This video series is for tech professionals already living and working in the US, Canada, the UK, or the European Union. If you're based outside these regions or in an outsourcing heavy market, the data in this video will not apply to your situation. I do not cover immigration, international job hunting, or topics like how to break into tech without a college degree. If that's what you're here for, this probably isn't the right channel, and that's okay. But if you are operating within these markets, keep watching. There's a lot ahead for various seniority levels and career tracks in tech. This is part two to the video about the US tech hubs.

Tech cities today can be broken into three types. High salaries, insane hustle culture, and you live paycheck to paycheck, mid salaries, okayish balance, but taxes crush any real ambition. Mid to low salaries, affordable living, but social life is non-existent. In a world where housing costs have spiraled out of control, inflation eats your race before it hits your bank account, where geopolitical tensions reshape borders, one question looms large. Where to run? You can watch part one here. In this video, we will be talking about less popular locations in the States where life is a lot calmer, more affordable, and where people simply have different values than what you typically find in California or New York.

So, let's start with Seattle, Washington.

Tech scene and culture. Seattle's tech scene was built for engineers, and it still shows. In 2025, it remains a major force in tech, but it's not as chaotic, high velocity startup playground you will find down in California. Seattle is best known for big tech. Think Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta. All with massive campuses, deep budgets, and hundreds of product and engineering teams.

Quality of talent. Seattle's talent pool is top tier, but it's a different flavor compared to NYC or San Francisco. While San Francisco draws wild startup founders with halfbaked AI products, people who want to build the next big thing and change the world, and New York attracts hyper ambition generalists from finance, consulting, and legacy tech. Seattle is home to deeply technical builders skilled in stability and scale. It's very common to come across people who have spent decades optimizing distributed systems at Amazon or perhaps shipping a core infrastructure feature at Microsoft or building a very specific messaging platform and messaging infrastructure for WhatsApp. The roles here are often highly specialized. The average PM or data scientist here is less about networking meetups and more about shipping clean, sustainable and dur durable product. It's not as chaotic or experimental as San Francisco or NYC. But the execution discipline and engineering collaboration in Seattle are hard to beat, especially if you're serious about learning how to build at scale.

The vibes less flashy, more engineering driven. PMs here don't yell pivot at every meetup. Data scientists are not trying to reinvent the wheel. There is a quiet confidence to how teams build things. Companies in Seattle are big on hierarchy. This isn't a flat work sort of situation. You have to earn those title bumps. But the upside is career clarity. If you're sick of startup chaos and want defined roles, mentorship, and predictable career and compensation, Seattle might be a perfect place for you.

Cost of living and salaries. The salaries for mid to senior product managers, data scientists, and software engineers are still very competitive. It's usually between 160 to 220 depending on the company and level. Big tech can push you towards 250 plus when equity hits. The beautiful thing about Washington state is the absence of state income tax. That alone can save you 10 to $20,000 compared to California or New York. Rent isn't cheap, but manageable. Groceries and lifestyle costs are highish, but still more affordable than California. You won't feel rich, but unlike NYC or California, you can save, you can invest, and perhaps even own something before you turn 60.

Conclusion: At which stage of your career is Seattle a good idea? When is it worth it? You're a specialized tech professional with deep expertise who values a predictable career path, strong compensation, and a balanced life. You have no ambitions to build a time machine. You're here to build a solid system, grow steadily, and live well. You prioritize well-being, nature, and calmer pace over the adrenaline and cutting edge moonshots. In Seattle, working in tech often means a stable income, real savings, generous vacation, and actual time with your family.

When is it not worth it? If you get bored of repetitive work and crave the thrill of high stakes, innovation, and chasing the next unicorn, you're looking for a go hard, play hard sort of culture with constant pressure, intensity, and the chance to swing big and fast. Seattle will likely be too slow, too comfortable, and a little too stable.

Austin, Texas. Tech scene and culture. Austin's tech ecosystem has evolved fast over the past decade. It's no longer just the IBM and Dell. Now you've got the big tech, Oracle, Tesla, and a growing wave of startups. Austin isn't trying to be the next Silicon Valley. And that's exactly why it works. It's a launchpad city. You come here to build lean, fast, and extend your runway. Cost of living is still significantly lower than San Francisco or NYC. There is no state income tax and the local ecosystem is packed with tech entrepreneurs who have done it before. You will find a lot of second-time founders, engineers leaving the big tech and trying to build something new and teams anchoring their headquarters here to access talent without burning through cash. It's especially good for MVP stage products, bootstrap ventures, and preede to series A.

