We paid $37B above market?

[tvot]

Have done exit surveys of Waterloo Software Engineering grads. Average starting salary in Canada was $70k and in the US $110k. We didn't think to ask about currency. Average 1BR rent is $3500 in San Francisco. I think housing is way more expensive, but everything else not.

(Also, they have zero rent control.)

I knew some people that left BlackBerry for Apple and rumours were some doubled their pay -- the actual people didn't confirm this to me. They did say that housing is way more expensive, income tax is surprisingly about the same, but pretty much everything else is cheaper; this despite the San Francisco area having some of the highest food costs in the US.

Recent grad seems to be the ideal time to go, as the more established you are in any other city (KW, Chicago, etc.) the more sacrifices you have to make to your standard of living in terms of housing -- unless you're in a very senior role. Unless you are moving from Toronto or Vancouver, selling your property won't really help much to anything the valley.