Mid 20's Tech/Start-up/Sales Professional From Cleveland (San Diego, San Jose: 2013, how much)

[Zlaticelli]

Hello All,

I am a 25 year old young professional from Cleveland with a Bachelor's degree in Finance and about 4 years of Tech, Start-up, and Sales experience.

I recently visited a friend in Chicago, and saw how bustling the city was, and how much room there was for personal and career growth. This prompted me to research cities where I would like to live, and San Diego is one of them. I have been doing a significant amount of reading on these forums and I want to thank everyone who has contributed.

The common "cons" that I am seeing with making a move to SD are:
- Companies leaving SD
- Poor Economy
- Lower Salary (Sunshine Tax)
- Housing Costs are expensive, other costs of living not so bad

I am not someone that is making this move on a whim. I have put a lot of thought into making this decision and would like to hear realistic feedback from people that live and work in SD about the job market, how much would you have to earn to live comfortably, what jobs/industries are in demand/available, etc.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Please feel free to ask me questions to get a better idea of where I should live, considering working, etc.

Thank you!

[earlyretirement]

I wouldn't worry so much about "companies that are leaving" so much as how tough it is to get a job from the companies that are already here. Unless you are an Engineer or other high tech type that is in demand here....your opportunities are going to be limited compared to other major cities.

Having a finance degree with only 4 years of experiencing isn't going to be anything to write home about in San Diego. You're going to be competing with people that have a LOT more experience than you and probably willing to take a low salary just like you.

I'd read all of these threads - http://www.city-data.com/blogs/78035...etirement.html

The economy is improving since the Great Recession started but really the trends are still not so great. Look at things like people on food stamps and the #'s in San Diego have skyrocketed over the years and still seems to be going up.

At 25, I'd recommend you hit another city with a stronger job market (especially for your field). Bank up lots of money and then come back to San Diego with more experience under your belt, lots of savings, and more flexibility for the move.

I'm not saying it will be impossible here. I'm just saying that there are better places to move starting out with not much experience.

JMHO. Good luck.

[oddstray]

I agree with everything ER said.

But be careful about looking at food stamp enrollment to gauge recovery in San Diego. San Diego County had a long ongoing history of doing a ****-poor job of providing food stamps to people who seriously needed them. There's now a push to correct that. So higher food-stamp enrollment is a sign of that push more than a sign of flagging recovery.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by oddstray

I agree with everything ER said.

But be careful about looking at food stamp enrollment to gauge recovery in San Diego. San Diego County had a long ongoing history of doing a ****-poor job of providing food stamps to people who seriously needed them. There's now a push to correct that. So higher food-stamp enrollment is a sign of that push more than a sign of flagging recovery.

Oh yeah oddstray. I read about that push to get the people that need them onboard. So the numbers should keep going up at a good clip. But I'd also imagine that there are plenty of people that probably move out here, can't find a job or lose a job and eventually go on them.

There was a good article in the UT yesterday about this for those that are interested:

Food stamp use grows amid recovery Page 1 of 3 | UTSanDiego.com

San Diego can be a tough nut to crack for the long-term for people just starting out of college. Sure, there are exceptions to that rule. Especially engineers and other professionals that are more in-demand here. But I think the vast majority of people starting out in the business world would be wise to start out in other cities with a healthier economy, better job market, and lower COL.

[Pedro2000]

Originally Posted by Zlaticelli

Hello All,

I am a 25 year old young professional from Cleveland with a Bachelor's degree in Finance and about 4 years of Tech, Start-up, and Sales experience.

I recently visited a friend in Chicago, and saw how bustling the city was, and how much room there was for personal and career growth. This prompted me to research cities where I would like to live, and San Diego is one of them. I have been doing a significant amount of reading on these forums and I want to thank everyone who has contributed.

The common "cons" that I am seeing with making a move to SD are:
- Companies leaving SD
- Poor Economy
- Lower Salary (Sunshine Tax)
- Housing Costs are expensive, other costs of living not so bad

I am not someone that is making this move on a whim. I have put a lot of thought into making this decision and would like to hear realistic feedback from people that live and work in SD about the job market, how much would you have to earn to live comfortably, what jobs/industries are in demand/available, etc.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Please feel free to ask me questions to get a better idea of where I should live, considering working, etc.

Thank you!

The truth about San Diego is you have to love San Diego and not worry about career growth or game changing companies. And being you seem to have experience at a startup, and as a sales person not an engineer, San Diego is not going to be 'that' place for career growth or the next Apple of Google or Facebook or Groupon and so on. There are companies here, there are some startups, but I'm not sure how successful a tech sales person will be at finding a job that gives them some career growth in San diego. It' s just not that kind of city.

