San Jose job offer - need advice

I have received a job offer from a company 
in San Jose, California. The position title is: Test Development
Engineering. The salary offered is 67k/year with Relocation Assistance
and a Benefits package. I already have a 60k/year job in Toronto,
Canada as Applications Engineer.

The San Jose job is closer to circuit-design which is an area I would
like to get into.

I was told that the housing prices of Bay Area will make this salary
into a 50k equivalent of Toronto. So practically my "buying power" is
reduced.

I have a dillema whether: 
-Professional advantages of this position, closer to ciruit design. 
-Working in Silicon Valley, the Mecca of HighTech. 

outweigh the offered salary ?

Thanks in advance.

HI,
I made the same mistake in miss-calculaiton when I moved to New York
from Sweden. 

Life in the US is far more expensive that you think. Gas, electricity,
tolls, federal, state, local, socialsecurity taxes adds up to a level
very close to the ones in Europe, but the benefits are much less.

Check out what you want, look for a house similar to the one you have,
check the utility bills and compare it to what you have as well as how
much extra you need to add to your insurnce, they all adds up at the
end.

BR,
/FA
On 5 Jan 2005 20:55:01 -0800, vbishtei@hotmail.com (vadim) wrote:

>I have received a job offer from a company 
>in San Jose, California. The position title is: Test Development
>Engineering. The salary offered is 67k/year with Relocation Assistance
>and a Benefits package. I already have a 60k/year job in Toronto,
>Canada as Applications Engineer.
>
>The San Jose job is closer to circuit-design which is an area I would
>like to get into.
>
>I was told that the housing prices of Bay Area will make this salary
>into a 50k equivalent of Toronto. So practically my "buying power" is
>reduced.
>
>I have a dillema whether: 
>-Professional advantages of this position, closer to ciruit design. 
>-Working in Silicon Valley, the Mecca of HighTech. 
>
>outweigh the offered salary ?
>
>Thanks in advance.

vadim wrote:
> I have received a job offer from a company 
> in San Jose, California. The position title is: Test Development
> Engineering. The salary offered is 67k/year with Relocation Assistance
> and a Benefits package. I already have a 60k/year job in Toronto,
> Canada as Applications Engineer.
> 
> The San Jose job is closer to circuit-design which is an area I would
> like to get into.
> 
> I was told that the housing prices of Bay Area will make this salary
> into a 50k equivalent of Toronto. So practically my "buying power" is
> reduced.
> 
> I have a dillema whether: 
> -Professional advantages of this position, closer to ciruit design. 
> -Working in Silicon Valley, the Mecca of HighTech. 
> 
> outweigh the offered salary ?
> 
> Thanks in advance.

I would guess you'd be financially better off in Toronto.  I don't know 
how expensive Toronto is, but I know it will be fairly expensive to live 
in San Jose.  And while the position may be closer to design, it's not 
terribly close.

I'm surprised about the comments from the guy from Sweden.  He must have 
moved someplace very expensive, because Sweden isn't cheap.  And their 
tax rate is like 98%.

vbishtei@hotmail.com (vadim) writes:
> I have received a job offer from a company in San Jose,
> California. [...] The salary offered is 67k/year [...] I already have
> a 60k/year job in Toronto, [...] I was told that the housing prices of
> Bay Area will make this salary into a 50k equivalent of Toronto.

I think you'll find it to be much worse than that, unless Toronto has a
high cost of living (I wouldn't know).  Real estate in the San Jose area
is very expensive.  Not the highest in the US, but close.  It's about
2-3 times what it is in the U.S. midwest.

> I have a dillema whether: 
> -Professional advantages of this position, closer to ciruit design. 
> -Working in Silicon Valley, the Mecca of HighTech. 
> 
> outweigh the offered salary ?

I wouldn't take it, but YMMV.

When I moved from the midwest to San Jose in 1989, it was for a $40K
salary.  I thought that was great until I got here and discovered that
I could barely make ends meet even when sharing a condo.

On the other hand, job satisfaction is worth a lot.

In article <2a613f5d.0501052055.3ac008a9@posting.google.com>,
vadim <vbishtei@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I have received a job offer from a company 
>in San Jose, California. The position title is: Test Development
>Engineering. The salary offered is 67k/year with Relocation Assistance
>and a Benefits package. I already have a 60k/year job in Toronto,
>Canada as Applications Engineer.
>
>The San Jose job is closer to circuit-design which is an area I would
>like to get into.
>
>I was told that the housing prices of Bay Area will make this salary
>into a 50k equivalent of Toronto. So practically my "buying power" is
>reduced.

And then some.  A little trawling of Craigslist for Santa Clara
housing:

random studios are about $900 a month (that's single room with
kitcheette and bathroom).

2 bdrms are $1300+.

Buing is much worse, however.  Even a 6 figure income has most bay
area houses unaffordable.

People ask $490,000 for 2 bedroom, 900 square feet homes in Santa
Clara.  Yes, thats not a typo, 1/2 a million for a 2 bdrm bungalo.


