Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Should I move to San Fransisco (from Squamish)?
|
You've got a year to think about it. I would consider taking the job. Not sure if you're in software but at least at the very large company I'm at, they're downsizing office space so I'm not sure if they're ever expecting full-time in-office work anymore. Personally I live in the east bay to be an hour closer to the mountains, and haven't taken any jobs in the south bay. SF and the south bay can be another hour with traffic to get to Tahoe (3-5 hours during winter) / Yosemite (4 hours there, 5 back). Bishop is painfully far during the winter (7-8 hours). Last couple years, I managed to make it up for 7 weekends in a row to Tahoe. It's not great for the environment and the drive is exhausting but backcountry access is great. The long drive makes it hard to get strong and you end up picking a social life vs getting better at your sport. I remain mediocre. Anecdotally amongst friends and colleagues, tech pay far outstrips cost of living increases. Travel and gear become affordable and a few years into a vesting cycle will have you in golden handcuffs. I've written off buying a home here anytime soon but the work I do is interesting and the career opportunities don't compare. Tons of smart people to learn from. That being said, I had the opportunity to spend 4 months in Tahoe for shelter in place and holy crap, quality of life was amazing. I was in the best shape of my life and it's hard to estimate how much of a pay cut I'd take to be able to do one hour bouldering sessions after work. It's too bad there aren't many jobs out there. |
|
Don’t do it. The quality of life you are enjoying isn’t worth the pay increase, which as others have said, will be negated by cost of living and California taxes |
|
Lol, 3.5 hours to Yosemite with fine camping right outside the park is pretty darn good access in my opinion. People love to bitch about traffic, but if you leave after 7 Friday you'll be at the park entrance in 3 hours, and if you leave after 5 Sunday you'll be home in the same. SF/Bay area certainly isn't a climbing destination, but if you have goals in Yosemite and want to live in a city it's pretty great. |
|
I live on the SF peninsula and like it a lot. Housing costs depend on what you are looking for.... You could find a room to rent under $2k easily if you are sharing a place. I have a friend that pays $800, another was renting a room $1200-1500. Food and other costs aren't that much more. If you only have a year, the close climbing is good for bouldering, ok for ropes. If your work is really flexible, the traffic isn't a problem. Seems like Berkeley and Oakland always have worse traffic (they drive worse there too). Having Yosemite close is really a nice benefit although there are shenanigans to get a campsite, and covid has really screwed that up. Crowds are a problem if you only stick to the classics and moderates. I like the warm and open mentality of SF. I couldn't imagine New York though, weather isn't great, traffic is crazy, more expensive food (less fresh fruit and veggies) and all around costs seem crazy to me. |
|
There's not much else to add from what people have said, but it seems worth mentioning that the first comment isn't true in my experience. There's so much quality rock here it's ridiculous to complain about crowds. If it's "wicked crowded" you're doing something wrong. |
justgoodenoughwrote: This. Take the job, but don't move to SF. At a minimum you can do the job remotely for a year (higher earnings for that year) then quit when they try to make you move. Presumably the experience and resume entry that come with working your fancy bay area job for a year will then help you get a good job in BC (or somewhere else you enjoy - good tech jobs in Boulder these days too). For the year that you are working remote save money aggressively. Bay Area salary combined with rural cost of living is a powerful thing. Having the stash of funds will give you better options once your year of remote work is up. You could work the fancy job for a year, then take some time off after for a road trip (and while looking for the next, longer-term job). An even better option is to take the job, and use the first year to prove your effectiveness as a remote worker, then use that track record to negotiate full-time remote. If you've been remote that long and are doing good work, you'd have a good negotiating position. Especially if the nuclear option ("If you make me move I will quit") is acceptable to you. If they need you semi-local (i.e. somewhere in California) for tax reasons or other silly things, you could move to the Tahoe area and commute into SF as infrequently as possible. This is another point you could negotiate on. Instead of coming in each week, maybe you'd just come in for a 3-day block once a month. If you do have to move to SF, go in with the mindset that it is a temporary launching pad to a better career elsewhere. In tech, it is quite useful to put in a couple years somewhere in the Bay Area to get experience, build the resume, and climb up the pay grade ladder a bit. After a couple of years you can use that to get a job in Boulder, or full-time remote, etc. Whatever you do, don't move to SF permanently. It will be terrible for your outdoor recreation options. But that doesn't mean you cant take this job... |
|
If you could see yourself getting into more of the following sports than the bay area is actually pretty awesome, as in these activities are world-class here with very short drives and then you can still get your real mountains fix up in the Sierra on weekends.
