⚠️ This video is for tech professionals already living and working in the U.S., Canada, the UK, or the EU.
If you're based outside these regions, this content likely won't apply to your situation.
** At 6:54 I meant to say, " if Texas", not "if Austin"
📍 Seattle. Austin. Atlanta.
Three very different cities, but all rising ecosystems for U.S.-based talent post-layoffs.
In this video, I break down:
✅ What kinds of roles dominate each city
✅ The type of talent and culture you'll actually work with
✅ Whether they're suitable for your career stage
✅ Realistic salary bands for PMs and Data Scientists
✅ And why some of these cities are better for scale and stability, while others are perfect for early-stage building
Next up: Canada.
Subscribe if you're tracking the same macro trends-and want signal, not noise.
#SeattleTech #AustinStartups #AtlantaTech #UStechhubs #productmanagement
#TechButMakeItReal
If you're based outside these regions, this content likely won't apply to your situation.
** At 6:54 I meant to say, " if Texas", not "if Austin"
📍 Seattle. Austin. Atlanta.
Three very different cities, but all rising ecosystems for U.S.-based talent post-layoffs.
In this video, I break down:
✅ What kinds of roles dominate each city
✅ The type of talent and culture you'll actually work with
✅ Whether they're suitable for your career stage
✅ Realistic salary bands for PMs and Data Scientists
✅ And why some of these cities are better for scale and stability, while others are perfect for early-stage building
Next up: Canada.
Subscribe if you're tracking the same macro trends-and want signal, not noise.
#SeattleTech #AustinStartups #AtlantaTech #UStechhubs #productmanagement
#TechButMakeItReal
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00This video series is for tech professionals already living and working in the US, Canada,
00:06the UK, or the European Union. If you're based outside these regions, or in an outsourcing
00:12heavy market, the data in this video will not apply to your situation. I do not cover immigration,
00:18international job hunting, or topics like how to break into tech without a college degree.
00:23If that's what you're here for, this probably isn't the right channel. And that's okay. But
00:28if you are operating within these markets, keep watching. There's a lot ahead for various
00:32seniority levels and career tracks in tech. This is part two to the video about the US tech hubs.
00:39Tech cities today can be broken into three types. High salaries, insane hustle culture,
00:44and you live paycheck to paycheck. Mid salaries, okay-ish balance, but taxes crush any real
00:50ambition. Mid to low salaries, affordable living, but social life is non-existent. In a world where
00:57housing costs have spiraled out of control. Inflation eats your race before it hits your
01:02bank account. Where geopolitical tensions reshape borders, one question looms large. Where to run?
01:10You can watch part one here. In this video, we will be talking about less popular locations in the United
01:16States where life is a lot calmer, more affordable, and where people simply have different values than
01:22what you typically find in California or New York. So let's start with Seattle, Washington.
01:28Tech scene and culture. Seattle's tech scene was built for engineers, and it still shows. In 2025,
01:34it remains a major force in tech, but it's not as chaotic, high velocity startup playground you will
01:40find down in California. Seattle is best known for big tech. Think Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta,
01:46all with massive campuses, deep budgets, and hundreds of product and engineering teams.
01:52Quality of talent. Seattle's talent pool is top tier, but it's a different flavor compared to NYC or
01:59San Francisco. While San Francisco draws wild startup founders with half-baked AI products,
02:05people who want to build the next big thing and change the world, and New York attracts hyper-ambition
02:11generalists from finance, consulting, and legacy tech. Seattle is home to deeply technical builders,
02:19skilled in stability, and scale. It's very common to come across people who have spent decades
02:24optimizing distributed systems at Amazon, or perhaps shipping a core infrastructure feature at Microsoft,
02:31or building a very specific messaging platform and messaging infrastructure for WhatsApp. The roles here
02:37are often highly specialized. The average PM or data scientist here is less about networking meetups,
02:44and more about shipping clean, sustainable, and durable product. It's not as chaotic or experimental
02:51as San Francisco or NYC, but the execution discipline and engineering collaboration in Seattle are hard to
02:58beat, especially if you're serious about learning how to build at scale. The vibes. Less flashy,
03:04more engineering driven. PMs here don't yell pivot at every meetup. Data scientists are not trying to
03:10reinvent the wheel. There is a quiet confidence to how teams build things. Companies in Seattle are big
03:15on hierarchy. This isn't a flat work sort of situation. You have to earn those title bumps. But the
03:22upside is career clarity. If you're sick of startup chaos and one defined roles, mentorship, and predictable
03:28career and compensation, Seattle might be a perfect place for you. Cost of living and salaries.
