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Tech job scene--NYC vs SF

3 points by danek ↗ HN
I'm trying to decide where to move and am asking for characterizations of New York and San Francisco in terms of their tech scenes. For example, New York seems to be dominated by finance.

I have a good network of friends in both cities and think I would be happy with either choice. My decision hinges more on where I might get to work.

Brief about me: I'm into the startup culture, but I'm not interested in working 80 hours a week on some website that rates laundromats. Most of my experience is with the MS stack (I know C# very well, F# pretty well, very strong in MSSQL, okay in other dbs). I've dabbled in a lot of the popular languages, though I avoid Java. Finally, I tend to prefer back-end work to the presentation layer, meaning I don't consider myself a web developer, so I'm wondering if my skillset might not find a good home in SF.

2 comments

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jolie
Most of the devs I know out here in SF are working on front-end, web or mobile apps. The folks I know who aren't in that category are working at much larger companies (MSFT, GOOG). MySpace is a .NET shop, but they're one of only a few companies I know of that's using a MSFT framework.

But if you're a good engineer, there's work to be had out here. You should come visit and check out the scene a bit more for yourself!

donohoe
I would say that NYC is known for finance but the reality is that its pretty large in other areas too, media, design, boutique etc.