IS SF/Bay Area Worth It?

Makes sense. Yeah, I don't plan on getting out of tech anytime soon. Love the people and stuff I learn in the space. What made you want to leave? COL? People?

Do you mean as a developer or non-tech roles in tech?

I'm at at GE shop currently and the offer is also in VC/GE but just broader focus. What exciting things do you see happening in the city? Are you referring specifically to tech or just the area in general?

Awesome feedback. Thanks! What did you love most about it?

Thanks! Did you have a have a car while you were in SF? What did your commute look like?

nicer people

?

Damn. Despite all that, is it really that advantageous to be in SF/Bay for tech investing? I don't see much value other than being closer to hot companies or maybe having a tighter network. Is it just the fact that it's SF or is there a real merit for ppl working in tech to be there?

Also coming from the Midwest....I'm sure I would get less bang for buck but does the premium in comp make up for that? Where would you go once you GTFO? Back to the Midwest?

Thanks!

As someone who started their career in SF and spend 5+ years living and working in both the city and on the peninsula, I'd largely agree with the above. Although it would take a lot for me to move back now, there are some pros to the city. I'll give my thoughts below.

Pros

• Consistently some of the best food in the world, 2nd to NYC in terms of options, but the quality of everything you'll eat is almost unmatched in my opinion. I can count one one hand the bad meals I've had in SF.
• Great variety of activities due to geography and weather. Napa is only ~1 hour away, great hiking is the same, amazing surfing in Santa Cruz, Tahoe is 4 hours away, big sur, monterrey, etc. If these types of outdoor activities are appealing, it's an amazing place to live given the combo of jobs + activities.
• Weather is good not great, people think it's like LA, but it's not that hot or sunny that consistently. With that being said, it's a steady 55-75 most of the year, which I think is pretty solid.
• If you're looking to do tech/tech investing or stay in this world long-term, the branding of being a Bay Area/Silicon Valley investor does carry some weight. Moreso for engineering obviously, but even as an investor and especially if you're going to a brand name tech PE shop, you'll get a reputation of learning from the best, which is easy to carry into other markets/geos.
• Kind of a silly point that I only partially agree with, but SF is still on the cutting edge of tech advances, more so than other big cities, mainly as a function of just being in the middle of so much tech. For example, I started hearing about cryptocurrencies in 2015/2016. I remember having dinner discussions about ETH when it was like $10 and folks were thinking about the long-term potential of DAPPs, if you're into tech and that type of stuff, there aren't too many better places to be surrounded by it.

Cons

• To live in the city long-term is prohibitively expensive, even as a high earning finance professional. It's similar to NYC in the sense that even if you're making $1M+/year, you're not going to really be able to afford anything amazing. Yes, you'll have a decent $2.5/$3M house/apartment in Russian Hill/Pac Heights or maybe you'll go out east to Pleasanton or Walnut Creek to get more space, but either way, you're making a massive lifestyle sacrifice to live in SF long-term. Also, the neighborhoods I mentioned are good, but you're not going to be able to afford Palo Alto, Atherton, bigger apartments in Marina/Pac Heights, even Burlingame would be a stretch. You're going to be in either small places in the city or slightly larger places that are pretty far out.  Assuming you want a family, your family lifestyle will be very different than what is typical. You're also getting a pretty shitty house for a few million bucks compared to what you could get for 1/2 of that in a place like Chicago. As time went on, it got hard to me to wrap my head around paying $1.5M for a 2bed 2 bath1000 square foot apartment in a mediocre part of the city where homeless people are sleeping on my doorstep whereas in a place like Chicago, $1.5M gets you a 5 bed 5 bath in Lincoln Park that is 3x the size (not an exaggeration). I have a hard time accepting getting ripped off like this.
• In addition to the above point, you're likely always going to be middle class in SF, there is just too much crazy tech wealth floating around for you to ever really feel like you're ahead of the pack. Unless you've founded your own thing or were early stage at a startup that hit it big, just working in Finance, even if you were a Principal at Vista or something like that, you're going to kind of be average in SF when it comes to access to things/lifestyle etc. This is kind of a vanity point, but it's something I considered and didn't love. 
• As Nuclear Penguin mentioned, the city is poorly run, dirty, tons of homeless people, honestly not as beautiful as people describe it to be. It's frankly not worth the cost.
• Everything is focused on tech, which is a double edged sword. If you love tech, you'll be fine. If you enjoy some diversity to the people you meet, it's less likely you'll find it. My entire friend group was tech or tech adjacent.
• If you're a single guy, dating is pretty rough, honestly the girls aren't that attractive and the ones that are have their pick of whoever they want. The ratio is wildly off and there's a ton of attractive and/or rich guys out there. Since leaving, I've had way much success with dating/dating apps in every other city I've lived in. Again, it's not impossible to go on dates or to find someone good, but it's a struggle.
• As much as the surrounding area is awesome, Napa, Tahoe, etc, those things are only great if you have time and most of the people I know didn't have that much free time on their hands. It's romantic to think you'll be cruising up to Tahoe every weekend in the winter, but in reality, Tahoe is expensive unless you own a house up there, and that 4 hour drive can easily turn to 6 - 8 - 10 -12 if the weather turns on you. In my earlier days, I found more time to fight to do all those activities, but as you get older, they become less appealing. 

At the end of the day, I liked SF while I was there and wouldn't do anything differently. If you're young and see it as a short-term opportunity, I'd say go for it. Get the tech branding, experience the highlights of the Bay Area, and decide for yourself whether the pros outweigh the cons. If you're coming from the midwest though (I'm assuming Chicago), you will be in for a little bit of culture shock in terms of price and quality of living. SF is good for short stints, but unless you really have a reason to be there long-term, I think you'll find it tough to be there for more than a couple of years.

lol

I could complain about the local politics or the taxes, but really why I could never live in SF is the lack of attractive women.

Truer words have never been spoken. SFO is a shithole. 

It's ok for that...but if you work 60 hours a week and/or don't own a car, you will rarely actually go to Tahoe, etc. I know so many people in the bay who talk up outdoors but never actually do anything because things are so far from the city and the traffic is awful and none of them have cars. SLC is way better if you like the outdoors as is the Denver area. BUT, it is the hub of tech. NYC is 10x the city of SF for social life, but SF does offer outdoors access...really depends on what you want out of life. I would way rather live in NYC if I was going to do a 2-3 year stint and then get out of city living for good, but SF would be a better 10 year scenario because you can move out of SF proper when you are tired of it and you'll get to visit Tahoe, Napa, beaches, etc. once you can find a spot with a car/garage.

Pizz

SF is complete dog shit. Expensive and dirty. Not sure why anyone even stays here. 

Not just SF, the whole SF bay area.

I'm a senior at Stanford - so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I have lived temporarily in SF and spent ~way~ too much time all across the Southbay for the past 4 years.1) Crime and homelessness is pretty much nonexistent in Mountainview/Redwood City/Menlo Park. These are suburbs that are extraordinarily affluent and a lot of single family homes - if you want to settle down with kids one day, it's a perfectly quaint area for that (but it is indeed VERY expensive, you're in finance though so not a big deal). Conversely, this place is so fucking boring - downtown Palo Alto is probably the closest to any nightlife you'll get but hey that's not your primary concern.2) Feasibility of going up to SF to hang out is very doable. If you're fine driving ~57 minutes both ways on any given night - you are your significant other Can very easily plan a night on the Town if you so choose. I just think SF is an incredibly boring city - not one I would usually be willing to make the commute for.If you have any more specific questions I could try to help out!