Anyone else feel like a loser for living in the area and not working for a lucrative tech company? (Seattle: car insurance, condo)

[RotseCherut]

Being an overworked, underpaid drone stuck inside a cubicle is what you call feeling like a winner? Working for Microsoft does not exactly give you the same status as it did in the 1980s or 1990s during the tech boom. Today, working as a software guy or techie for Microsoft is pretty much like any other job and the turnover is a lot higher than you may think. I am only too happy that I telecommute and do not have to sit in the miserable traffic jams all day going and coming from Microsoft HQ and then being jammed into an area that feels like a college class room. The Microsoft campus is nice at first glance, but over time that would wear on me and being stuck in a giant university like building all day would drive me insane. It is nice how they have some trees around, it may keep me from going completely insane.


Now, working for Google in Kirkland or Facebook may be a bit more fun, but still means I am a corporate drone. Although, I hear Google does have a really great cafeteria for its employee with a chef on staff that prepares good quality meals. Google also supposedly gives its employees nice offices with some fancy furniture. Not to mention, a higher paycheck on average than Microsoft. Microsoft is probably more institutionalized style food.

[firehawk]

I feel the same except I am not in the states yet. seems impossible for me to get a job @ MS even though I worked there before in the UK. so competitive and so difficult. the company I dreamed of working for since I was a child - literally. part of it came true...continued on with my other course of my professional career with the notion of coming back to MS but in Redmond...and nada. Just wasting away...catching something I apparently can't.

[BATCAT]

Originally Posted by MicroOptimizer

Anyone else feel like you're not part of the "in crowd" because you don't have a 6-figure job at a brand-name company? I go to lunch in Redmond town center and see all guys eating together with Microsoft badges visibly hanging off their belts and I feel inferior for not being able to get a job at Microsoft. Then I go hang out in Seattle and feel the same way when I see all the Amazon folks in groups. Do you feel that there is a social pecking order that is developing out of the competitive tech environment of the Seattle are? Or that if you're not one of the ones making 6 figures, that you're being priced out of the city -- nature's way of telling you that you're not good enough to make it here?

My commute has me walking alongside packs of blue-badge folks everyday as I come into work, but I'm not especially envious. I have a solid job at a large nonprofit- it's not a whole lot of money, but the benefits are good and it offers good work-life balance. I know it can be really rough working for Amazon.

It's definitely gotten more expensive to rent here, but we've chosen to downsize repeatedly and stay walking distance from work rather than move out somewhere. The savings in in gas, car maintenance, and parking are considerable.

I have all kind of friends- artists, musicians, writers- who don't make a ton of money either but still live in Seattle proper. The catch is that just about all of them are without kids and live pretty simply. But even those with kids get by by living a little further out.

Also, I'm sorry, but walking around with a badge outside of the workplace looks ridiculous, and is certainly not going to inspire feelings of inferiority in me.

All that said, if I didn't have family ties and my modest career here, I doubt I'd stay in Seattle. Though it still has a lot to offer in 2015, it's not the relatively-affordable, fun center of counterculture it was 10 or 20 years ago.

[FleeingSeattle]

Originally Posted by MicroOptimizer

Anyone else feel like you're not part of the "in crowd" because you don't have a 6-figure job at a brand-name company? I go to lunch in Redmond town center and see all guys eating together with Microsoft badges visibly hanging off their belts and I feel inferior for not being able to get a job at Microsoft. Then I go hang out in Seattle and feel the same way when I see all the Amazon folks in groups. Do you feel that there is a social pecking order that is developing out of the competitive tech environment of the Seattle are? Or that if you're not one of the ones making 6 figures, that you're being priced out of the city -- nature's way of telling you that you're not good enough to make it here?

Yes, but don't let that bother you. When I was in the area I got the feeling I was looked down on for not working at Amazon or MS, even though I made much more than those people.

[RVD90277]

a couple of quick points:

1) actually it is against amazon policy to wear your badge out in public. most of the people who know and follow the policy are careful to put their badge away (in their pocket) when going outside. sure, it's a bit of a pain so not everyone does this.

2) not only is the food at google pretty good (sometime they serve stuff like alaskan king crab, lobster rolls, etc.) it's also free. msft food is subsidized but as an employee, you still pay for it.

[cis_love]

Originally Posted by RotseCherut

Being an overworked, underpaid drone stuck inside a cubicle is what you call feeling like a winner? Working for Microsoft does not exactly give you the same status as it did in the 1980s or 1990s during the tech boom. Today, working as a software guy or techie for Microsoft is pretty much like any other job and the turnover is a lot higher than you may think. I am only too happy that I telecommute and do not have to sit in the miserable traffic jams all day going and coming from Microsoft HQ and then being jammed into an area that feels like a college class room. The Microsoft campus is nice at first glance, but over time that would wear on me and being stuck in a giant university like building all day would drive me insane. It is nice how they have some trees around, it may keep me from going completely insane.


Now, working for Google in Kirkland or Facebook may be a bit more fun, but still means I am a corporate drone. Although, I hear Google does have a really great cafeteria for its employee with a chef on staff that prepares good quality meals. Google also supposedly gives its employees nice offices with some fancy furniture. Not to mention, a higher paycheck on average than Microsoft. Microsoft is probably more institutionalized style food.

^^ this sounds like an incredibly spoiled point of view. if you think about the working conditions of most people in this country and in the world, working at a MS campus would be like a dream.

[Kayela]

I feel like an utter dork when I forget to stow my glorified hall/potty pass - I had no idea how blingy that ugly thing, with a photo only slightly less flattering than my DL, really was! You wanna make money - make better corporate badges.

[RVD90277]

the amazon and google badges purposely don't have anything on them that identify the company. the last thing they want is for it to get lost and have someone use a badge to gain access.

of course pretty much everyone in seattle knows what the amazon badges look like and everyone in silicon valley knows what a google badge looks like.

microsoft badges are easy to spot because they say microsoft on them.

[seasallyttle]

Originally Posted by RVD90277

of course pretty much everyone in seattle knows what the amazon badges look like and everyone in silicon valley knows what a google badge looks like.

Is this because Amazon employees wear them out and showing when they aren't supposed to? Or that Amazon has such a high turnover that everyone in Seattle knows someone that has worked for them at one point or another? lol

[Xanathos]

I say this as someone who is *firmly* entrenched in tech.

Trust me, the vast majority of them (particularly the 'softies) aren't making 6 figures. Your 2 biggest tech companies in the area (Microsoft and Amazon) each have their own demons. At Amazon yes, you'll make a fortune, but you will never be able to spend it because you'll be working all the time. Microsoft is filled with H1-b visa workers who make 30-40 cents on the dollar. Most of them are making 70K a year....if that. There are programme managers that are bringing in the bank, but Microsoft isn't the great shakes it used to be.

The truth is, there aren't that many companies that offer the big wages and some semblance of life balance in the area. F5, EMC, Google, Facebook, Starbuck's, Tableau...it's not as many as you might think.