If you are going to focus on Climbing and Skiing I would advise living in the east bay (Oakland / Berkeley and beyond) that way your drive to Tahoe or Yosemite is quite a bit shorter. It is not that bad when you get used to it and especially if your work schedule is somewhat flexible so that you can leave at non-rush hour times. For skiing though it definitely helps to have some friends who live in Tahoe and/or make a bunch of ski friends and get a winter lease together. |
|
JCM, that is the worst advice I have ever heard!!! If you make an agreement you need to follow through with your end! If I hired someone with the understanding they would have to move or come into the house at some point & they quit on me after I had made an investment in them I would legally grind them into poverty. They better have a great reason for leaving & had better be prepared to pay back my investment (their salary) & my costs involved. I have lived in both the S.F. & Seattle. Seattle is a desert for outdoor sports compared to S.F. |
|
I wouldn’t lie to your employer because it would be a huge red flag if you do bail after a year to your next employer. |
|
Corporations show no loyalty to their employees. Why should individual employees show any loyalty to the corporations? And are you really saying your employees aren't allowed to quit if they don't want to work for you any more? OP should make sure they aren't contractually obligated to stay for some set amount of time, or there isn't some insane non-compete clause that prevents you from working for other companies in the industry. If this is the case, don't take the job. Otherwise, work as long as you like, then leave. Certainty don't lie about anything. But it is OK to change your mind and take another job after a year. Circumstances change, and in a year you determine you can't move. Many people do this. In tech it is totally normal to jump around between companies - and actually this is well known as the best way to get ahead in this era. My GF recently worked at a tech company for 1.5 years, then parlayed that into a better job elsewhere. Business as normal. This is not seen as a red flag, but rather as a sign of being an ambitious go-getter. Any ideas of loyalty to a coporate employer is some boomer nonsense that does not apply anymore. Caveat: This advice is specific to big corporate tech. Making an assumption based on OP's description of bay-area work. Mileage may vary in other fields. Off topic: I wouldn't describe Seattle as a "desert" in any sense of the word. |
Ben Taggartwrote: Yep, Climber / WingFoiler here - the bay is where it's at fo this Goldilocks combo. Squamish, coincidentally, is also one of these climb + kitesurf in the same days kind of places. |
|
Cali is an employment-at-will state. Now, if you sign a contract, that's a different story. Mark - If you made an oral agreement, that doesn't really hold much, does it? Yes. It's shitty when people don't stand by their word. |
|
As someone suffering (ok not really suffering) from this decision right now I'll chime in. The answer is; it truly depends, and you need to actually evaluate time/money/career etc. I went from SLC , UT (lived there for 11 years) to SD, CA (finishing up my 1st year). Reason: chasing my wife around...she's a doctor. If your an "outdoorsey Instagram person" SF will be great. You can bike, ski, climb, and still be back for a 8 p.m. Warriors game all the while eating some of the best food in the country. The proximity to Yosemite and other rad stuff is amazing from almost anywhere in CA as long as you time the drive appropriately (don't be fooled this isn't that difficult it just involves some early morning or late night driving). However, outdoorsey Instagram is different from clinically insane...my last year in SLC I had a full time job and still backcountry skied 104 days in a row racking up 1,000,000 vert in the process (not trying to gloat just giving you an idea of what I mean by insane). If you're more than a weekend warrior (and I mean that in the sincerest least dickish way possible) SF, LA, SD, etc are just not geared for insanity 365 days a year. Weekends...sure...the occasional long summer weeknight yep....but doing something every day is gonna be way more of a chore than in Squamish/BC. |
|
If you make an oral agreement & there are witnesses & you break it you have a problem. & no in California, you can not fire someone for no reason. & a bad reason can get you sued. I have had to break two contracts that I signed. Both times I went to my employer & told them my situation & said I would do whatever they felt was right. Both let me go without a problem & over the years would send business my why. I retired in 2005, in 2011 I got a call from one of them that now was the CEO of one of the largest automotive bushing manufactures in the world. They had open a plant in Kent, Wa. & it was losing money left, right, & center. I signed a six-week contract for a large # at the end of three-weeks my job was done. I let them know that I was not needed anymore & they could pay me half or whatever he thought was right, or I would stay and do whatever he wanted or need from me. I owed him at least that. He sent me home with full pay! In Dec. of 2012, he asked me to verify an inventory being done at their Pico Rivera, Ca, plant. I went & spent four 12 hour days & refused any pay. |
|
^^ That is nice and all, but really isn't relevant to the way employment works in modern BigTech. Also, breaking a 6-week contract is a very different situation than taking a normal full-time job, working there for a year, then moving on. The former is a breach of contract, the latter is just normal employee turnover. So, perhaps your experience and examples are not relevant? |
|
1-2 year stints are common in bay area companies. Honor contracts sure, but I'll let Chris pipe in if that's actually what's being discussed. I wouldn't be surprised if it's more of a tacit understanding that the role would come back home to the bay when offices reopened and traveling to meet business partners again is on the table. But who knows what Dec 2021 will look like? Many people are adapting to remote work just fine. |
|
My previous employer fired a 63 year employee that worked at the job for past 40 years due to corona costs... the work is in prosthetics and he was the guy hand making devices. The regional vp lives in Phoenix and flies on daily to SFO wearing ridiculous fancy outfits. The 63 year old didn’t get a pension or any other package... so yeah, corporate companies can fuck off! |
|
I turned down a 2x salary increase for an offer to work in SF. Crowded, expensive, crowded, crowded. |
|
Like @ollieon posted, you could live in Berkeley / Oakland and take BART into SF for that one day a week in the office. The skiing will suck compared to Whistler Blackcomb. There is good winter season steep sport climbing if you climb 5.12, though. |
|
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Edit actually yeah, so i can buy your place in squamish. youll let it go pretty cheap right? imma bulldoze it and make a dirtbag parking lot. |