03:33The salaries for mid to senior product managers, data scientists, and software engineers are still
03:39very competitive. It's usually between $160,000 to $220,000 depending on the company and level. Big
03:45tech can push you towards $250,000 plus when equity hits. The beautiful thing about Washington state is
03:51the absence of state income tax. That alone can save you $10,000 to $20,000 compared to California or
03:57New York.
03:58Rent isn't cheap, but manageable. Groceries and lifestyle costs are high-ish, but still more
04:03affordable than California. You won't feel rich, but unlike NYC or California, you can save, you can
04:10invest, and perhaps even own something before you turn 60. Conclusion. At which stage of your career
04:17is Seattle a good idea? When is it worth it? You're a specialized tech professional with deep expertise
04:23who values a predictable career path, strong compensation, and a balanced life. You have no
04:30ambitions to build a time machine. You're here to build a solid system, grow steadily, and live well.
04:35You prioritize well-being, nature, and calmer pace over the adrenaline and cunning-edge moonshots. In
04:41Seattle, working in tech often means a stable income, real savings, generous vacation, and actual
04:48time with your family. When is it not worth it? If you get bored of repetitive work and crave the
04:54thrill
04:54of high-stakes innovation and chasing the next unicorn, you're looking for a go-hard-play-hard sort of culture
05:01with constant pressure, intensity, and the chance to swing big and fast. Seattle will likely be too
05:07slow, too comfortable, and a little too stable. Austin, Texas. Tech scene and culture. Austin's tech
05:14ecosystem has evolved fast over the past decade. It's no longer just the IBM and Dell. Now you've got
05:20the big tech, Oracle, Tesla, and a growing wave of startups. Austin isn't trying to be the next Silicon
05:26Valley, and that's exactly why it works. It's a launchpad city. You come here to build lean, fast,
05:32and extend your runway. Cost of living is still significantly lower than San Francisco or NYC.
05:37There is no state income tax, and the local ecosystem is packed with tech entrepreneurs who
05:43have done it before. You will find a lot of second-time founders, engineers leading the big tech and trying
05:48to build something new, and teams anchoring their headquarters here to access talent without burning
05:54through cash. It's especially good for MVP stage products, bootstrap ventures, and pre-seed to
05:59Series A. Quality of talent. The talent ecosystem is strong and growing. The University of Texas at
06:06Austin produces fantastic tech talent, and the influx of experienced professionals from coastal tech hubs
06:12is elevating the talent pool significantly. Plus, the layoffs over the past three years. People who are
06:18laid off across the country, and especially those in the states with high cost of living,
06:23California, for example, are now considering to move down south. So Austin is no longer a boring
06:29place in Texas with some tech forums that only locals want to work at. The vibes. I know there's
06:35a saying, don't California my Texas, so no offense to any Texans listening to this, but I've heard from
06:41people who remember the Bay Area back in early 2000s, and some of them are saying that Texas reminds them
06:47of California 2000s. Honestly, I think it's a big compliment, and also it's a known fact that if
06:54Austin were a standalone country, it would be the eighth largest economy globally by nominal GDP. To me,
07:01the Texas tech scene is the perfect blend of the charisma and hospitality of the south,
07:05the energy of early stage, old school Silicon Valley, and a very American love of capitalism.
