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In medians thats probably true but in range Austin pays between $67k and $121k meaning its very possible to find high end work there with six figure salaries and $80k in Austin will go alot further than $100K will in Seattle or Boston. For example here are figures showing what Software Engineering roles range between in Austin and Dallas: https://flatironschool.com/blog/texa...ngineer-salary
Austin may actually shock you, Austin has taken #1 place in STEM Job creation:
Surpassing even Seattle and Boston. Also Austin has just about all of those corporations that you mentioned save for Microsoft and replace Airbnb with Vrboo
Boston/DC->Austin/Dallas->Seattle/Portland (Seattle really gets brought down by Portland on this one)
3. Nightlife (Three different categories were originally listed - I'll just do nightlife)
Austin/Dallas tied with Seattle/Portland --> Boston/DC
(Boston really brings down its pairing here - just a very poor nightlife city. Dallas and Seattle are on par for nightlife, as are Portland and Austin.)
4. Schools
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
5. Airports
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
6. Mass Transit
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
7. scenery
Seattle/Portland--->Boston/DC--->Austin/Dallas
8. Nearby suburbs which is better
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas (Austin bring its pairing down here)
In medians thats probably true but in range Austin pays between $67k and $121k meaning its very possible to find high end work there with six figure salaries and $80k in Austin will go alot further than $100K will in Seattle or Boston. For example here are figures showing what Software Engineering roles range between in Austin and Dallas: https://flatironschool.com/blog/texa...ngineer-salary
I'd expect there to be a fair amount of the highest-paying tech jobs in all major tech hubs and some semi-major ones, but it's probably fair to say that at the least, Austin is within striking range of Boston and DC, and may even surpass Dallas, when it comes to the number of lucrative tech jobs available. But when a person has reached that level in their career, I think it's fair to say that they pretty much have the pick of the litter when it comes to position and where they wish to live.
I know that the COL (housing mainly it seems) in Austin has accelerated so much that it is now the most expensive city in the state from what I've heard, but I don't know how it compares to Seattle and Boston on that front.
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Austin may actually shock you, Austin has taken #1 place in STEM Job creation:
Surpassing even Seattle and Boston. Also Austin has just about all of those corporations that you mentioned save for Microsoft and replace Airbnb with Vrboo
This list was automatically suspect to me with Charlotte, a fine city (and my second home) but not much of an actual STEM hub, ranking third so I had to see what the criteria was. Turns out this ranking has nothing at all to do with real job creation but is merely a projection based on an analysis of several metrics and assigning a weight to them, not unlike any ubiquitous "best cities" list with similar complicated criteria. What's even more suspect to me is that an Austin-based firm was involved in these "projections" which doesn't preclude the possibility of the criteria being manipulated somewhat in Austin's favor. I also don't understand why such a list would be labeled in an obviously misleading way because it actually does sound like it would be a list of cities creating the most tech jobs in the year given in the title, but not so. From the section in the report about the STEM Job Growth Index:
The location quotient describes conditions today; the STEM Job Growth Index (or “STEMdexâ€) projects what might occur tomorrow. For the creation of the 2019 STEMdex, RCLCO again partnered with CapRidge Partners, an office investment management firm headquartered in Austin, in analyzing and weighing 26 different metrics (including the current Location Quotient) across four major areas: Workforce Quality, Cost of Doing Business, Economic Growth, and Quality of Life. Each metric was assigned a weight based on its projected relative importance to the STEM job market and applied to 38 metropolitan areas.
Now understand, I think Austin is doing a remarkable job in actual STEM job creation on its own merits and truly doesn't need any assists for favorable rankings, but some actual historical data is what is needed before Austin can really and truly claim this title.
Not trying to be a homer here as this took me off guard as well but I do have to give credit where its due.
This is yet another "best of" list that's based on those complicated formulas involving several metrics being weighed and future job growth projections as I mentioned earlier. Austin ranked first on this list because it is projected to have the fastest tech job growth over the following year and the next five after that study was produced. When it comes to what are probably the two most important metrics that were looked at--IT job postings over the course of a year and median salary for IT pros--Austin wasn't first there; it was bested by San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, and Boston in both categories. It virtually tied Baltimore in IT job postings but fell behind Baltimore for median IT pro salary. Again, I'm not taking anything away from Austin at all, but I think it's best to stick with the raw data as much as possible to support our assertions because all these "lists" can trip you up if you don't check out the methodology to see what criteria are being used and how.
