IT Jobs on West Coast?

Hammer80

I may be moving to San Francisco or Seattle not sure where yet, here is my dilemma I have an Associates in IT from a Tech School, an A+, database and SQL experience, and currently studying for my CCNA. Somewhat being familiar with the jobs there I am wondering if I have a shot getting a job while competing with some of the most educated IT folks in the country, considering that both the cities have a population 50%+ with at least a Bachelors I am feeling a little intimidated. Should I be worried? Also which skills are high in demand and there is not enough supply to fill those needs?

The Technomancer

Good DBAs are hard to find in the SF Bay market, and they're commanding premium salaries. MySQL, Oracle, and whatever NoSQL is the flavor of the month tend to pay the best, although there's a market for Sybase/MSSQL DBAs as well in finance and gaming. Networking demand is not so hot thanks to a majority of the startups around here starting out in the cloud, but the larger corporations still need a hefty complement of skilled network engineers, as do startups that have grown in scale enough to make some public cloud solutions too expensive.

There's a shortage of Linux engineers as well.

As far as salaries go, glassdoor.com, salary.com, and payscale.com have pretty accurate information in this area -- as do most 'net-based services like Yelp and such. People love their Web 2.0 tools out here. Many companies will relocate you in return for staying with them for a year (or at least partially to fully reimburse you) -- you'll have to repay it otherwise. A startup is going to generally offer a lower-than-median salary, but make up for it with perks and a larger equity share, so do your due diligence on any startups that make you an offer. On the flip side, they're also more likely to hire you for a position you may be underqualified for and teach you the job -- and free training is free training and therefore something to consider as part of your total compensation package.

As a general rule, shoot for the median salary for a position while you're learning, and aim for the 90th percentile pay once you've established yourself in the area -- your pitch for that is "Well, if you're looking for A players, you need to pay A level salaries." References matter a lot out here -- many of the business leaders and managers know each other, either via working with them previously or through meeting them at conferences. Being able to pass a "back-channel reference check" (your hiring manager having a beer with a previous coworker at a company you've worked at and getting the scoop that HR can't legally offer) goes a long way.

Be flexible about job duties, be eager to learn what the company wants to teach you, and be confident in your ability to pick up what you may not know, and that'll go a long way around here.

If you'd like to PM me more details about your search, what sorts of jobs you're looking for, and the type of salary you'd like to make, I can offer more detailed advice. I'm happy to look over your resume as well to help you write it for the audience out here.

etbjr182

This is the BEST advice I've read about job searching on this forum. Great post!