You'd be surprised at how close to those salaries you can get in the exact same companies, just not in their main campuses.
I work for one of those, from home, with the same salary as bay area coworkers, but a 200K 4 bedroom house.
There was a recent article here in HN about how Silicon Valley was hiring physicists. Oscar, the main name in that story, is a coworker of mine and he isn't working from the Bay area: he is working from Hawaii.
Living in San Francisco is a legitimate choice, but the whole idea that you have to go live there to get the good salaries and work at the good companies is less and less true every year.
Even Hawaii has a gradient of pricing. General cost of living is more expensive than most places on the mainland because almost everything has to be brought in on a ship, but outside of the major tourist cities prices are more manageable.
Housing is slightly cheaper, but food and utilities are substantially more. All-in -- especially if you're renting -- HI is more expensive than SF proper.
I work for one of those, from home, with the same salary as bay area coworkers, but a 200K 4 bedroom house.
There was a recent article here in HN about how Silicon Valley was hiring physicists. Oscar, the main name in that story, is a coworker of mine and he isn't working from the Bay area: he is working from Hawaii.
Living in San Francisco is a legitimate choice, but the whole idea that you have to go live there to get the good salaries and work at the good companies is less and less true every year.