Re: The Truth About Silicon Valley

["Robyn M. Nace" <robyn -at- BIT-NET -dot- COM>]

As someone who just left Silicon Valley for many reasons, I might as
well add my 2 cents.

1) Rent: If you want to live anywhere from San Francisco down to the
"good" parts of San Jose, be prepared to pay a lot of money. I rented a
3-bedroom house in the Cambrian Park area for $2175/mo. The houses
around me in that area were selling for upwards of $350K. In general,
the further up the peninsula you go, the more expensive.

2) Food: Food prices in CA are *less* than anywhere else in the country
that I've been (Seattle, Pittsburgh, New England).

3) Transportation: Depending on where you live, public transportation
may not be an option. If you work in the city, you're better off living
in the East Bay, with BART and much lower prices for housing, better
education, fewer people, etc.

4) Gas prices: Through the roof.

Something that no one mentioned is education. If you have children, be
very careful about where you move. Seriously. There is a severe shortage
of teachers in California, especially in Silicon Valley, because
teachers simply can't afford to live there.

Also, if you have respiratory problems, avoid the Valley in the summer.
Mmm... air you can see. The city is fine though.

However, there are a lot of technical writing jobs, people are almost
expected to work at home one or two days a week, and there are a lot of
perks, both corporate and just due to the nature of the state.

Sorry if people are sick of this already.

--
-Robyn

"Everybody dies except for two unconfirmed reports
 from Bethlehem and Transylvania."
  - harvey fierstein

http://www.bit-net.com/~robyn/

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=