I've been working on developing a business in my spare time for a while now, while it won't be the next Google or Yahoo in terms of numbers, hopefully it will provide some opportunities for SoCal developers. Maybe Y Combinator can help out with making that happen =)

Though I am working on going out on my own, since I don't plan to keep the commute up long term.

I live in Southern California, but not in San Diego or LA where the prevalence of some sort of other tech work might be somewhat possible. Instead I live in Imperial County (bottom right of California).

Here, all of the decent paying IT work is in the County, State, Federal jobs available in the area, but this doesn't really represent Programming/Development work very well since those are even fewer amongst these organizations.

There are no real private software companies and while I'd like to start something on my own and go full time down the road, there's still tons of gaps in how that would look, and potential financial risk.

So where I'm at right now locally is really the best place I could be in.

But...I worked at eBay in San Jose for a time and I had two coworkers, one who aws a UX guy who worked out of Austin and came into the office about once a month in San Jose, and the other was a developer who didn't want to leave Australia so they flew him in every now and again too.

I really wished at the time that they could offer something similar to me, allowing me to stay down here in Imperial County (mainly to be close to family) but still get to come up to the Bay Area and work in the office every now and again (a nice mix of both worlds).

On the one hand, I haven't gotten any job offers from any companies lately, but additionally I would have the same concern as jphillipsio...if for whatever reason the company that hired me and allowed me to work remotely decided to let me go...how easy would it be to get another remote job with another SV company? If that didn't pan out, what would be the likelihood of me getting anything remotely similar locally?

Lot of things people have to worry about in these situations. Stability isn't always important...but it definitely becomes a big factor once you have a family or other responsibilities you can't just easily stop providing for.

1) Is it worth it to move to the bay area? Is there an up and coming area that I have totally missed out on? 2) Finding a company with smart people that is doing interesting work? I'm sick of writing a CRUD app from scratch that finds the best kitten barber in your local neighborhood. 3) Finding a place to live in San Francisco that won't bankrupt me?

Timescale on my move is a few months but I would be more than happy to fly out and work remotely until I pack my bags one last time.

If you are interested in working with a recruiter let me know and I can put you in touch with the person that helped me. I won't name drop but if you would like me to put you in touch I will be more than happy to.

Questions: - What technology stack(s) are you comfortable with? - What type of development are you interested in the most?

Suggestions: - Do not just take a job for the sake of moving out here. A means to an end is simply not enough in the bay. You need a life too and that costs $$. Make sure you take a job that will fulfill you financially and professionally. (I moved out here 2 years ago).

- Get in touch with a recruiting agency about 1 week before you arrive. They will fill up your schedule with interviews.

- Stay anywhere you can that is cheap and near Caltrain. You'll probably have to travel all over the peninsula for interviews so a central location does not apply.

- Check Meetup.com and other user groups of interest (if you are into Node, find the node user group meeting in the bay and be there). Fill your evenings with networking events so you can meet people. Once people hear your story they will take a vested interest in your success and they will help you find interviews and network. This I cannot stress enough. Use your personality and make people want you to move out here. A lot of people are transplants and will go out of the way to help a fellow transplant out.

Other than that - good luck. I think 1 week is enough for preliminary interviews but I would plan for 2 weeks if you can. With 2 weeks I am confident you will find an offer.

Regards

You could potentially network and get a job (or at least have them fly you out for interviews) without moving. If a company likes you enough they may even assist with the move or you can try to negotiate that into your contract. Feel free to ping me.

Heads up, anyone else dreaming of this, check out Zapier, i hear they like to hire remotely!

It would be pretty easy to find a tech company willing to do phone/internet screen for a day or two remotely, and then fly you out for interview. If it goes well, you'd probably be pressured to just stay and work and then have someone else pack up/ship your stuff :)

You should have done this instead of wasting your time trying to find jobs locally, really.

Do a 40-mile search on careers.stackoverflow.com for SF and then LA. You'll see that SF has 84 jobs, LA has 9 jobs, and San Diego has 1. That gives you a rough idea of the job market.

I work at a startup in LA, and I enjoy the nightlife. But career-wise, SF area is probably much better; I plan to eventually move on to there.

It's sunny, it's warm, we have nice beaches, good people, the pace is great. It is (literally) the happiest place in America (look it up). My only complaints are my allergies (really bad here compared to elsewhere) and it lacks in the culture/diversity departments.

I'm a bootstrapped founder so I can work from anywhere.

I think your fear is the opposite of reality. Medium sized cities need developers. I basically have to hire remote freelancers. We have tech companies here in SLO (Mind Body, Level, iFixit, etc) and many have standing open positions because we can't find local people (all the Cal Poly grads leave). Same goes for Santa Barbara.

You may not command an SV salary here but the cost of living is lower (not a lot) and freelancing on the side is always an option.

All that to say, you can definitely make it work.

The real problem is lack of compelling opportunities. Your options are basically Qualcomm or Inuit -- neither of which have particular draw for young engineers.

I'm not in San Diego right now, but I've started projects and a company there, and hired dozens of engineers from the talent pool. If you have are a decent employer, you can have your pick of the litter . . . of bright, experienced folks who are aggressively 9-5.

I'm not knocking 9-5ers. They're in the right place: San Diego is truly paradise, and I support work/life balance more than I used to.

But the consistent high quality of life, and the large portion of talented people who live there for it, will always suppress San Diego's entrepreneurial aspirations.

Of course, if you are OK with less-than-leading-edge projects, or you are aggressively seeking stability, I can't recommend it enough.

If you click my profile, you can email me and I hope you do. I wouldn't mind discussing the tech scene here, the city, etc, although I may end up working remotely.

I'm hiring Ruby devs down in Costa Mesa, and I don't ask any algorithm questions :)