[LUAU] Top 10 Best / Worst Cities For Software Developer Pay

Jim Thompson jim at netgate.com
Tue Mar 20 12:39:28 PDT 2007


On Mar 20, 2007, at 7:42 AM, Eric Hattemer wrote:

> Jim Thompson wrote:
>>    Where are the "exports" for Hawaii?
>>
> I think this is the key question.  You can't pay people with money  
> you don't have.  It's not so much about how much are "they" paying  
> as "who is there that can actually pay?"  I think the only way to  
> solve this problem would be to get more companies with more cash- 
> earning products to Hawaii.  It's not direct, but there's  
> definitely a small correlation between corporate earnings and  
> employee salaries.  How many giant (Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Apple,  
> etc.) software/computer companies have offices in Hawaii?  The only  
> one I can think of is IBM.
> -Eric Hattemer

Sun has one.  I don't know the current status, but they're still in  
the phone book.   It could be an 'e-suite' for a salesperson and  
perhaps an SE.   That said, IBM is unlikely to be doing development  
here, either.

The biggest problem with Hawaii is logistics.   While its no more  
expensive to FedEx from here than from many locations on the  
mainland, its impossible to ship "overnight" from here.  You could  
setup to do most everything over the Internet, but there is a huge  
lack of local infrastructure in terms of co-location, etc.  Having  
"lava.net" host my servers just isn't going to cut it.

And then there is the simple fact that we're currently 6 hours out of  
'sync' with the East Coast, and even California is 3 hours away.   If  
you think that doesn't matter, consider the 'window of opportunity'  
to speak with customers, suppliers, fellow employees, etc on the East  
Coast.

By the time you're sitting at your desk, with the second cup of  
coffee consumed, its 8am (haha!) here, and 2pm on the East Coast.    
They won't want to schedule conf calls past 4pm their time, so there  
is a mere 2 hours of "overlap" per day.   Of course, if you're  
willing to stay up past 2am, then you can catch them mid-doughnut,  
explain the issue du jour, and perhaps have a solution by their COB.

There is also the none-too-subtle suspicion on their part that you  
spend every spare moment on the beach, ogling the gender of your  
choice, or surfing, that you have achieved a state of "permanent  
vacation", and they are none-too-happy that your off-hours are spent  
in in a tiki-lit paradise while they return home to either sub-urban  
blandness or urban blight.

After that, you're faced with a workforce that (in the large) isn't  
technology savvy, (the Microsoft-touting sheeple are as thick here as  
anywhere), and can't even find the motivation to return to work  
reliably.  ("Sorry I fo'got to call eh...but chu know I always got  
choke aloha foa ya brah!")

All that said, I don't think its impossible to 'do' high-tech here,  
but its very difficult to 'scale' it.

Jim




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