Are people leaving good paying jobs to move to Austin? (drive, substitute)

[southwest1230]

MBTC metioned the inherent unstability of Tech jobs in Austin. You can blame that on
two things.
I.) they are tenuous by nature......compared to long term businesses, they have a high
flame out rate, and generate revenue catch-as-catch-can. When they fail, they generally shut down the company, and get rid of everyone at once....
2.) They are non-union, so you have no protection or guarantee that the job will
last, and nothing set in place if it doesn't as well.
3.) Tech jobs are typically non-local, and don't have the community committment
that might make a more locally based company hesitate to close down/get rid of employees wholesale. You could have a huge center of 2000 workers thriving, and overnight they bail, with little indication they were ever here in the first place.

So, yes, tech is inherently unstable, unless it is your own company, in which at
least you are dealing with a small modicum of control.......

[southwest1230]

#41
Today, 05:21 PM
southwest1230
Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
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I think tech jobs in Austin are not quite the bastion of stability and enterprise that they are touted as, and no replacement for solid, union/financial/corporate based jobs in other areas in texas and the US. You can blame that on two things.
I.) they are tenuous by nature......compared to long term businesses, they have a high flame out rate, and generate revenue catch-as-catch-can. When they fail, they generally shut down the company, and get rid of everyone at once....
2.) They are non-union, so you have no protection or guarantee that the job will last, and nothing set in place if it doesn't as well.
3.) Tech jobs are typically non-local, and don't have the community committment that might make a more locally based company hesitate to close down/get rid of employees wholesale. You could have a huge center of 2000 workers thriving, and overnight they bail, with little indication they were ever here in the first place.

So, yes, tech is inherently unstable, unless it is your own company, in which at least you are dealing with a small modicum of control.......

[southwest1230]

Twange, I admit that suits are stifling, but that's just 3 months of the year. Also,
suits can be seen all over the southwest, vegas, and other hot as hell places as well.
I do read into that that there are very few bona-fide corporate jobs in Austin. I truly
think there are many people living off their nest egg from out of state and/or slumming
it with part/time hospitality jobs. That should last only about a year or two. After that,
people will panic as the money runs down, and move to where they came. I also
see what I call the "Honeymoon" effect, where people take about 1-3 months to decide what they want to do when they move here, and live off their savings partying and just hanging around in general. If you haven't noticed, Austin also attracts folks with a hedonistic mindset in the first place, so its a chicken-and-egg thing too. The city is
geared towards slumming, with all the outdoor cafes and bars, while the people of that
type come here for that very reason. I used to see the same thing in Key West, on a much smaller scale, when I lived there in '99 awhile back. The joke in Key West was that, if you weren't an alcoholic when you came to Key West, you would definitely be one when you left. Again, the atmosphere is 100% conducive to slumming, and makes
New Orleans even look like a veritable beehive of business activity.
Lastly, many wealthy trust-fund types come to Austin to hang for a long time as well.
I'm not saying I wouldn't if daddy handed me 200K to do as I want with it, but that does explain a lot of the hanging around during the day, and the lack of the typical diurnal
back-and-forth "Suit commute" here.

http://nessus.gunslingers.org/2003-09%20-%20North%20Carolina%20Beach%20and%20California%20H iking/0151%20Slackers.jpg (broken link)

[southwest1230]

Originally Posted by twange

Sounds like too much Chamber of commerce tour guide reading...

Try SoCo(get out and walk), and it's First Thursdays. S 1st has a bunch of cool little boutiques as well...There's a ton of hiking OUTSIDE of the Lady Bird Lake trail...

I think there's a bunch of stuff to do and I ain't no hayseed

Hey Twange, you are sure sounding more and more
like a lifelong Texan. Are you sure you've only been here for a month?
And, thats the beauty of this place, where you can feel and act like you've
been here for years, sometimes while you are still pulling the furniture out of the U-Haul. Like they say, Austin is just a state of mind!

[southwest1230]

P.S. -- I have to laugh, as I can tell just by the excitement of the responces who is new here. And they always mention the same things, over and over........as if they are discovering it for the first time themselves.....then after a year they just hang at their house/apt., and veg like they did from the city whence they came.

[Catherinelady]

I was able to take my New Jersey salary with me to Austin. I was getting paid crap in New Jersey so now I feel a little bit better in Austin.

[Catherinelady]

And you know what they say now a days. Anyone who sits behind a computer in the USA can be replaced by someone in India for a whole lot cheaper.

[twange]

Originally Posted by southwest1230

P.S. -- I have to laugh, as I can tell just by the excitement of the responces who is new here. And they always mention the same things, over and over........as if they are discovering it for the first time themselves.....then after a year they just hang at their house/apt., and veg like they did from the city whence they came.

I appreciate your enthusiasm but you appear to be a bit judgmental and possibly mean-spirited? You're coming across as if you have all of the answers and are able to peg everyone's motives, means and background. Even if you're right half of the time, what's the point? It sounds like you've moved around quite a bit yourself. What are you searching for?

It seems a little uneven to come storming out in 100 directions like a shotgun blast, casting aspersions around like bread crumbs for the pigeons. That makes me question the validity and authenticity of folks who post on this forum.

And what's wrong with being new to a city, passing along info and feeling excited about one's life, even if it's fleeting? Moving often captures a tremendous amount of positive energy and what's wrong with sharing that?

I suppose I'm trying to understand your position. Are you just trying to bait, provoke or agitate others to satisfy some polemic itch that isn't getting scratched elsewhere? That really doesn't seem engaging or productive.

And forgive me, but I fail to see the corollary between outdoor cafes, bars and slumming. Please clarify

P.S. Here's a quote I like:

"If it's new to me, it's the latest craze"
-Seal

[shannon94]

Originally Posted by tashina

We moved and brought DH's Silicon Valley job with him (now doing the same thing in the Dallas direction). DH can work substantially from home but there is an office locally. He often does graveyard shifts and so we may be some of those "40 somethings just walking around in casual clothes with nowhere to be".

I also work from home part time (at a regular salary) for a tech company in Silicon Valley (found the job while I was in Austin though - applied online & did a phone interview ).

My husband did the same thing (moved to DFW from San Diego with his job)...works from home now instead of 2 hours of traffic everyday...and gets paid MORE!! I love it!!!

[southwest1230]

twange, no its not mean-spiritedness really.......i probably just over-analyze things and issues, and prob see things too much for what they are, rather than what they could be. I also prob need a stiff drink as well. LOL! Sorry if anyone took that as mean spiritedness, but thats the nature of posts in general. Informative, at best, but certainly no substitute for a tangible social network, they don't really lend themselves to viable social discourse, and ramble tangential for the same reasons......