What has been your fav city to live in or want to live in, while working in tech?

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HK-65@reddit

Amsterdam, if you can find somewhere to live in, hands down. Also like Copenhagen.

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Dry_Row_7523@reddit

I hopped around a bunch of cities but working for the same us based team. Pay was adjusted to local pay every time.

Favorite one to live in overall was probably tokyo, but the time zone difference got old, and pay was really low. I couldnt really save any money between trips to the us to see family, international vacations etc. i did meet a few expat engineers who stayed on us local pay and they lived like royalty.

Want to live in? Im fully remote so my realistic dream is a ski town like whistler or even denver / calgary. Pipe dream would be a ski town in northern italy or southern france, ski all day then work at night.

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Devboe@reddit

Are you Japanese? I’ve visited Tokyo and loved it myself, but I’ve heard they aren’t too friendly to foreigners who live there. Perhaps Tokyo is more accepting than other cities in Japan?

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dentistwithcavity@reddit

It is not

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AznSparks@reddit

My friend has a teammate at a big tech company (not faang, but household name) living in Canmore

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WhackyWhale1@reddit (OP)

Tokyo out of left field wow good for you dang

Are you in a major city now?

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actionerror@reddit

Pre-Covid SF was pretty awesome. Will never experience that again sadly.

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Unhappy-Ladder-4594@reddit

I made the mistake of visiting SF in 2022. Holy shit how depressing. It had lost everything that once made it great. Comparing it to my previous visit in 2016 was truly upsetting. I don't think that will ever come back like it was.

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Punk_Saint@reddit

I find Paris quite nice... very relaxed environment

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country-dev@reddit

New York for sure

SF is great but sometimes the bubble gets tiring sometimes. The fast pace environment of New York just keeps me going in a way that no other city does - but its definitely not for everybody

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actionerror@reddit

NYC was fun for a weekend. Living there, no way. Too much for me.

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Individual-Brief1116@reddit

I get that about the SF bubble. NYC definitely has more diversity beyond just tech people. How's the work-life balance there though? Always heard it's pretty intense.

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country-dev@reddit

I think its the same no matter where you are, I haven't heard of people in NYC are working more than people in SF at least in tech

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IPv6forDogecoin@reddit

A college of mine was driving on the highway south of SF. He said "I don't think I've seen a billboard that isn't advertising AI/tech".

In the end we argued whether a very large sign on a restaurant counted as a billboard. As it was closest thing to selling something that wasn't AI.

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intercaetera@reddit

Depends on the season. In spring/summer/early autumn, my family home, a flat in the commieblock in the sticks in Poland. Nothing tops it: I have a home office, excellent view, family around, everything is set up the way I want it to, everything is beautiful.

Poland gets extremely dreary in the winter, though, so ideally I'd just go somewhere warm from January to April, but with kids now it's extremely impractical to do long trips like that. Before I had children, though, the best place for wintering was Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

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libre_office_warlock@reddit

I took my first job in Greater Boston and it will always be #1 in my heart. I still go there today just to work remotely. My dream is to live in Arlington or Lexington.

My favorite places I have ever been to in my life outside of that are Helsinki and Oslo. I wish I had the right to work from either. I love Iceland, too, and qualified for the remote work visa, but parliament just voted to end it last month. I didn't take the risk to go and get my last-minute stamp post-approval and I regret it.

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tvcgrid@reddit

I’ll say Berkeley, and East Bay in general. Great sunny weather, hiking, food, biking, coffee, beer, everything. And the single best grocery store ever: Berkeley Bowl. It helps that you can still public transit everywhere and get some city vibes in SF easily.

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papk23@reddit

i've worked as swe in MCOL in MI, DC, and SF. Each has its charms, and ultimately what you like will depend on your interests and priorities. SF is my favorite: highest paying jobs, and lots of stuff i like to do nature, hiking, biking, skiing.

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await_yesterday@reddit

You need to be living in a pokey £2600/mo 1br in zone 2.
You need to be paying £8.50 for a pint.
You need to be holding your phone tight on the street.
You need to be silently pissed off at people blaring music on the tube.
You need to be seething at your American colleagues making 2x as much.
You need to be paying 70% marginal income tax.

You need to be Londonmaxxing.

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WhackyWhale1@reddit (OP)

I shall london max my boy

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David_AnkiDroid@reddit

Long term, I'm aiming for Ho Chi Minh City, but the legalities and UTC+7 make it painful [fully remote + fully async is uncommon].

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WhackyWhale1@reddit (OP)

I wont lie, I believe vietnam in the next 5 years or so will be the new hot spot, specifically Saigon forsure...