Again, if you need to move here, want to move here, and are in love with San Diego for whatever reason, move here because of that, find a job, but don't hope to find 'the next great company' or 'that great company you work for for 20 years and move up the ladder'.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

SD is a tough market OP. The above posts are spot on from ER, Pedro and oddstray.

Definitely take a look at Austin or Charlotte. Lots of money going into these cities and have a healthy mixture of corporate and start ups.

[sfosyd]

Of course, San Jose is a great place to look at as well. Weather and expense are very similar to San Diego.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

SD is a tough market OP. The above posts are spot on from ER, Pedro and oddstray.

Definitely take a look at Austin or Charlotte. Lots of money going into these cities and have a healthy mixture of corporate and start ups.

Originally Posted by sfosyd

Of course, San Jose is a great place to look at as well. Weather and expense are very similar to San Diego.

I totally agree with Pedro and Shmoov and sfosyd. Austin, Charlotte and Dallas are cities where several former college classmates and friends have recently moved to and found great jobs. Several of them formally lived in San Diego and left it to go to those cities.

San Jose should have a MUCH better range of job opportunities and salaries should be higher.

I realize that these cities aren't as desirable as San Diego but I think the most important time for your career is the age that you're at just out of college or a few years out of college. I'm not saying you have to wait until you're an old fart to move to San Diego. But I think in many cases it makes sense to build up savings, experience, contacts and be in a position to make a move here and have more control of your destiny vs. taking some crappy job that isn't in your field or you have to settle for.

[Pedro2000]

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

I totally agree with Pedro and Shmoov and sfosyd. Austin, Charlotte and Dallas are cities where several former college classmates and friends have recently moved to and found great jobs. Several of them formally lived in San Diego and left it to go to those cities.

San Jose should have a MUCH better range of job opportunities and salaries should be higher.

I realize that these cities aren't as desirable as San Diego but I think the most important time for your career is the age that you're at just out of college or a few years out of college. I'm not saying you have to wait until you're an old fart to move to San Diego. But I think in many cases it makes sense to build up savings, experience, contacts and be in a position to make a move here and have more control of your destiny vs. taking some crappy job that isn't in your field or you have to settle for.

From what I've seen, there are a lot of young people in San Diego who move here to party. They find a job, but it's more about loving the beach, loving the mountains, loving the weather, and making tons of other friends. Or they are military and wind up being 'stuck' here. Hell years ago San Diego state was known as the party school.

I've rarely met somebody who moved to San Diego to start their careers and 'move up the ladder.' It's just not normally the place to get your feet wet. As people say, it is more laid back, there aren't a ton of fortune 500 companies HQ here and there aren't really a ton of hardcore industries that allow for career growth.

You do have the biotech industry and UCSD connection, but other than that it really is tons of people who moved here because of the weather and because of the lifestyle. Some have family money, others made it big someplace, others pretend and wind up in debt because of it.

If you did a survey of 22-28 year olds, it's rare that you'd find people who moved to San Diego for career growth. Think about it. If you're an engineer, programmer, in IT, computer science, etc you probably move to Silicon Valley or NYC or Seattle. SOme people have started to move to Austin. If you're into wall street, finance, etc you probably move to NYC.. maybe San Fran. Those places just have More jobs, more money, more career growth. Maybe if you were in biotech, SD has some companies.

The truth is, people move here because they like it here. People who move here just because of the weather, but who want to move up the career ladder, probably wind up leaving. Hell, half the people I've met over the past few years don't even live here anymore. They come to San diego at say 22 years old and by the time they want to "start their real adult lives" at say 26, they move back home or to some other city with more jobs and opportunities. Honestly San Diego seems to be an extension of college for 22-26 year olds and then for a lot of those who can't stand the fact they aren't young anymore.

Many of the people I know who make good money and have good careers, probably spend more time traveling than in San Diego. Imagine if you work for some bank. San Diego doesn't have tons of wealthy business clients. So either you are forced to travel or you move.

[NYSD1995]

start your career in the bay area, get a big brand name on your resume and then you will have the pick of cities and companies all over the country. Do it while you're young because you can work hard, make $$ and have the choice to try and strike it big in the bay or leave and move to a smaller, less expensive city (like SD) when it's time to have kids and work / life balance. San Diego has some jobs, but they aren't going to be big opps and most of the companies are small and won't give you any resume cachet.