I'd expect there to be a fair amount of the highest-paying tech jobs in all major tech hubs and some semi-major ones, but it's probably fair to say that at the least, Austin is within striking range of Boston and DC, and may even surpass Dallas, when it comes to the number of lucrative tech jobs available. But when a person has reached that level in their career, I think it's fair to say that they pretty much have the pick of the litter when it comes to position and where they wish to live.
I know that the COL (housing mainly it seems) in Austin has accelerated so much that it is now the most expensive city in the state from what I've heard, but I don't know how it compares to Seattle and Boston on that front.
In terms of COL, like Seattle and Boston, housing is the main issue in Austin but in Austin its still possible to obtain an 1,800+ sq ft home in the suburbs for under $300k, in Seattle and Boston - not even by a longshot, even in the burbs. In the actual core however things change and Austin proper is becoming more comparable to Seattle and Boston in terms of housing costs...still not quite there but it isn't far.
I've lived in both Seattle and Austin, Austin isn't cheap but its MUCH cheaper than Boston and Seattle.
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Originally Posted by Mutiny77
This is yet another "best of" list that's based on those complicated formulas involving several metrics being weighed and future job growth projections as I mentioned earlier. Austin ranked first on this list because it is projected to have the fastest tech job growth over the following year and the next five after that study was produced. When it comes to what are probably the two most important metrics that were looked at--IT job postings over the course of a year and median salary for IT pros--Austin wasn't first there; it was bested by San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, and Boston in both categories. It virtually tied Baltimore in IT job postings but fell behind Baltimore for median IT pro salary. Again, I'm not taking anything away from Austin at all, but I think it's best to stick with the raw data as much as possible to support our assertions because all these "lists" can trip you up if you don't check out the methodology to see what criteria are being used and how.
Austin does have less jobs than Dallas, technically Dallas has more jobs in the six figure range than Austin does, aproximately 8,000 postings per month in Dallas vs 4,000 in Austin. Likewise is probably true for the remaining metro's, however; you also have to consider Austin is about 3x smaller than most of those metro's. Meaning Austin technically surpasses Dallas, as well as most of those metro's in jobs per capita, or basically jobs available per citizen.
Boston/DC->Austin/Dallas->Seattle/Portland (Seattle really gets brought down by Portland on this one)
3. Nightlife (Three different categories were originally listed - I'll just do nightlife)
Austin/Dallas tied with Seattle/Portland --> Boston/DC
(Boston really brings down its pairing here - just a very poor nightlife city. Dallas and Seattle are on par for nightlife, as are Portland and Austin.)
4. Schools
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
5. Airports
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
6. Mass Transit
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
7. scenery
Seattle/Portland--->Boston/DC--->Austin/Dallas
8. Nearby suburbs which is better
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas (Austin bring its pairing down here)
9. Walkabiliy areas near Downtown?
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
10. Attractions
Boston/DC--->Seattle/Portland--->Austin/Dallas
agreed with this list except the airport part. Austin/Dallas should be number 2 and close to number 1. Unless we measure it differently.
In terms of COL, like Seattle and Boston, housing is the main issue in Austin but in Austin its still possible to obtain an 1,800+ sq ft home in the suburbs for under $300k, in Seattle and Boston - not even by a longshot, even in the burbs. In the actual core however things change and Austin proper is becoming more comparable to Seattle and Boston in terms of housing costs...still not quite there but it isn't far.
I've lived in both Seattle and Austin, Austin isn't cheap but its MUCH cheaper than Boston and Seattle.
Gotcha. That makes sense.
Quote:
Austin does have less jobs than Dallas, technically Dallas has more jobs in the six figure range than Austin does, aproximately 8,000 postings per month in Dallas vs 4,000 in Austin. Likewise is probably true for the remaining metro's, however; you also have to consider Austin is about 3x smaller than most of those metro's. Meaning Austin technically surpasses Dallas, as well as most of those metro's in jobs per capita, or basically jobs available per citizen.
Fair point when it comes to the larger metros, but I was actually surprised to see Charlotte do better in both categories and Baltimore essentially tied with Austin in IT job postings and best it when it came to the median wage. Raleigh/Durham was on par with it as well.
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