Sanyo moving SD USA HQ to Dallas Area

[barnaby33]

You do have a choice, you can leave. Lots of people are doing it, apparently its all the rage. I have never heard software developer salaries are higher in most places (excluding SF/NYC/Boston) than here. The only thing thats really cheaper is housing and that is correcting itself as we speak.

Of course its going to take a while and I can totally understand people not wanting to move here till it does. If you have an outdoors kind of life there is nowhere that combines the quality of life of San Diego with the ability to make a living. In high tech, not even close.

So as far as companies moving out of SoCal, yes they do all the time and will continue to do so. Eventually, they will realize the error of their ways and move back to find the quality of employees that just don’t exist in places like Dallas in any quantity.

Josh

[ybc]

I don’t know about software developers, but for system/network architect type, it’s definintely better elsewhere. Even LA is better. Dallas could be better too.

What data suggests taht quality of employees here is better than that found in Dallas (as implied by your statement)?

[JES]

The situation would have to correct itself quite a bit to make it worthwhile for the average worker, say an engineer, to relocate to San Diego. For example, I have a buddy who is a electrical engineer in Wisconsin, just outside of Milwaukee. Paradise on earth? Not quite, unless you like cross country skiing, ice fishing and hunting…and brats!
Anyway, my buddy gets paid the same as a EE would in San Diego, his home cost him 130k and he is living a comfortable life in a top notch suburb with neighbors he actually knows. For the most part, the wives are home with the kids and they have no commute. The weather and mountains, and well, some of the people here are nice, but why on earth would he trade what he has for a job with the same salary, a long commute, neighbors he will likely never know, putting his wife to work and paying 650k for a house? So it corrects itself to 500k…still not worth it. If you can deal with the negatives, going the other way and moving to WI and most other states makes perfect sense right now. If it corrects itself alot then it may start to make sense…

[PerryChase]

San Diego lifestyle is really a state of mind. I justify living in SD on the great quality of life we have here. But I know it’s very irrational. Human nature is very adaptable and we can always find ways to justify what we do.

I believe that one reason coastal RE prices are high is because of the high concentration of immigrants. Immigrants think that American RE prices are cheap in relation to wages.

San Diego prices aren’t bad compared to other places in the world. My friend in Tokyo lives in a tiny (but lovely) 1 bedroom that costs $900k. In Shanghai, the bubble is still going in on strong. People there don’t make that much but still manage to buy $200k apartments like hotcakes.

[JES]

Really? I know housing is expensive in Europe as well, but I don’t know that home prices are high here because of immigrants.

[barnaby33]

I didn’t imply, I explicitly stated it. The quality of employees is better here, not different better. San Diego has one of the highest percentages of college educated people in the nation. Despite what people say about SoCal in general and San Diego in particular companies come here because in lots of other places they can’t find the kind of employees they need. If all you need is people on a production line, you can get those anywhere. When it comes to thinkers though, they want to live in nice places. San Diego is one of the nicest.

You can point to all sorts of negatives and to your credit you have. I for one am not suprised that an engineer in WI makes what he would here, that his home is cheaper his wife can stay at home. You can do those here too, you just have to make more. Its all whats important to you.

As to long commutes, that is something that most people volunteer for when the move here. Rather than live in a smaller house and consume less of the Earths resources; they want to live like they did in the mid-west. Isn’t that why people live in the mid-west? (Big cars, big pants sizes, lots of room between you and your neighbors.)

Oh and I know my neighbors. I don’t love all of them, but I know them, but thats just me.

Josh

[carlislematthew]

and in the wireless sector everyone seems to be hiring.

Finding the people is the problem in the wireless industry! The company I just moved to is hiring like mad and struggling to find the people. In the tech field, I’m not sure that San Diego is any different in that regard. I just moved from Seattle and LA and it’s the same there too.

[carlislematthew]

Who knows what Qualcomm’s plans really are? The current cell phone technology is used only in the US, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the US eventually adopts the European and Asian standard. Then what happens to CDMA? Their job openings have been posted for a long time – UT reported 500 openings as of last December. My friend, a VP at one of their divisions, had never even heard of a hiring problem, so who knows if these are just ongoing postings.

I’m no expert, but I’m learning and work for a company that deals with Qualcomm, Sprint, Cingular, etc on a daily basis.

What I can tell you is that traditionally Qualcomm has been limited *mostly* just to the US due to CDMA (vs GSM). So, you’re right there. However, the new wireless data standards are a place where Qualcomm is heavily investing and will doubtless make significant inroads as they have a lot of the worldwide Intellectual Property that EU is using right now. They’re not getting smaller in the US (in my experience) and they’re getting bigger in the rest of the world.

PS The US doesn’t just decide to adopt a wireless standard like GSM vs CDMA. In fact, we already *have* GSM over here and have had it for years. Cingular/T-Mobile are on GSM and Verizon/Sprint are on CDMA. They exist together in the same industry and Qualcomm makes a ton of money from it.

[carlislematthew]

What is not widely known though is that Qualcomm wins either way. They control thousands of key patents to all of these technologies, including WCDMA. I think they have 30% of the world wide patents for WCDMA…

Exactly. The amount of worldwide IP they own in wireless data is greater than their percent in wireless voice. Their worldwide market is growing.

[ybc]

I lived and worked in many cities – Maryland, NYC/NJ, Charlotte, Dallas, Chicago, San Diego. Overall, I think that San Diego has very good talent in wireless (due to Qualcomm) and maybe in biotech (but biotech here is small, and most of them are in startup stage). Otherwise I don’t see how San Diego attracts better talent. In fact, we have problem attracting graduate students from top schools to San Diego sometimes from my recruiting experience. School (UCSD the best here?) is OK here, maybe we have some top research institutions like Salk, but impact is small. It is true, though, that some established people (scientists, professors, business men/women) like to retire here. Money is likely of no issue to them.

My personal experience actually says that overall IT talent is poorer here, but I don’t count it as a reliable data point.

Back to housing and economics…San Diego will likely always have higher price levels (if nothing else, those rich out-of-towners like to keep a vacation home here). But I don’t think it’s supported by better local human capital.

[Anonymous]

UCSD is an amazing draw. The school of engineering is number two in the world for research expenditures. The ranking of UCSD program would be higher if more of the grads went into academia. They end up in industry instead. The only reason we have companies here is because of the talent pool. There are so many PhD’s running around SD. As someone who came here for a PhD program, grad students will do anything to stay here. This may be why they stay 7-10 years for their PhD. You can’t even get a job teaching at a community college in the SD without a PhD.

This is not the case in other areas.

[bob007]

san diego has decent talent pool. it is okay.

[Author]

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