San Diego vs. San Jose for IT/healthcare

[nystuntman]

I prefer non-boring, please. My personality...hmmm...I'm 31/single/male/straight and am interested in a city with a good opportunity to meet people. A good nightlife is a plus. I'm ok with not having my dream job at first (or should I dare to be so choosy in this market anyway). I have a few friends in San Diego but none in San Jose which would be a big plus for me moving to SD. I've been to SD and know my way around a bit. I'm familiar with some of the city highlights. I found it easy to meet people from SD who actually were not from SD. Ironically, I've met more people from SD while visiting other cities in the US. San Jose is rated one of the best cities for men to live. How can it be so boring?

[socketz]

I've lived in both places and can sum them up as such:

San Jose = Live to Work
San Diego = Work to Live

In San Diego, your nieghbor works for PG&E, has a cabinet business or is tech support for Qualcomm. In the Bay, your nieghbor manages terabit networks for Yahoo or owns his/her 2nd-3rd software company.

For just about all types of tech (semis, product development, Internet, Software, etc), the Bay Area is utopia. If you work here for a few years, you can pretty much go anywhere else in the US and become a big fish in a small pond. That's the real allure to the area, world class tech opportunities.

On the other hand, San Diego has some of the best weather on the planet.

The tradeoffs are yours to choose.

You will miss the beach if you move here from Socal. The coast is alot different up here and IMO, Santa Cruz is pretty forgetable. The traffic in the Bay Area is also much worse than SD.

If you need the beach, you will find yourself driving south to Monterey/Carmel/Sand City.

BUT.....the Bay Area has Tahoe....which is pretty unbelievable if you have never been there.