My chances of landing a decent Job in San Francisco

windsor888

Hi there guys, Im migrating to San Francisco from the Philippines this April. I want to know my chances of landing a decent job. I have 5 years experience in as small company as IT support basically doing everything that concerns computers. My last job is Application Administrator for 2 years in a tech company building servers, monitoring, pc support etc.. I handled cisco switches and Linux servers. I currently hold MCSA Server 2012, and CCNA and in the process of getting CCNP Routing and Switching. I want to be a Network Engineer but as ive read its hard to land this job. Im targetting at least 60,000 USD yearly for me to at least support myself . I don't think I can survive on minimum wage. I want to know if it's achievable thanks.

Polynomial

You're not going to be able to survive on 60k in San Francisco.

RedRanger

Many good paying IT jobs in San Francisco also require US citizenship. Considering you said you're Filipino those jobs would not be available to you. You should try landing a job before going to SF. Also as the other guy said you won't be able to survive on $60k a year in SF or the surrounding area. From what I understand, from relatives who actually live in California you should be making a minimum of $75k+ for a single person to live in San Francisco proper and surrounding suburbs.

windsor888

Im an immigrant, are there any good paying jobs available or they do require US Citizenship. I dont have to live in San Francisco, Maybe in the neighboring cities where its not that expensive. I want to have an idea on what jobs and salary I can get with my credentials. Im still trying to decide on where to look for a job My options are near San Francisco CA or in Cerritos CA. Thanks!

markulous

The only way you're going to save money in a "neighboring city" is to commute several hours from Tracy, Modesto, or Stockton area. Anything near the bay is ridiculous for cost.

Polynomial

markulous wrote: »

The only way you're going to save money in a "neighboring city" is to commute several hours from Tracy, Modesto, or Stockton area. Anything near the bay is ridiculous for cost.

It really is that bad. I have colleagues splitting 2 bedrooms at $2500ish each.

markulous

Yeah I don't think I'd move there unless my household income was at 200k. If it was just me than definitely at least 100k bare minimum.

TechGromit

San Francisco is a tough city to work in, it doesn't have a well developed transit system, in most of the city most of the rail cars share the streets with traffic. While the Bart train system has 104 miles of track and 44 stations, it only services 360,000 commuters a day, Washington DC services 750k commuters a day, despite having a population 25% smaller (650k) than San Francisco (837k). Average commuting times for San Francisco are 31 minutes, 4^th highest in the nation; when you consider the other three have populations of New York 8.4 million, Chicago 2.7 million and Philadelphia 1.5 million it places that number in prospective. Commuting to San Francisco from Stockton is a 90 minute commute under the best conditions, 2 hours or more if traffic is bad. I'd recommend you search elsewhere for your first job in the United States. Once you get established, and still want to live in/near San Fransisco, you can relocate later if you can find a well paying job.

Simply put, San Fransisco is the least affordable city to live in the United States, 85.5% of income spend on spent on Housing, Utilities & Commuting, New York comes in at 53.1%.

SteveLord

OP - Is California your only consideration? Do you have family there? Because the NY/NJ area has plenty of both job opportunities and fellow filipinos if being close to your culture is important.

fmitawaps

You could live on $60K in Los Angeles if you lived in the San Fernando Valley somewhere. I used to live there and it wasn't too bad. In an area like Studio City or Sherman Oaks it should be no problem to find a 1 bedroom apartment in the $1100-$1400 range.

steelymatt

I live in San Francisco and don't even make $60k. My sister stays in Daly City where a lot of people come from the Philippines and a 1 bedroom apartment is $2300 and 3 bedroom apartment is $2900 at her apartment complex. I don't know your life style but you can always check https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/apa for an idea.

Anonymouse

Most of my family have moved around Bay Point/Pittsburg or Vallejo/Fairfield area, there's a lot of Filipinos out there. I would know 'cause I am also one who came from there! My sister and brother in law commute to San Francisco from that area via the BART train. I used to use it often too, can be a little more cost effective and less stress for commuting. I haven't lived around there for a few years but you can try checking out areas around Oakland for cheaper living. However you may have to deal with higher crime rate depending on where you'd want to live. Berkeley is kind of expensive but awesome. Cheaper cost of living in some parts of the East Bay IMO. I work out in Silicon Valley where pay seems to be a bit higher. Check out local city government jobs as they seem to pay upwards of $60k for pretty low level helpdesk and desktop work. I'm earning well over that doing a pretty easy jack of all trades desktop type of role right now. It would be kinda tough in the SF Bay Area on a single $60k a year income unless you're pretty good at pinching pennies. IMO (which could be a strongly exaggerated opinion) you need to make at least $80k around here to be comfortable, anything under that is almost poverty level it feels.

Do you have any family you can stay with?

Also padmapper might be another way to gauge how rent would be in some areas.

on the mat

Well the good news is landing some type of job in SF or surrounding areas in IT should not be exceptionally difficult as there is a huge market for technology jobs here. As long as your experience comes from somewhat legit companies and your education comes from a school recognized in the US you should be fine. Also $60K is enough to get by if you live just outside SF. Most people live with roommates so you can go that route.

The big question is sponsorship. Do you already have the means to get into the country legally? Unless you have family out here or you have a very specialized skill its nearly impossible for a Filipino to get into the US. It used to be relatively easy as nurses from the Philippines were highly coveted and the men could get citizenship by joining the army. Those days are long gone though. If you do not have actual means to get into the country your best bet is to get into an outsourcing firm such as Accenture. They can get you working in the US on an H1-B and if you are good enough you can use that to stay here permanently.