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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Olympia is a sleepy town without much tech. In general, big cities have big jobs.

There is, however, a surprising number of Government tech jobs, but they don't pay well. There's a big base (Joint Base Lewis-McChord) with a bunch of contracting jobs, and Tacoma has a small amount of tech jobs. Nowhere near the level of even Seattle though. I know from experience - I live in Tacoma with no real desire or ability to commute to Seattle daily (at least for a couple more years). I also am not willing to work in Olympia for less than 75k (and even then the job would have to be pretty interesting), but most of the jobs are .NET C# type things, which I don't currently have experience with, and the ones that are left pay more like 55-60k,

Good to know thanks. I plan to visit the towns before moving there.

Anyone have an opinion of Vallejo?

It has ferry service to SF, so commute wise it's not terrible. Just be aware that the ferries don't run super late, so you'll be restricted when it comes to staying out late after work.

Downtown is decent (although a shell of its former self), the waterfront is good, there's good sailing & kayaking opportunities, easy access to Napa & Sonoma, plenty of hiking around. Not a bad spot.

Vallejo is commute-to-SF, although fairly extreme, and pretty horrible for commute-to-Peninsula.

In my experience, there isn't a whole lot in town itself; it's gone through a period of bankruptcy and sketciness, although not as dangerous as some other towns like Richmond, CA.

Taken like that, Olympia could be a bedroom community for....Tacoma. Not sure about tech jobs there, though. There are state government jobs in Olympia, so if you are a lawyer...

There are a bunch of State Tech jobs too, not just for lawyers. They don't pay nearly as much as Seattle jobs. Tacoma doesn't either for that matter, and Tacoma doesn't even have the Government thing going for them (just the base).

There is some "trickle" effect for tech jobs slowly making their way south (I see regular postings for Tukwilla, Renton and even Federal Way development jobs), and some in Tacoma, but my experience is they tend to hold onto that 50-60+ hours a week work ethic, but only pay 35-45k. No thanks.

Thanks for the input everyone. It's very helpful.

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