07:12Austin has what a lot of tech hubs cannot offer, the actual vibe. It's got a lot of personality,
07:20live music, Texas barbecue, weird little bars, and that laid back yet driven energy that you rarely get
07:26at hyper-optimized tech hubs. People here work and work hard, but they also hang out. You can launch a
07:32product and hit the lake before the sunset. It's a city for people who want to work without turning
07:37into robots. Cost of living and salaries. Texas, like Washington, still has no state income tax,
07:44which gives you a nice head start on savings. Product management, data science, and software
07:48engineering salaries are looking at the range between 140 and 180, perhaps 200k plus of total comp if you're
07:57lucky. Conclusion. When is Austin a good idea? You're a mid-level to senior level tech professional
08:03who wants to grow without burning out. You're into working at pre-seed or series A phase. You're
08:09betting on Texas becoming a major tech player over the next 10 to 20 years, and you want in early.
08:15You
08:15have entrepreneurial ambitions and you're perhaps looking at various businesses, not just tech, and you
08:20want access to investors, early hires, and taxes that won't destroy your ambition. When is Texas
08:26not a good idea? If you're chasing prestige logos and need that elite level acceleration. Your thrive
08:33in high-density tech ecosystem with deep technical complexity or cutting-edge R&D. If you want that
08:39pressure and network density of places like NYC, Seattle, or San Francisco to stay sharp and motivated.
08:45Atlanta, Georgia. Tech scene and culture. Atlanta has its strengths. Logistics, fintech,
08:51cybersecurity, media tech, and increasingly AI infrastructure. You've got MailChimp, NCR,
08:58Calendly, Reddit, and lots of tech roles from legacy and non-tech native enterprises like Delta,
09:04Coca-Cola, Home Depot, all building legit tech orgs. It's also a growing B2B startup hub with strong
09:12university to startup pipelines coming from Georgia Tech. The startup scene is getting real venture capital
09:17money thanks to lower overhead and founder friendly ecosystem. But don't expect hyper growth hype.
09:23Atlanta builds with a southern drawl. Measured and sustainable. Quality of talent. Thanks to Georgia
09:29Tech, the city produces some of the sharpest engineers and data folks in the country. There is a ton of
09:34homegrown talent plus a wave of boomerang tech workers, people who did the San Francisco and were done with it,
09:42and now coming back smarter, hungrier, and ready to build something locally. Is it NYC level dense?
09:48No. But the quality per capita is very strong. You'll find smart people who actually understand
09:54how to build enterprise scale, not just their reactive feature work. The vibes. Atlanta has a
10:00strong professional energy. People move here to build stuff, grow fast, raise families, raise capitals,
10:06and make connections, not necessarily to unplug. The tech community is very diverse, driven, and tightly
10:12knit. You'll find a lot of founders that are actually open to helping each other. It's not as intense as
10:17New York, but it's definitely not slow. Culturally, Atlanta feels a lot more social and extroverted than
10:23most of the UX hubs. Cost of living and salaries. Atlanta might be one of the last major US cities
10:30where
10:31tech salaries still feel very good. A mid-level PM or data scientists can pull between $120,000 to $160
10:38,000
10:39a year, perhaps $180,000, again, if you're lucky. Now pair that with Atlanta's cost of living, which,
10:45yes, it has risen, but still much better than NYC or California or even Austin. Conclusion. At what point
10:53in your career is Atlanta a good move? If you're tired of overpriced, overhyped tech cities and looking for
11:00more stability, affordability, and real cultural depth. Atlanta does not have the loud noise of NYC
11:06or the big tech saturation of Seattle, but what it does have is balance. Great pay, lower cost of living,
11:13high talent quality, and an ecosystem where you can still keep growing. When is Atlanta a bad idea?
11:18Atlanta may not be the greatest idea if you're chasing prestige or early stage chaos. You might
11:24simply get bored. Also, if you crave that insane energy and the thrill of building something that
11:31is going to change the world. Again, that's a lot more West Coast. But if you're playing the long game,
11:36Atlanta might just be one of the best kept secrets in the US. And that's a wrap for the US.
11:41These were
11:41the five places in America that I think are worth considering if you're looking to move. Tell me if
11:46there's anything you think I missed. We could definitely do another part to this video. The next one is
11:51Canada. So stay tuned. As always, I hope this was helpful. Till next time. Bye.
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