zlacker

>>7d7n+(OP)
I grew up in metro Atlanta and studied at Georgia Tech. The state government subsidizes college education for grads with a certain GPA (HOPE Scholarship). However, I (and most CS grads I knew) left Atlanta for better paying jobs in NYC/Bay Area/Seattle/Austin. I always wondered why the ATL tech scene was 'underdeveloped' compared to comparable sized cities like Seattle and Austin, despite having major research institutions (Georgia Tech and Emory) to anchor it.

This is what I mean by 'underdeveloped':

- Most software dev job postings (as of May 2018) have SPECIFIC tech stack requirements. This to me is a red flag. Most recruiters in 'developed' tech cities assume that software development skills are transferable and that technology stacks/frameworks/languages can be learned.

- The salaries offered were still very low compared to comparable COL locations like Austin

- No major FAANG presence to put upward pressure on local developer wages

>>pratik+z9
One thing to add to this list, which gets talked less about is : Work Culture and Work Diversity. I work in a major tech firm that has offices in Atlanta. To mildly put it, it isn't friendly. Bay Area, Seattle, and to a certain extent NY and Austin have a certain set of values set in the workplace that simply don't exist everywhere. Your race, gender, nationality, and plenty of other things can invite an unwelcoming vibe towards you. Work life balance are less respected. And the fact that at the end of the day we are just human beings working with other human beings seems to be lost to many.

>>darth_+d61
Altanta has issues but the reason why it hasn't become a tech-hub is external to these factors. It is basically a snowball effect - one major company settles and the rest will come. There is a bit of inertia.

What you're alluding to is simply not true. I worked at several companies and have several friends in Atlanta area that have no such problems. I think you're extending African American population density in Atlanta to fit a narrative that simply has no backing. In fact, companies in Atlanta area are more diverse than Austin or whatever techhub you want to name, except SF Bay Area I would say.

>>system+eg1
Err, that's not what I meant. Quite the contrary tbh. I don't know about the rest of the population, but majority of employees in tech offices in Atlanta tend not to be African American, so I am not sure if you got my point at all.

>>darth_+vk1
> majority of employees in tech offices in Atlanta tend not to be African American

Genuine question - how does this compare to other industries in the city? If AAs are underrepresented in tech in Atlanta, I imagine that part of this is caused by the same problems faced by AAs in other white-collar jobs. How much of it is a problem with tech specifically?

>>yerwha+MA2
> how does this compare to other industries in the city?

Tech firms underperform massively on this metric compared to other local industries (law, accounting, general Fortune 500s like Home Depot/Delta/UPS).

That said, tech firms in Atlanta in general have more African Americans than do similar firms in e.g. Austin or SV.

If I'm African American, Atlanta is a better place for me to get hired and promoted in tech than other tech hubs. My suspicion is that the fact that managers live in Atlanta normalizes for them the notion that African Americans can excel at white-collar work, so biases that exist everywhere are somewhat reduced here.