How important is location (such as Bay Area) for career growth?

I'm curious if there are any opportunities that you've got due to staying in the Bay Area that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Most of the opportunities are from co-workers who are looking for people to start companies with or co-workers who ended up starting their own company looking to hire. There is a rich startup ecosystem in the Bay Area where companies are being founded each day.

How important is the location where you stay and work at important for career growth?

But what about engineers working in big tech?

I don't think it matters as much for big tech. But, I do know people who have intentionally moved to the Bay Area because that's where their team or leadership is located. They wanted to get more in person time with them to help with career growth. From that perspective, it makes sense.

I do think that if you are trying to accelerate your career growth, it does make sense to get as many opportunities as possible to physically interact with the people who will be involved with your work. It doesn't guarantee anything, but having more opportunities means more spontaneous conversations, which means more chances to showcase yourself.

If you can do that in any of the other tech metro areas, you don't necessarily have to move to the Bay Area.

Location is very important. It will dictate who you meet and the culture you are immersed in.

I made a video about it here: Why Location Is CRITICAL For High Performing Software Engineers

As someone who has only lived in the Bay Area, I can't say what other tech hubs are like, but from what I've heard:

• Bay Area: the undisputed world capital of technology. Smart people and a constant discussion of technology and ambition.
• Seattle: more Big Tech focused (Amazon, Microsoft), and will skew older with older technology
• New York: lot more diversity in types of jobs, e.g. tech, finance, food, entertainment. Plenty of VCs here as well, but the main currency of status is moeny/power.
• Austin: more sales focused, and people generally don't work as hard

It also depends on what you're trying to achieve in your career. I'd optimize for where the best opportunities and people are within your company.

To get more plugged into various meetings, see: Any meetups you recommend around Bay Area?