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Disappointing photos show what living in San Francisco on a tech salary really looks like
Disappointing photos show what living in San Francisco on a tech salary really looks like
Katie CanalesJan 15, 2019, 23:51 IST
HBO
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Tech workers come to Silicon Valley in droves with dreams of working for one of the world's biggest tech companies, like Google or Apple, or with hopes of founding their own startup.
Such a position entails a comfortable salary, but having a tech salary in the nation's most competitive real estate market doesn't always promise a life of luxury.
Here's what working in Silicon Valley's tech sphere really looks like.
The dream of working for one of Silicon Valley's many tech behemoths, along with the luxuries such a six-figure salary would afford, has resulted in droves of engineering degree-toting techies coming to the Bay Area.
Though, in reality, earning a tech salary is not all it's cracked up to be.
In the nation's most competitive real estate market, it can be next to impossible to find affordable living accommodations. The housing crisis has left thousands struggling, and has done nothing to help the city's homelessness epidemic.
It costs $3,360 on average for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. That means, when the average starting tech salary of $91,738 is taken into account, some techies are shelling out a good portion of their paycheck solely on rent.
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And when it's time for those tech workers to buy a home, forget it: a recent study found that 60% of them felt they couldn't afford one.
That's all before factoring in other lofty expenses in the city, like $7 bacon strips.
From fraternity house-style "hacker houses" to sleeping in a Google parking lot, here's what a tech salary in the "Tech Capital of the World" looks like.
It's one of many communal spaces in the city designed to help techies circumvent the housing shortage and high rent. The home offers 50 rooms across three floors.
They use an extension chord to stay hooked up to the house for power, and they also keep a generator outside for when they want to use the air conditioner or washer and dryer.
...and his wife Kara shelled out $1,900 for a Winnebago van and moved to Silicon Valley from Chicago when Pete snagged a job with one of Google's self-driving car teams.
They parked their mobile digs in the Google parking lot and lived there for a year and a half to two years (before having their daughter,) putting 80% of their income into savings.
“I think a lot of people think this is like the antithesis of comfortable, but I actually really loved it,” Jana told Tech Insider in 2016. “I was really happy.”
They saved up enough to put a down payment on a house. Seven months after moving into it, they got a dog, four cats, and three chickens. That was also when their daughter was born.
As for their van, they'll hang on to it and use it for traveling. Pete told Tech Insider that he sees plenty of other vans parked in the parking lot at Google. “We’re not the only ones," he said.
