Amazon HQ2

[brando]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Which list? They aren't even in the top 25

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/press-kits/2017/Top%2025%20Fastest%20Metros.pdf

They're #64 by all metros (percentage growth). They're not 11 even if you limit it to "large metros".

Barely. 54k vs. 40k. Domestic migration was even closer (36k vs. 33k).

Which is amazingly close considering the Atlanta metro is three times our size.

https://wallethub.com/edu/fastest-growing-cities/7010/#methodology


It was a list of larger areas that are growing as oppose to this which skews to smaller metro areas because it's percentage based.


The reason is matters is because as good as people think Austin is, more people still decided to move to Atlanta. I think the perception of Austin's growth is over-emphasized because of how relatively small it is. Atlanta is still growing faster. Measuring growth as a reflection of percentage of change is not a reflection of if people want to move to the city.

Originally Posted by jayden

It seems that you're totally ignoring the fact that Atlanta has GA Tech which consistently ranks Top 10/5 in best engineering schools nationwide, as well as best quality output.

This. It's also worth mentioning they are among the top cities in hiring new grads. People are moving there because work is there. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/blog/grads-guide-to-landing-first-job

Originally Posted by paul78701

The density of top tech companies and software engineers in Atlanta simply doesn't match up with other tech cities.

That density rises considerable if Amazon moves there and it means they don't have as much competition for hiring especially with new grads.

Originally Posted by paul78701

I wouldn't go there because of the lack of opportunity for software engineering roles in general, let alone interesting roles in startups and other great tech companies.

But the point is if you would go there to work for Amazon if you were offered the job. That's the opportunity. Would you turn it down out of concern that you could be fired or quit and wouldn't have opportunity elsewhere in Atlanta? People will go to where the jobs are as long as it's a decently large city with a lot of stuff to do.

Also, the question isn't if someone would move form Austin to Atlanta. I can see why that would never happen. However, a lot of people would move from elsewhere in the US.

Originally Posted by paul78701

Other companies are moving tech/engineering opportunities here in droves. That doesn't seem to be happening in Atlanta. In addition, there are more opportunities to mingle and share ideas here too. There's just a lot more tech community and groundswell here

I'm not doubting you but what companies have moved here in droves in the last year? Many companies came because of incentives and then other smaller ones came because of the footprint those companies made. I mean, a lot of people don't realize that the current Amazon offices are at the Domain which exists because of incentives.

Amazon moving there would be a giant catalyst for more tech companies to follow if they wanted to. That's how you start growth. Again, I think you can make a lot of comparisons to the film industry.

Originally Posted by paul78701

As I mentioned, software engineers change jobs a lot. Companies now even *expect* that their engineers will leave at some point. So the above is *very* important. If my job goes south here in Austin, it's pretty easy to find something else that will pay well and be interesting. If the same thing happened in Atlanta, more than likely, it wouldn't be so easy.

Ah, gotcha. I understand your point here. I would imagine people might feel more secure with a company the size and with as much security as Amazon but I could easily be wrong.

Originally Posted by paul78701

As I've mentioned previously, big cities definitely have "tech workers" simply because of how big they are. There are plenty of companies that will need IT support staff in offices and whatnot. Yes, that counts as a "tech worker". But that is hardly the same as having plenty of up and coming tech startups and lots of engineers to fill the jobs that they need.

Again, Atlanta produces a lot of engineers as well. They have the tech school, Georgia St and the massive Georgia St.



Mainly, I think you might be underestimating the amount of tech companies and startups in Atlanta. http://atlantatechvillage.com/membership/current-villagers/

Also, an article about up and coming tech cities. Atlanta is number 3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi...me-tomorrows-tech-meccas/2/#653e30aa2c03