this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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Try renting an apartment in Silicon Valley with a $48k/year paycheck in your pocket.
The starting salaries justified the crazy cost-of-living in a city that wanted $5000/mo for 800 sqft. Now the question becomes how you afford to get the experience in a job that pays below the regional pricetag.
800 is fucking huge tho. Big city folk can easily fitinto 300 if living alone.
It's a modest bedroom, small living room, and a kitchen.
You can fit in a smaller space. I wouldn't say you can live in it. 300ft is barely a hotel room.
Most tech jobs are outside Silicon Valley. But I see your point, they need to pay cost of living. Its still technical work
I mean, its hardly unique to SV or to the Tech Sector broadly speaking. One of the biggest challenges I've seen down in Texas is teachers earning enough money to live in their (comparatively much cheaper than California) school districts.
But I gotta say, I was earning $48k back in 2006 way out in the Houston 'burbs and it was a tight squeeze. Nothing has improved. "Just earn less" doesn't work when you're bumping up against a bunch of landlords and lenders saying "Fuck you, pay me more".
I dont disagree. Yuck. Same salaries, different decade.
I actually made quite a bit more about 4 years ago, but took a downgrade in pay for less work. Worked out well for me. But I see a lot of people floundering right now. I know one person that's been out of a tech job for over a year and had to go back to manual labor after doing a ton of work in tech. At least he got paid unlike the poor saps that get unpaid internships.
Counter offer: Rent an apartment in Bumfuck, Flyover and work for a tech company.
It’s the only way I’ve been able to afford a house.
Lots of tech companies aren't going to hire any ol' Joe Schmo that can't visit the office.
I’ve never had problem finding a WFH gig. The last five jobs I’ve had since 2011 have been at least partially WFH. And I’m a very schmoey Joe
I'm guessing companies aren't hiring fully remote new grads. And to be honest, I think that would be really tough as an employee, because it can be so hard to learn from coworkers while remote. Getting started on a new remote team is rough enough as it is
I suppose it depends on the discipline.
It's amazing how cheap living is when you aren't trying to jam yourself into a city. People talk about how there is a bunch of vacant housing, well, middle of nowhere is where it is! And it's damn cheap.
And now, with 5G and satellite internet both as solid internet sources, it is rare you will find a house that will prevent a work remote job.
The hardest part is really having a separate room for work, especially if other people live with you.
I need a big truck in case I need to haul wood from Home Depot once or twice a year, because that's worst case scenario. It needs to be an EV with 1000 mile range, because that's worst case scenario. And I need to make enough to live in Silicon Valley, because that's worst case scenario.
Wait till you find out about medical bills