Job-hopping silicone valley (real estate, for rent, condo)

[AtlasTraveler]

I'm relatively new to this area and one thing I noticed right away: people job hop here a lot more than other areas in the U.S. Multiple coworkers have left my firm within the year for more money elsewhere.

I've done this a bit; however, I'm feeling like I need to do it more.... Problem is, I like my current position (brand name management consulting firm). It sucks! I wish I wasn't such a brand name w**** so I wouldn't have a problem walking for more $$. For the US I'm doing well, but for SV area - forget it. I'd like to stay for a while, but my salary increase was only like 2% this year......... With the COL skyrocketing here (especially for rent), I'm considering hopping to another job. I've had offers at lesser known firms and startups for 25-30%+ increases in pay, but I'm risk-averse.

Worth it? Any advice? I guess I could also just relocate too within my firm to another location that isn't so crazy. The scene is cool (love seeing the future built before my eyes), but I'm also thinking I'd like to buy a house at some point. I don't want to be in mortgage debt my whole damn life.

Thoughts? I used to think I was more passionate about "changing the world" through innovation, but it's hard when you're a frog in a boiling bucket of hot water.

[NYMTman]

Switching jobs is the easiest way to get a big pay increase. Salary increases within the same job are typically incremental in nature. SV is ludicrously expensive and with easy access to jobs, so it's no surprise that job hopping is rampant. It's really quite difficult to job hop to the point of harming your career in the tech industry, IMO; you'd have to do something crazy like 15 jobs in 10 years for it to become an issue.

[mstnghu2]

What's Silicone Valley? Is that where most of the jobs in the breast implant industry are located?

[Perma Bear]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

What's Silicone Valley? Is that where most of the jobs in the breast implant industry are located?

I thought it was a valley of strip clubs. I'd move there in a heart beat.

[simboticus]

It's Silicon, not Silicone, two very different things. Job hopping, to a degree, is accepted here. For me I need to see some stints of at least 3 years with the same company.

5 companies in 5-7 years is red flag. Why can't this guy keep a job? The grass is always greener somewhere else? Personality conflicts, poor performance?

The flip side is also a red flag, the same job for a long time. Why can't this guy get another job? No ambition, limited skill set?

In your case I'd move to a lower COL area. No matter how much you make, you will likely always be a mortgage slave here. A lot of us are "stuck" here because all the employers for our field are here, and almost nowhere else.

I wouldn't get too caught up in the brand name of your employer. As long as you can articulate what value you added to your employer and how you can also add value to a new company. It's good to have the name brand employer on your resume, but not all jobs need to have instant name recognition. Small companies usually allow people to have a broader scope to their job responsibilities. This can be a good selling point, vs. a big company where you are a small cog in a large machine.

[Chuck5000]

You have to be up for the game here. Sounds like you are on the fence. I think you should consider relocating within your own company to another metro area. If you're single, it's so, so easy to relocate anywhere. That is not appreciated so much by single people. It gets harder later in life.

I think that the SF Bay Area is nice, insanely expensive, and not worth it for most people (without family roots here) unless they are super-ambitious, willing to play the career chess game forever and be concerned about money forever and deal with increasingly difficult commutes forever. This last one bums me out, in particular, as I do have some roots here.

You ultimately sound like a borderline case to me re: staying. However, most people sound to me as if they should either leave or they should never come here.

You could also ride it out here, as a correction is happening, and there could be windows of greater affordability, but in the end, this will always be one of the 3 most expensive metro regions in the USA. So there will be no real estate price crashes - there's too little supply. And it sounds like this isn't the time for you anyway.

Given that you are not a software engineer and are not truly in tech, and do not have a tech-industry-related argument for staying here to further your career, you could have a pretty sweet life in another place with high pay, greatly exceeding what you could afford here.

[pvande55]

Job hopping is very prevalent in technical fields. Since Silicon (no e at the end) Valley has a preponderance of technical enterprises, so I would expect a lot of job hopping there.

[ggcd951]

i have moved here almost five years ago and soon will be 5 years anniversary at my job. I think job hopping is more frequent here. At 5 years, almost everyone in my team is newer than me except one person who worked longer than me. So I think it is a relatively high turnaround.
I have a double feeling regarding this: positive side is once you stay on the job this long and everyone else is moving and switching around, you started to be in charge and tend to be an authority in many issues arising around you.
Bad side is: obviously talents are leaving especially after gets trained and whoever left behind is scrambling to pick up after him.

As far salary, within 5 years, i never asked for salary increase, instead i focused on being indispensable. I had one ~10% increase which I did not ask for but appreciate it after that. I had decent amount of non-salary add'l income in the form of stock options, employee recognition and some other means.]

As for the increasing cost of renting, yes this is an issue, which I solved by buying a condo to make the payment level over years. However as condo price appreciate (not much), corresponding real estate tax will also cause increase in monthly payment.

[Wintermomma]

I think it is very common here, by my observations, likely because it's the fastest way to try to get your income rising as fast (or closer to) the COL.

[artillery77]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

What's Silicone Valley? Is that where most of the jobs in the breast implant industry are located?

SoCal - Silicone Valley - Protected by PVC
NorCal - Silicon Valley - Protected by VC