Bob

Pretty rare....they tend to make out with better pension/holiday/medical insurance.

Though senior folks can make quite a bit. A lot of it tends to come from being able to roll over holiday and sick pay, which is separate and after years of not using either, claiming it on retirement, which in the private sector, depending on the state can just be lost.

Jscl

Apologies as I'm likely to repeat some stuff other people have mentioned.

DO NOT LIVE IN EAST PALO ALTO. Just don't. Trust us.

Degree + 8 yrs experience in your area in Silicon Valley would be $125K+ unless they're being a bit sneaky because you're an unknown entity.

Our experience is it's unusual for a tech employer here to cover medical fully. We pay (couple) about $300 fortnightly for ours.

Expect to drive 10-20 miles each way to work. You might not have to, but most people do in order to live somewhere nice.

Nice house, three bedroom, you MIGHT be able to get something good for $500K at the moment, but it's mostly only foreclosure/short sale homes going for that amount in the nicer areas at the moment. Our rent in San Jose on a nice four bedroom house in a nice-ish area is $2800. There are cheaper places to rent, obviously, but it's also pretty competitive right now due to people being forced to rent after losing their homes. RENT FIRST before you even think about buying.

Gas here is currently $4.03 a gallon. Regular cars here probably do about 25mpg?? My dh drives about 15 miles to work each day and probably spends less that $100 on gas each month.

Food shopping I'd say is roughly the same price total as in the UK but things are different. Veg is more expensive, rubbish food is less expensive . Sales tax (like VAT) in this area is 8.5-9.5% (isn't on food).

On your salary you'll be paying the highest California Income Tax, which is 9.3%.

My feeling is if you're earning $150K a year and aren't big spenders you'll be able to put into savings at least $2K a month. But we don't get out much, so maybe we're not the best judges of that.

Jscl

p.s. you're right that many people do not take their full 20 days holiday. Some employers do a Christmas/New Year shut down to cut costs and force you to use days then, though. Also I presume you are aware your work day will not end when you leave the office. The good side is assuming you're software engineering and don't meet the public you can probably shift your day to suit your needs and avoid a lot of the traffic.

Oh yes, did I say traffic is bad? 101 is bad. 280 is bad. 85 can be bad.

lj2

Thanks for your comments, which are appreciated. The homes we are lookign at appear to be in OK school districts (we ain't gonna get 10s, but we can get decent schools in patchyish districts / decent enough schools... that's OK for me at elementary level I think. Different matter in 5 years time...).

We only need a 3BR 1BA (2BA ideally...) and there are definitely options available on Craigslist currently. You are right re: walking distance to BART (only seems possible in Concord of those areas listed - Bus / Rideshare options are very likely). As I said, I recognise that the proof of the pudding is in the eating ie when I get out there. I know the rental market is competitive and that I may not be the best looking tenant in terms of credit rating and I know it's fairly common for rents to bump up on viewing properties... I'm nervous about the cost of living, but we don't need a huge amount. We're fine in a relatively small house in a less than perfect area with less than perfect schools for a year or two as long as we feel safe. I think all of the places above have had a house or two that we'd have taken shown on Craigslist over the last couple of weeks...

IF when we get out there, it's all impossible at 2.2, then I shall be having a 2 hour commute from Tracy! Exciting...

The other thing Im nervous about is the missus settling in... we're pretty grounded people (I come from a very working class background and she likes a dance and a night out...) and are a touch concerned about whether we'll find kindered spirits in the pretty affluent Bay Area... I'll be fine, but if she don't love the place Im gonna struggle to make the move permanent! Any tips there welcome... For me, it's all about positive attitude and making the effort to meet people, enjoying everyones' good points and things will fall into place... but any more structured advice would be particularly welcome

lj2

Sorry - I mean $130k. We are in similar positions, except that I have an extra two kids and $800 in debt repayments each month, plus higher taxes and CoL generally in SF. My life would be less comfortable than you, but I reckon $130k is doable for us. Savings? 401k? Mayb one day...

lj2

Because your comments are very useful... here are some examples:

2 places each 30 min walk to SunnyVale Caltrain:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/2864338410.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/apa/2861930857.html

4 BR with walk to Walnut Creek BART
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/2864064812.html

And cheaper in Concord (needing to avoid Four Corners area, I realise...)
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/2863173441.html

Any comments welcome - Am I missing something?

elop

Given that you have a family, have you thought about Pleasanton/Livermore area? Its slightly more expensive, but schools are graded 9 and 10, as opposed to 1 (with a couple of 7s) for concord.
Perhaps not as convenient for public transport, but depends on your requirements. Are you going to use public transport everyday?

eg.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/apa/2858027999.html

lj2

Thanks - Yes, I have. I love Livermore in particulare and both places are options. The big negative of course is the proximity for Public Transport which I would be using most days (not every day - approx 60-70%).

Concord schools are the big concern with Concord... we realise we won't be able to get everything we want on our budget.

Michael

The following link is a pretty good link describing the benefits and average salary of major Silicon Valley companies. Most of the bigger companies keep salary a secret but there are some moderate size companies that indicate the average salary such as Brocade Communications at $127,534, Cadence Design Systems at $132,209, Juniper Networks at $126,000, Network Appliance at $130,444, NVIDIA at $122,700, Yahoo at $110,285, and Hitachi Data Systems at $110,000.

http://www.riverbed.com/docs/Article...acestoWork.pdf

Sally Redux

This sounds a bit ominous on the second one:


Please drive by the property and view the home from the outside, before requesting an appointment/showing to see the inside.

Call 408.461.5309 to schedule a showing, only after you've previewed the exterior of the home, and the location.

lj2

Loads of them say that - some realtors seem to include it as standard wording. But of course, drive by we shall!...

caleyjag

My experience is that practical vacation time in the tech industries generally comes down to the personality of your boss. In my case ours is Dutch and really chill so we get to take whatever time off we want. However down the corridor the team leader is a complete facist and I'd imagine his staff struggle to take time off. That one just comes down to the luck.

GeoffM

Looks lovely, I'm sure.

elop

It should be obvious to the candidate if time off is likely before starting. If the office is full of swings, slides, computer games and graffiti on the walls, it's there for a reason - to keep people in. Have fun on the inside, and you won't need to go outside, or at least that appears to be the plan.

Not many places allow their staff to use up all of their PTO in one go anyway - Normally a week at a time is the limit, but I guess it depends how "important" the individual is to the company, amongst other things.

N1cky

How big is the house you live in in the UK? The 2 in Sunnyvale are 1100 and 999 sq ft, can 5 of you live somewhere so small? I looked at a house down the road the other day it was 1300 sq ft and you wouldn't have got 3 kids beds into the 2 bedrooms

On terms of schooling, my daughter is in Elementary school at a 10, and we have been far from impressed with them. Luckily this year she has a great teacher, otherwise we would have looked to have moved her.

People are friendly in the area, and if your wife is prepared to make some effort to meet people by joining groups.... She might be ok, nobody ever knows until they make the move if they'll be happy or not.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions you want answering