The tech industry pays big, and depending on where you live, it can pay even bigger. Although you might be comfortable living in a small town, moving to a bigger city can increase your career and personal opportunities. If you’re looking to get out of the old run-and-grind of your small town tech company, check out the top five tech markets from 2017.
- Washington D.C.
The D.C. metro area squeezes into the top five with a $99,937 average tech salary. This area is booming with start-ups, one of the most successful this past year being Appian; Pitchbook put the firm at the fifth best performing IPO in 2017 so far. Appian’s stock debuted at $12 per share in May, but today, the stock rides steady around $20 per share, a 67 percent increase.
- San Diego
Many people forget about San Diego, but it turns out that it’s an even a bigger tech-hub than Los Angeles. San Diego tech jobs pull in an average salary of $101,025, and their software development output is sizable—their software ecosystem adds $12.2 billion to the economy. While other California cities focus on start-ups and media, San Diego focuses on chemistry, biology, genomics, and medical devices.
- New York
The city that never sleeps takes third place with $103,941. New York, the largest financial hub in the U.S., needs tens of thousands of tech experts to keep their financial technology up to date and secure. New York has the added benefit of many new startups within the last year or two, which could explain why we don’t see many IPOs. Don’t sleep on New York!
- Boston
In second place, Boston comes in with an average $105,329 per year. Boston is a tech-hub known for corporations and start-ups alike. According to Paysa, 10 percent of Boston’s working populace held tech positions in 2017, and through the previous eight years, $5.5 billion in capital seeded new software and data analytics businesses. Experts warn to be cautious of slower job growth due to the persistence of non-compete agreements, which were heavily advocated by the former CEO of EMC, Joe Tucci. Luckily, you can avoid these limitations by reading your full contract.
- Silicon Valley
No surprise here, Silicon Valley comes in first with a whopping $114,654 average salary. Known for its start-up culture, many young companies have taken off and offer the most competitive salaries to attract talent. The 150 top companies, known as the SV150, grew their profits by 6.8 percent to $142 billion in 2016 citing major productivity increases. What’s even more interesting is that without Apple, profit growth for the SV150 could have been 22.1 percent. Although profits remain high in SV, the SV150 only saw employment growth of 1 percent since many of these companies have been around for over a decade.
If you’re curious about the rest of the top 10, below are the next five, kudos to Dice.
6. Seattle | $99,352 |
7. Los Angeles | $99,145 |
8. Philadelphia | $97,415 |
9. Minneapolis | $96,936 |
10. Dallas | $95,222 |
15 percent of tech professionals said that increased compensation was their top motivating factor their employer provided in 2017. Seeking out a larger income is a wise step in your career choice, but don’t forget to keep in mind other factors such as workplace flexibility, vacation time, benefits, culture, growth opportunities, and a healthy work-life balance. Sometimes the process of finding a new job can be intimidating. The good news is Tier PM makes it easier so you can focus on the things that truly matter!