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Infinite_Maximum_820@reddit

Vancouver BC

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WhackyWhale1@reddit (OP)

ohhh why over there :)

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aMonkeyRidingABadger@reddit

New York.

I’ve been based in Portland and Seattle in the past. I liked both a lot, and do miss the access to the outdoors, but after 10 years, NYC still feels like the place to be.

I’ve also spent enough time in the Bay Area to know it’s not for me, though I never lived there.

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Frequent_Bag9260@reddit

NYC was fun when I was younger and loved chaos. I can’t stand the city now that I actually want to live a peaceful, non-chaotic life

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anand_rishabh@reddit

I mean, new York isn't just Manhattan. If you want walkability, nearby parks and good public transit without the hustle and bustle commonly associated with new York, there are places in New York where you can get that

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Frequent_Bag9260@reddit

Yeah, upstate.

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Megamygdala@reddit

I like the idea of New York but I cant imagine living there

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WhackyWhale1@reddit (OP)

dammm okay. I never been to any of these big places except SF and Seattle, I gotta say seattle is so nice. But just knowing how I go about my days with where I live (I have lots of access to outdoors as well), I still see myself gravitating towards a city like NYC where there is bunch of people to meet.

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aMonkeyRidingABadger@reddit

Yeah I like the crazy diversity of people here. Also seems like job market for SWEs remains pretty strong. I get a lot of interest from recruiters still, and recruiting at my company feels harder than it should be.

Hoping to ride out my current position until I’m ready to soft retire, move abroad, and find something non-tech related to do with my time.

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rdcae@reddit

Not a SWE but I love working remotely from Amsterdam. Great tech scene.

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thewhiteliamneeson@reddit

I worked for a Defense contractor in San Diego for a short time. Worst tech job I ever had but I’ve dreamed about moving back there for 20 years.

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Initial-Process-2875@reddit

Denver's been the best. Bounced around SF and Austin for a few years but the mountain access and lower rent are worth the smaller tech scene. You stop caring about being in 'the' tech hub once you actually want to do stuff outside of work.

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Quick-Benjamin@reddit

Glasgow personally. Low cost of living compared to London which makes up for the difference in pay. Good music/pub scene. Lots of museums and galleries and things. Lots of mid sized dev shops that don't have all the bullshit of the giant corporate ones. A few of the big corporate type companies if you like that sort of thing. Good people.

Sometimes I pick up a London contract that invloves going down south once a month or so. Best of both worlds that way as I can earn London rates without living there.

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hoppyboy193216@reddit

London, undoubtedly.

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AnnoyedVelociraptor@reddit

Los Angeles. Traffic sucks. But holy shit hiking was awesome.

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WhackyWhale1@reddit (OP)

where did you hike usually?

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Leading_Yoghurt_5323@reddit

remote work made me realize the “best tech city” is honestly just wherever your daily life feels balanced

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k032@reddit

Honestly I've only lived in and around the DMV area and Baltimore area. I stayed here because I have family and connections around Baltimore.

A friend of mine after graduated college went to Wisconsin. He met some great friends apparently at his first job and dated someone. But insisted he had to move and go to NYC because it was the place to be. He packed up moved there, and then 6 months later abruptly quick and moved back to Wisconsin. The people were more important.

So, suffice to say, I think the best places can plainly be where family and friends are.

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MocknozzieRiver@reddit

I have stayed in Minneapolis the whole time. So I don't have anything to compare to but here's why I stay.

I love it here! Very progressive, community-focused city. Also not as big as the other tech hubs. The tech scene is more chill, and renting is not expensive (owning a home is more expensive of course). There are some people on their grind set, but most people in the tech scene are passion above burning yourself out. You don't come to Minneapolis to earn the big bucks. Winters are so long here that taking time to unwind in nature is treasured.

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Diligent-Scorpion-89@reddit

London hands down because it’s just a better version of New York, but realising that this is mostly a US-centric sub, I would say that NYC is definitely my favourite city there. Before Covid it was truly great, lots of things to do and the vibe was just amazing at the time. I’ve heard from friends that it has gotten worse after Covid ended, but I moved out of it in the middle of the pandemic, so don’t have my own opinion.

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talldean@reddit

Without kids, London, hands down.

With kids, I don't know, and Central London has very, very few kids.

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stuporandrew@reddit

New York. It’s everything

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ArtDeep4462@reddit

Pre-covid nyc was fun. Jobs everywhere. Clubs and bars popping. Lots of meetups.