Not to mention that the US dollar has further to drop, and Toronto is
not ruled by a President who believes it is more important to be loyal
than correct.
-- 
Nicholas C. Weaver.  to reply email to "nweaver" at the domain
icsi.berkeley.edu

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 11:37:30 -0700, Kevin Neilson wrote:

> vadim wrote:
>> I have received a job offer from a company 
>> in San Jose, California. The position title is: Test Development
>> Engineering. The salary offered is 67k/year with Relocation Assistance
>> and a Benefits package. I already have a 60k/year job in Toronto,
>> Canada as Applications Engineer.
>> 
>> The San Jose job is closer to circuit-design which is an area I would
>> like to get into.
>> 
>> I was told that the housing prices of Bay Area will make this salary
>> into a 50k equivalent of Toronto. So practically my "buying power" is
>> reduced.
>> 
>> I have a dillema whether: 
>> -Professional advantages of this position, closer to ciruit design. 
>> -Working in Silicon Valley, the Mecca of HighTech. 
>> 
>> outweigh the offered salary ?
>> 
>> Thanks in advance.
> 
> I would guess you'd be financially better off in Toronto.  I don't know 
> how expensive Toronto is, but I know it will be fairly expensive to live 
> in San Jose.  And while the position may be closer to design, it's not 
> terribly close.
> 
> I'm surprised about the comments from the guy from Sweden.  He must have 
> moved someplace very expensive, because Sweden isn't cheap.  And their 
> tax rate is like 98%.

I don't know about Sweden, but in Norway the tax rate isn't actually as
bad as that - only about 40% or so.  It varies widely according to your
income (children's author Astrid Lingrid in Sweden once had a tax rate of
102%), and things like mortgages are tax-deductable.  Your taxes also
cover the national health care, saving you from health insurance.  As for
the cost of living here (in Norway - Sweden is similar), some things are
relatively cheap (like housing, and electricity), and others expensive
(like petrol).  Salaries have much less spread here - high-paying jobs are
lower-paying than the UK or the US, but low-paying jobs are better paid. 
And as an indication, my four-bedroom house cost about twice my salary,
although admittedly that was an unusually good deal.

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 11:37:30 -0700, Kevin Neilson
<kevin_neilson@removethiscomcast.net> wrote:
>I'm surprised about the comments from the guy from Sweden.  He must have 
>moved someplace very expensive, because Sweden isn't cheap.  And their 
>tax rate is like 98%.

Hi Kevin,
Interesting comment. It was actually the reaction I got from most of
my American friends while I was working there. But the fact that the
tax rate in Sweden is not much higher that the US, should come like a
shock to most of people (it was for me deffinitely).

I was living in New York, the federal tax was about 23%, then you have
the social security tax at 6.5%, plus NY State tax (I think it is
3.7%) then you have the NY City tax, plus an addition to that was the
"cleaning" tax!

Ok, if you think this is nothing,then you have to compare to what I
payed in Sweden. My tax rate in Sweden was 38.5%, it was slightly less
because I choose not to pay tax to the Swedish Chirch. For that I was
getting free education, free health care, excellent public service and
a lot more. 

BR,
/Farhad
PS. I am living in Ireland right now and the tax system here is kind
of messy, I still havn't figured out how the system really works!

In article <81ust09aufitcab5e3pp55a4h95o8sb3n4@4ax.com>,
Farhad A.  <n e w s @ p a n j e r e . n e t> wrote:
>I was living in New York, the federal tax was about 23%, then you have
>the social security tax at 6.5%, plus NY State tax (I think it is
>3.7%) then you have the NY City tax, plus an addition to that was the
>"cleaning" tax!

California is worse.  Say a marginal fed of 25%, state of 9%, social
security and medicare of ~8%, and the marginal tax rate is pretty
high.  Then add the >8% sales tax, the 1% property tax, and its quite
amazing just how poor the state government is with taxes as high as
they are.

Note those 103% tax figures you see in some horror stories are for
MARGINAL tax rate, you earn another dollar, how much tax do you pay on
it...

Well, I once had a case where because I made an extra $20, I was no
longer eligible for a $60 california tax credit, making the marginal
tax rate on that last $20 a whopping 300%!
-- 
Nicholas C. Weaver.  to reply email to "nweaver" at the domain
icsi.berkeley.edu

"Nicholas Weaver" <nweaver@soda.csua.berkeley.edu> wrote in message 
news:crkcdf$irk$1@agate.berkeley.edu...
>
> Not to mention that the US dollar has further to drop, and Toronto is
> not ruled by a President who believes it is more important to be loyal
> than correct.
> -- 
Sounds like you should move to Toronto, Nick. 

David <david.nospam@westcontrol.removethis.com> writes:

> I don't know about Sweden, but in Norway the tax rate isn't actually as
> bad as that - only about 40% or so.  It varies widely according to your

I'm (in Norway) close to 50% income tax, sales tax (VAT) is 25%, a
gallon of gasoline is US$ 6. Then there are road tax, toll, lots of
extra taxes on certain gods, if you buy a high range Mercedes you can
pay more than 1 million NOK (160,000 US$) in taxes alone on that
single purchase. 0.5L beer costs 5+ US$ in the store and usually US$
10+ in a resturant.

> the cost of living here (in Norway - Sweden is similar), some things are
> relatively cheap (like housing, and electricity), and others expensive
> (like petrol).  Salaries have much less spread here - high-paying jobs are
> lower-paying than the UK or the US, but low-paying jobs are better paid. 
> And as an indication, my four-bedroom house cost about twice my salary,
> although admittedly that was an unusually good deal.

You can't be living in a major city. In Oslo a four bedroom house cost
at least 5x my annual income (or 10x after income tax).

I've lived in California and the only think I can think of which is
more expensive there than in Norway is lift tickets at ski resorts...

Petter
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