All the smart people leave Pittsburgh (gym, vs., shop)

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

Exactly. Degrees do not equal experience. Schools need to start giving more real world training instead of just theoretical stuff, and companies need to realize that someone who understands the theories will not take very long to train. They key in Pittsburgh (and probably most of the US) is to hit that golden "3 - 5 years experience" mark so that you can finally get an "entry level" job.

There have been many studies of job performance showing general mental ability (IQ, essentially) is a much stronger predictor of job performance than educational background and/or previous job training. Regardless of what they did before, bright people pick up on new tasks quicker, and adjust to a new profession much faster, than merely average or dull people. This goes for all jobs too, even blue-collar ones.

What this suggests is that higher education, to the degree it's about job training at all, is a grand swindle. We go to get credentialed, but in most fields few worthwhile skills are instilled that a reasonable person couldn't pick up by osmosis. We'd be better off if employers attached IQ tests to job applications - certainly less in debt anyway. Sadly, it's illegal in the U.S.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by westcoastbabe

As a Charlotte, NC native who works for one the major banks.....we've had a ton of people to up and leave and move to Pittsburgh for better jobs....Mainly with PNC Bank...They obviously must be on the come up.

They may just be replacing all the 50-year olds who get laid off once they reach six figures.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by sskink

they may just be replacing all the 50-year olds who get laid off once they reach six figures.

Are you talking about PNC in particular?

[SolitaryThrush]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

How would we benefit from a bunch of high school dropouts that don't even speak english moving here? Where would these low-skilled people work? There aren't any more steel mills or coal mines around. They can't work in construction like they do out west because we haven't had a big real estate boom. There aren't any meat packing plants or factories around for them to work at. For every unskilled job available, we have plenty of workers right here. Just look around Braddock or McKeesport.

This is a tangent, I know, but I had to respond to the swipe at immigrants. We may have a good number of "high school dropouts that don't even speak english" . . . but they're not immigrants, they are people who failed in our home-grown school systems, people who still complain they can't make a living wage without any skills. Immigration and an influx of foreign-born workers is a boon to the region. What's kind of ironic, considering how much Pittsburghers still like to bleat about "lunchpails" and "blue-collar work ethic", is that the immigrants derided by conservatives among us are outworking us and following the example many of our families did a few generations ago: work hard, do what it takes, and help your kids be more successful than you. Whether it's internationals brought in temporarily to work and study here, or those who decide to settle in Pittsburgh and work manufacturing or service jobs, we're better off for them.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Are you talking about PNC in particular?

It's where I've seen it done.

[XRiteMA98]

OK I was looking for this other topic that questions if Pittsburgh was a high tech city but what I have to say will fit into this topic as well.

Here's a very interesting article from today's Financial Times, that depicts the battle for talent in Silicon Valley, the environment and the perks of the jobs. My jaw dropped when I saw the kind of bonusees they get (million $ bonuses, stock options, free food, onsite gym - well PPG has this also - and $4000 baby bonus, on-site bike shop repair etc...) while people hired right off graduation get a 6 digit figure salary the median salary in FB being 123k...

They say that somebody who improves an ad algorithm by a fraction of second is generously rewarded. I am marveling at the news and then compare: given the cost of life in CA would a median salary like at FB allow people a better quality of life than the median IT salary for a say, 5 yr experience software engineer with a corporation in Pgh? That median salary for Pgh would most likely be half of the median salary @ FB. But house prices in CA are way more than double or triple (for the same sq ft) in CA vs Pgh.

I think young people would live more comfortable here than there.

Facebook in Silicon Valley talent battle - FT.com

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

OK I was looking for this other topic that questions if Pittsburgh was a high tech city but what I have to say will fit into this topic as well.

Here's a very interesting article from today's Financial Times, that depicts the battle for talent in Silicon Valley, the environment and the perks of the jobs. My jaw dropped when I saw the kind of bonusees they get (million $ bonuses, stock options, free food, onsite gym - well PPG has this also - and $4000 baby bonus, on-site bike shop repair etc...) while people hired right off graduation get a 6 digit figure salary the median salary in FB being 123k...

