Should I move to DC metro from the bay area? (San Jose: sales, crime)

[malkanij]

Considerations:

1. Career opportunity:
I am in Tech, so bay area has a lot of career options for me (I am currently employed).
My wife is NOT in Tech and has a job with an major NGO in DC.
Based on my higher education, I have more career potential.

2. Finances:
Between us, we will be making more money in DC. Also Housing is slightly cheaper in NVA, and schools there (we have a kid) seem to be much better than in the bay area. Moreover, my wife's job will be stress free with great retirement benefits.

3. People
We have a good network of friends and like-minded people to associate with in the bay area. We've lived in DC before and it’s not the same.

[cardinal2007]

It really depends on your priorities. There are a lot of tech jobs in the DC area, but not the same type of work. A significant of programmers I know there work for defense contractors. I wouldn't discount it as far as jobs are concerned, they usually pay almost as well as here.

The schools in NoVA, particularly Fairfax County are much better than in the San Jose area, particularly if you're looking to spend money on the same kind of house, Great Falls, McLean, and Vienna are about $300-$340/sqft for a house there, most of them are huge in comparison to Bay Area houses, but you can find a more inexpensive home the size of a Bay Area house, and be in one of the top school areas in NoVA, you should ask some people there in the noVA forum about housing, they'll claim it is extremely expensive, but they probably never lived in the Bay Area.

NoVA itself is very suburban, and everything more spread out than what one would be used to even in the south Bay, traffic is a lot worse, over there there is already a significant number of cars on the road by 6:15AM. DC itself is more urban, but then a lot of it has issues with crime and schools. I have heard that it is hard to make friends in the DC area, it is probably not that that you can't find like-minded people, but that they will be too busy and career oriented to be bothering with new people who they don't know are going to stick around, not everyone is like that, but a lot of people there are mostly focused on their careers.

You lived there before so you would know the weather is also a lot more extreme than the Bay Area.
I have contemplated moving back there before, but then again I have friends and family there.

[bigdumbgod]

Wouldn't want to give up good people for good money. Sounds like a bad tradeoff. Too damned hot and muggy in the summer over there, anyway.

[malkanij]

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

It really depends on your priorities. There are a lot of tech jobs in the DC area, but not the same type of work. A significant of programmers I know there work for defense contractors. I wouldn't discount it as far as jobs are concerned, they usually pay almost as well as here.

Thanks for your reply. I've heard the same thing about government contracting. However, here's the catch, I am not a programmer anymore. I went and got my MBA from a top-tier school, so am in a Sr. Product Management position with a major high tech firm. Not that it equates to more money, but the nature of my job is different. I am a little skeptical of finding something interesting to do in DC. I've been to several job sites, and all high-level positions in DC/NVA seem to be in sales and those too require some security clearance, that I obviously don't have. That makes me worried about glass ceilings. I feel like I will have to be on the ground there have a realistic chance to get anything meaningful. From here, it seems like I will be trading off career fulfillment for family comfort if I do move. Thoughts?

[coolwaves]

A lot of people with MBA degrees are in consulting. There are a ton of consulting companies like Booz in the DC area. I agree product management jobs are not as available there.