, who outright pass up jobs in the Alamo City or who “do their time” in San Antonio and then leave to other markets.

In a past interview, Rackspace Chief Technology Officer John Engates said that high-paying professional jobs and a lower cost of living are not enough to recruit and retain talent.”

[chud]

Our cost of living isn't even that low, either.
My brother moved here from Houston and said homes are no cheaper here than there.
My friend who moved here from Michigan said homes are much more expensive here.

While San Antonio is more affordable to live in than cities like San Francisco and Seattle, young techies will always choose those cities because they're trendier, and there lots of employers to choose from in those cities.

Older techies like me love San Antonio because it's a great city to live and raise a family in.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by Quattro72

This is a gut-check article for San Antonio. This has been happening for a long time and glad someone is calling attention to it.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantoni...ot-enough.html

“Rackspace Hosting Inc. CEO Taylor Rhodes said recently that the San Antonio-based tech giant is confronting what it calls a “talent gap” in its sales, marketing, product and engineering teams.

The “elevated turnover” in those areas is an example of a general citywide problem with recruitment and retention of people, who outright pass up jobs in the Alamo City or who “do their time” in San Antonio and then leave to other markets.

In a past interview, Rackspace Chief Technology Officer John Engates said that high-paying professional jobs and a lower cost of living are not enough to recruit and retain talent.”

A talent gap in sales, marketing, product, AND engineering fields? The article lost me at that point as I knew it was nothing more than opinion out the mouth of some big head honcho of a major tech company. This article is only focused on that one tech company too.

[Quattro72]

Originally Posted by chud

Our cost of living isn't even that low, either.
My brother moved here from Houston and said homes are no cheaper here than there.
My friend who moved here from Michigan said homes are much more expensive here.

While San Antonio is more affordable to live in than cities like San Francisco and Seattle, young techies will always choose those cities because they're trendier, and there lots of employers to choose from in those cities.

Older techies like me love San Antonio because it's a great city to live and raise a family in.

I agreed with you. Cost of living is really not that much cheaper here.

And regarding the job market and talent, it is a catch-22 situation. Companies are not relocating here because there is not enough “local” talents and talents are not moving here because not enough companies are here to attract them. And call-centers are not what I am talking about.

Of course there are exceptions to this but this is a military, hospitality, and healthcare town. SA has always been viewed as a “low-value” city and unless things change, that perception will always be stuck here.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by Quattro72

Of course there are exceptions to this but this is a military, hospitality, and healthcare town. SA has always been viewed as a “low-value” city and unless things change, that perception will always be stuck here.

This I actually agree with. This city has always revolved around healthcare, hospitality, and military especially and that gets old real quick. One other thing is that while many companies find ex-military having the talent they are looking for, they can be difficult to mix in with civilian workforce if they don't learn to adapt.

[unintentionallyfunny]

Ah. Not surprised about who started this thread. It's comical now.

[Quattro72]

Originally Posted by unintentionallyfunny

Ah. Not surprised about who started this thread. It's comical now.

The only comical thing is how some continue to deny reality. Some things will never change – just like SA.

[Randyk47]

Six years ago I was an external consultant to a Northern Virginia company that had to open an office here to support an ongoing contract with a US Army agency that moved its headquarters from the DC area. Initially the company was excited as they thought they were going to save on office space and labor overhead. They were really counting on that the lower cost of living here compared to Northern Virginia was going to translate into sugnificantly lower salaries. What happened in reality was that while they saved a bit on office space they saved virtually nothing on personnel cost. Part of the problem was the unique skill sets they needed were virtually non-existent in San Antonio. Even the Army was having trouble finding qualified people to fill their relatively higher paying civil service positions. Lots of demand but very little supply.

The sad end of the story is that after a little over two years the prime contractor lost the underlying contract, the Army decided to go with less contract support, and several hundred people lost their jobs. The company I worked with tried to keep the local office open but after struggling on trying to find new work they closed.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by Quattro72

The only comical thing is how some continue to deny reality. Some things will never change – just like SA.

To say San Antonio is not changing is to deny reality which you love to do.

Leisure and Hospitality used to be dominate and now down to the fifth largest economic sector.

Please move already so we don't have to read you misery.

[spursfan]

OP loves starting these threads but the sentiment is largely true. I don't know exactly what the answer is, but it's encouraging that there is a movement toward urban development around downtown. Now we just need a large, tech-driven employer to put down roots there. As Austin "jumps the shark" so to speak, the hipper crowd will be looking for a new area to call home.

In reference to Rackspace, highly educated professionals don't work there long because it's located in an old mall in suburbia. If you could choose that or a thriving community of like-minded people in California or Austin, what would you choose?