They say that somebody who improves an ad algorithm by a fraction of second is generously rewarded. I am marveling at the news and then compare: given the cost of life in CA would a median salary like at FB allow people a better quality of life than the median IT salary for a say, 5 yr experience software engineer with a corporation in Pgh? That median salary for Pgh would most likely be half of the median salary @ FB. But house prices in CA are way more than double or triple (for the same sq ft) in CA vs Pgh.

I think young people would live more comfortable here than there.

Facebook in Silicon Valley talent battle - FT.com

I mostly agree, but with an exception. A huge starting salary like that for a few years can allow you to wipe out student loans, get a good savings and retirement account going, and then move to some place like Pittsburgh to buy a house outright (or with a big down payment) while being debt free with a nice retirement fund to watch grow.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

OK I was looking for this other topic that questions if Pittsburgh was a high tech city but what I have to say will fit into this topic as well.

Here's a very interesting article from today's Financial Times, that depicts the battle for talent in Silicon Valley, the environment and the perks of the jobs. My jaw dropped when I saw the kind of bonusees they get (million $ bonuses, stock options, free food, onsite gym - well PPG has this also - and $4000 baby bonus, on-site bike shop repair etc...) while people hired right off graduation get a 6 digit figure salary the median salary in FB being 123k...

They say that somebody who improves an ad algorithm by a fraction of second is generously rewarded. I am marveling at the news and then compare: given the cost of life in CA would a median salary like at FB allow people a better quality of life than the median IT salary for a say, 5 yr experience software engineer with a corporation in Pgh? That median salary for Pgh would most likely be half of the median salary @ FB. But house prices in CA are way more than double or triple (for the same sq ft) in CA vs Pgh.

I think young people would live more comfortable here than there.

Facebook in Silicon Valley talent battle - FT.com

Plus, it's unbelievably competitive for those Facebook and Google jobs. Those companies can choose the very best of the best. Not all Silicon Valley companies pay that well or are that competitive. Layoffs are common and the cost of living is high. I have a good friend who works at Google. She's in her forties and the pace is killing her. She makes good money. She plans to use it to pay off her debts and then bank as much as she can so she can quit in five years and do something way less stressful.

[sealie]

It really depends on what stage of life you're in. When I was in my twenties/early thirties, people didn't want to work for a borrring old bank or insurance company, they wanted to work on something cutting edge, high profile, in a company that only brings in the best and the brightest and you're surrounded by smart people and living where stuff is exciting and working whatever weird hours you like and maybe there's some other perks like free food, hammocks in the employee lounge, and you can bring your dog to work. You're spending money as fast as you can make it, too, because your paycheck is the most money you've ever seen in your life. It takes a while to figure that all those perks are just to keep you in the office longer, and all your coworkers will talk about how passionate they are about the work, and some companies will lay you off for being good-but-not-fantastic, and when you're young you crave this sort of pressure because you're sure you're one of the top 1%. Someone in that mindset is not moving to Pittsburgh for the great price they can get on a house. They don't care that much about their retirement either. Not yet. You can live comfortably either place so long as you don't mind putting it on the Visa.

[XRiteMA98]

Interesting point of view, Sealie and I think it's true. I have a friend whose son graduated from CMU computer science this year and took a job in sillicon valley in one of the social media things, I forgot the name. I can see how this is. It reminds me of my first professional years here, in a startup that is now, after few m&A, part of a California company. Everyone was a cmu graduate and it was so cool, like you wouldn;t believe it. But then I wanted to work in finances - that's the beauty of our job, you can work in any domain- and I jumped from a startup into a big investment company and so on. I was almost on the verge of moving to New York to work on wall street but I got a better offer here and I stayed.

I can definitely understand Julie's friend mentality also, because I've been there, done that.
No matter how you look at it, it is absolutely cool and I can only say we live very exciting times, both over there and over here (in Pgh) too. I predict that the IT sector in Pgh will only grow, so not that many smart people will be leaving. And of course there will be smart people coming back or relocating