It is stupid to think that someone who wants to do 'web/social/mobile' can get a decent start outside of a place without lots of other people doing it. I don't think that there is anyone on Hacker News who can say they succeeded getting their start in the industry outside of a 'software' tech hub.
If someone wants to be a serious software engineer they are going to have to commit to living in SF, DC, Boston, Austin, or Portland at some point in the beginning. It is disingenuous to tell people who are starting it is otherwise. Part of the commitment of being a software engineer is living in a place with lots of other software engineers for a little while.
It is not fair to anyone starting out to say they don't have to move to where there is a lot of activity. It is so unfair.
Why? I am a professional software engineer with a job that involves working with the some of the latest trendy tools for building distributed systems (Kafka, Zookeeper, etc). But I've never lived in a tech hub.
No you don't. Marina Mile may have the highest density of yacht builders and dealers in the country, but it is far from the only place. Plus, yachts are a pretty small subset of boatbuilding, which goes on in all coastal areas.
> You can be a doctor anywhere, but if you are going to do medical research you have to be in New Orleans, New York Boston, DC / Maryland, or Chicago, maybe the Cleveland Clinic.
Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Memphis would like a word with you.
> If you are doing aerospace engineering you are going to be living in Virginia, Southern California, or Washington.
Dallas, Boston, St. Louis, Tuscon, Atlanta, Denver, and Melbourne would like a word with you.
> It is stupid to think that someone who wants to do 'web/social/mobile' can get a decent start outside of a place without lots of other people doing it.
First, it is stupid to think there do not exist a whole lot places with "lots" of people doing web/social/mobile.
Second, it is stupid to think web/social/mobile defines the tech industry. I have spent 14 years as an electrical, systems, and software engineer. I have never worked in that segment, and don't plan on it.
> I don't think that there is anyone on Hacker News who can say they succeeded getting their start in the industry outside of a 'software' tech hub.
"software" != "web/social/mobile"
Plus, despite the slightly hyperbolic way I sometimes bitch about my career path, I have spent my entire career in Dallas, and if I could learn to stomach either going back to the defense industry or jumping to enterprise development I could spend my entire career here.
> If someone wants to be a serious software engineer they are going to have to commit to living in SF, DC, Boston, Austin, or Portland at some point in the beginning. It is disingenuous to tell people who are starting it is otherwise. Part of the commitment of being a software engineer is living in a place with lots of other software engineers for a little while.
That is ridiculous, unless you define "serious software engineer" in a circular fashion such that one, by definition, needs to. Then your definition would be ridiculous.
> It is not fair to anyone starting out to say they don't have to move to where there is a lot of activity. It is so unfair.
No, it is not fair to anyone starting out to tell them that they must get their first job in one of the self-described software meccas and that they are a failure if they don't.
Wow, what a shockingly inaccurate and unbelievably close-minded worldview. I got my start in a small city in Upstate NY, quite far from any major tech hubs, as a software engineer in the medical imaging world - happily spent several years there before I even considered moving to a larger city.
Guess I need to go back in time and tell my previous self that I wasn't a "serious software engineer", eh? Or is writing software that can potentially kill someone with radiation not serious enough for you?
Well, given that I've never lived outside of Dallas and my career is well established, your claim is patently false.
> someone who wants to do 'web/social/mobile'
That is an awfully narrow definition of software engineering. I've never worked with web, social, or mobile, and I have quite a bit of experience as a software engineer under my belt. I've done platform software work for a telecom, platform software work for a robotics company, and NLP programming for a defense contractor in the past, and I currently work on network monitoring software for another telecom.
Haha! Counterexample: practically every programmer in my country.
None of our cities are "software tech hubs" like you'll find in the USA, UK or Germany.