Tech jobs coming to Phoenix? (Scottsdale, Chandler: job market, school, living in)

[infocyde]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

Tech jobs have already arrived, and this isn't exactly a new phenomenon in the Phoenix area. Years ago, it was speculated that the Phoenix area would become the Silicon Desert ... and this was back in the semiconductor days. Motorola, Honeywell, and Intel were three very prominent employers for many years here. Motorola even played a part in the first moon landing in 1969.

Sad to me that at one point Motorola employed more people in Arizona than the state government...which is the number one employer in most states. Large number of fabs, lot's of tech workers, now...Motorola is an imprint of a Chinese company. This to me represents everything that is wrong with our trade policies, though Motorola kind of did them selves in with spending over a billion in R&D on the Starmax that ended up being too good and Apple pulled their license, and a couple of other bad decisions. The spun off On Semiconductor seems to be doing well but against all odds.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by infocyde

Sad to me that at one point Motorola employed more people in Arizona than the state government...which is the number one employer in most states. Large number of fabs, lot's of tech workers, now...Motorola is an imprint of a Chinese company. This to me represents everything that is wrong with our trade policies, though Motorola kind of did them selves in with spending over a billion in R&D on the Starmax that ended up being too good and Apple pulled their license, and a couple of other bad decisions. The spun off On Semiconductor seems to be doing well but against all odds.

I'm a Motorola retiree and never heard of anything called Starmax. There was a phone called StarTac, which was fairly successful. There was a satellite phone venture called Iridium that was a spectacular failure. Motorola missed the boat on digital phones and never recovered. After spinning off On Semiconductor they completed their exit from the semiconductor business by spinning off Freescale Semiconductor which later merged with NXP Semiconductors. NXP still has employees in the Valley. Motorola split into two companies in 2011, Motorola Mobility (phones) and Motorola Solutions. Motorola Mobility was sold to Google. Google harvested the patents and sold the rest to Lenovo, the Chinese company you refer to, which also has the remnants of IBM's PC business. Motorola Solutions still exists. It used to include cellular infrastructure but that was sold to Nokia Siemens shortly after the split. It has never been clear to me what Motorola Solutions does but I own a wad of their stock, which has been quite profitable since the split.

[KurtAZ]

I wouldn't say Iridium was/is a spectacular failure. Ahead of their time...yes. They just launched their new array last year... The company is definitely smaller than one would hope but with the spread of cellular networks...you really only need a satellite phone if you are going completely off grid. Ships can install Iridium systems to connect to the world...they have RV set ups for those that wander...some land stations...

Oh...and Motorola StarMax

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

I wouldn't say Iridium was/is a spectacular failure. Ahead of their time...yes. They just launched their new array last year... The company is definitely smaller than one would hope but with the spread of cellular networks...you really only need a satellite phone if you are going completely off grid. Ships can install Iridium systems to connect to the world...they have RV set ups for those that wander...some land stations...

Oh...and Motorola StarMax

Iridium was a huge failure from a business standpoint.

I knew about the Mac clones, not the name. I started at Motorola a year after Apple backed out. Googled starmax and got nothing. Learn something new every day.

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Iridium was a huge failure from a business standpoint.

I knew about the Mac clones, not the name. I started at Motorola a year after Apple backed out. Googled starmax and got nothing. Learn something new every day.

I guess I should have said "Yes it crashed and burned originally and lost investors billions...but they seem to be operating well now." The NEXT cluster was completed earlier this year and the parking lot here in Chandler is pretty full. Their stock doubled this year so far.

[RoadLessTraveled2015]

My spouse and I work in tech. While we don't live in AZ, we often think of moving there. However, we can't find a job that pays as well as what we have in Atlanta, which has a comparable COL. The portolio of companies in the Phoenix area aren't very plentiful in our area of expertise. We know more people that moved away from Phoenix / Chandler than moved in due to lack of job opportunities in tech. (Software Engineering, mobile applications to be specific.)
Arizona doesn't have top universities like the ones in California or on the East Coast. In Atlanta, we have GATech. Maybe that's part of the problem why companies don't want to go to AZ with high paying jobs?
Go Daddy is one of the few places that will pay a Senior SWE $130K. Other places offer $100K-ish. The University of Phoenix recruiter said that they pay contract workers something that amounts to $80K / year for software engineering jobs ($40 / hour). A SWE familiar with UoP said they're all H1Bers who work there.
I really wish the Phoenix area could attract better tech jobs. We'd move in a heartbeat.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by ShampooBanana

Not so. Intel actually does chip design along with the fabrication, and many of the workers that are employed there start at $75k-80k+ annually for new grads from top engineering schools (I have at least 3 friends from U of Illinois who are computer science or electrical engineering grads who ended up here working for Intel in Chandler). ON Semiconductor pays pretty well also and is based here. Motorola is gone but Honeywell remains and many of those are good aerospace engineering and manufacturing jobs that pay very well.