Quality of talent. The talent ecosystem is strong and growing. The University of Texas at Austin produces fantastic tech talent and the influx of experienced professionals from coastal tech hubs is elevating the talent pool significantly. Plus the layoffs over the past 3 years. People who were laid off across the country and especially those in the states with high cost of living like California for example are now considering to move down south. So Austin is no longer a boring place in Texas with some tech forums that only locals want to work at.

the vibes. I know there is a saying, don't California, my Texas. So, no offense to any Texans listening to this, but I've heard from people who remember the Bay Area back in early 2000s and some of them are saying that Texas reminds them of California of 2000s. Honestly, I think it's a big compliment and also it's a known fact that if Austin were a standalone country, it would be the eighth largest economy globally by nominal GDP. To me, the Texas tech scene is the perfect blend of the charisma and hospitality of the South, the energy of early stage old school Silicon Valley, and a very American love of capitalism. Austin has what a lot of tech hubs cannot offer, the actual vibe. It's got a lot of personality, live music, Texas barbecue, weird little bars, and that laid-back yet driven energy that you rarely get at hyperoptimized tech hubs. People here work and work hard, but they also hang out. You can launch a product and hit the lake before the sunset. It's a city for people who want to work without turning into robots.

Cost of living and salaries. Texas, like Washington, still has no state income tax, which gives you a nice head start on savings. Product management, data science, and software engineering salaries are looking at the range between 140 and 180, perhaps 200k plus of total comp if you're lucky.

Conclusion: When is Austin a good idea? You're a mid-level to senior level tech professional who wants to grow without burning out. You're into working at preede or serious a phase. You're betting on Texas becoming a major tech player over the next 10 to 20 years and you want in early. You have entrepreneurial ambitions and you're perhaps looking at various businesses, not just tech. And you want access to investors, early hires, and taxes that won't destroy your ambition.

When is Texas not a good idea? If you're chasing prestige logos and need that elite level acceleration, you're thrive in high density tech ecosystem with deep technical complexity or cutting edge R&D if you want that pressure and network density of places like NYC, Seattle or San Francisco to stay sharp and motivated.

Atlanta, Georgia. Tech scene and culture. Atlanta has its strengths. logistics, fintech, cyber security, media tech, and increasingly AI infrastructure. You've got Mailchimp, NCR, Calendarly, Reddit, and lots of tech roles from legacy and nontechnative enterprises like Delta, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, all building legit tech orcs. It's also a growing B2B startup hub with strong university to startup pipelines coming from Georgia Tech. The startup scene is getting real venture capital money thanks to lower overhead and founder friendly ecosystem. But don't expect hyperrowth hype. Atlanta builds with a southern draw measured and sustainable.

quality of talent. Thanks to Georgia Tech, the city produces some of the sharpest engineers and data folks in the country. There is a ton of homegrown talent, plus a wave of boomerang tech workers. people who did the San Francisco and were done with it and now coming back smarter, hungrier, and ready to build something locally. Is it NYC level dense? No. But the quality per capita is very strong. You'll find smart people who actually understand how to build enterprise scale, not just the reactive feature work.

The vibes Atlanta has a strong professional energy. People move here to build stuff, grow fast, raise families, raise capitals, and make connections, not necessarily to unplug. The tech community is very diverse, driven, and tightly knit. You'll find a lot of founders that are actually open to helping each other. It's not as intense as New York, but it's definitely not slow. Culturally, Atlanta feels a lot more social and extroverted than most of the UX hubs.

Cost of living and salaries. Atlanta might be one of the last major US cities where tech salaries still feel very good. A mid-level PM or data scientist can pull between 120 to $160,000 a year, perhaps 180 again if you're lucky. Now, pair that with Atlanta's cost of living, which yes, it has risen, but still much better than NYC or California or even Austin.

Conclusion: At what point in your career is Atlanta a good move? If you're tired of overpriced, overhyped tech cities and looking for more stability, affordability, and real cultural depth, Atlanta does not have the loud noise of NYC, or the big tech saturation of Seattle. But what it does have is balance. Great pay, lower cost of living, high talent quality, and an ecosystem where you can still keep growing.

When is Atlanta a bad idea? Atlanta may not be the greatest idea if you're chasing prestige or early stage chaos. you might simply get bored. Also, if you crave that insane energy and the thrill of building something that is going to change the world again, that's a lot more West Coast. But if you're playing the long game, Atlanta might just be one of the best kept secrets in the US.

And that's a wrap for the US. These were the five places in America that I think are worth considering if you're looking to move. Tell me if there is anything you think I missed. We could definitely do another part to this video. The next one is Canada, so stay tuned. As always, I hope this was helpful. Till next time.