As for the initial post, GPEC (Greater Phoenix Economic Council) and the State are doing exactly what you're calling for. I saw a stat posted up by GPEC and CBRE that said that tech jobs in just downtown Phoenix alone have increased something like 350-400% in the past 5 years. That's pretty amazing. One of GPEC's core initiatives right now is to basically convince California tech companies to relocate operations here, and it's been working. Here a great report they put together for tech attraction: https://www.gpec.org/wp-content/uplo...y-CBREGPEC.pdf

I work in IT as a tester. The Phoenix job market is very strong right now. Most experienced IT workers with good programming skills have multiple options. If you know Python 3.x, Java Spring, REST, data warehouses, cloud systems, networking, machine learning, etc., then there are many choices for a good job and high pay.

The part of IT that is suffering is mid-level management. The pattern is that a young software engineer or similar IT worker from 15-25 years ago has proceeded up the management ladder. Over time, the software engineer aged to the point where technical skills are relatively obsolete. For people like, they usually try to argue that their experience and people skills put them in strong position for management. The problem is that mid-level management jobs are scarce, and usually they are the first to go in a layoff. These days, they can also be replaced by automation or just outsourced.

So, IT in Phoenix is very strong right now except for mid-level management.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by RoadLessTraveled2015

My spouse and I work in tech. While we don't live in AZ, we often think of moving there. However, we can't find a job that pays as well as what we have in Atlanta, which has a comparable COL. The portolio of companies in the Phoenix area aren't very plentiful in our area of expertise. We know more people that moved away from Phoenix / Chandler than moved in due to lack of job opportunities in tech. (Software Engineering, mobile applications to be specific.)
Arizona doesn't have top universities like the ones in California or on the East Coast. In Atlanta, we have GATech. Maybe that's part of the problem why companies don't want to go to AZ with high paying jobs?
Go Daddy is one of the few places that will pay a Senior SWE $130K. Other places offer $100K-ish. The University of Phoenix recruiter said that they pay contract workers something that amounts to $80K / year for software engineering jobs ($40 / hour). A SWE familiar with UoP said they're all H1Bers who work there.
I really wish the Phoenix area could attract better tech jobs. We'd move in a heartbeat.

The lack of good paying jobs is largely due to the kind of people we attract. Sure, we're the nation's 5th largest city and the 11th largest metro area, but many transplants still move here primarily for things like the weather or retirement, and have little to no interest in career development or increasing their incomes. This is slowly changing, but even if the Phoenix area becomes more of a tech hub and attracts the better jobs, I think other similarly sized cities/metros will still be ahead of us.

It's unfortunate because Arizona actually has a friendly business climate for the most part, but we have to change our focus. Do we still want to be a laid back haven for snowbirds, retirees, and those who want little more out of life other than sitting by the pool & hiking, or do we want to act our size and bring in the better paying jobs along with the more career oriented types?

[EEngineer]

I am going to give it my best swing and bring a tech job with me to Phoenix. From the Chicago-land-ish area. It is a remote job, but the contracting company (I just do contracts) has a Scottsdale office with a Phoenix-area project manager. He said he has never been without work in Phoenix. I'll give it a try that I will be able to find a string of work in the area into the far future. But, if not, it is a weekend-able drive to the LA area for a stint. And in deeper droughts, fly further away and lockup (or stop renting) the abode. If I were relocating based only on apparent tech (SW Eng) job availability and cost of living, I think I would try Dallas/Ft. Worth.

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by grad_student200

I work in IT as a tester. The Phoenix job market is very strong right now. Most experienced IT workers with good programming skills have multiple options. If you know Python 3.x, Java Spring, REST, data warehouses, cloud systems, networking, machine learning, etc., then there are many choices for a good job and high pay.

The part of IT that is suffering is mid-level management. The pattern is that a young software engineer or similar IT worker from 15-25 years ago has proceeded up the management ladder. Over time, the software engineer aged to the point where technical skills are relatively obsolete. For people like, they usually try to argue that their experience and people skills put them in strong position for management. The problem is that mid-level management jobs are scarce, and usually they are the first to go in a layoff. These days, they can also be replaced by automation or just outsourced.

So, IT in Phoenix is very strong right now except for mid-level management.

Well...you also have to remember that Management is a WHOLE DIFFERENT skill set then engineering. You have to know what your people are doing and understand it but your technical skills take a hit. As a manager, you are in meetings, planning sessions, budget controls...you are looking at projects from a whole different perspective than an Engineer does. Most of the front line people I know have 0 desire to move into management...particularly because when RIFs come around, management usually gets hit hard.