While Northern California′s Silicon Valley may remain the best known technology center in the country, it′s not the only one. From software engineering to IT specialists to mobile, there are less obvious U.S. cities that have emerging, vibrant tech industries. Here are the top cities for tech jobs according to surveys compiled by Forbes, Business Week, PC World, and Wired
The top five cities for software jobs last week were Seattle, Washington DC, New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The San Francisco Bay Area was sixth. The top spot for Seattle is no surprise since it is the home of Microsoft, Amazon and a host of other software companies. The nation′s capital has always generated a lot of high tech jobs, and that′s reflected in the second place for Washington, DC. Sixth place for the San Francisco Bay Area is a surprise. It has generated many more software jobs in the past. I′ll have more details in an upcoming post.
Seattle, Washington. The area is home to Microsoft, Nintendo, Amazon, Expedia, T-Mobile, and Clearwire, Seattle leads most lists in number of tech jobs available. Nearly half of Seattle's population holds college degrees and the city itself went wireless years ago, reflecting the overall tech culture. In addition to the established companies, Seattle'considered America′s smartest city-also attracts many Internet start-ups so it′s a good place for both experiences tech workers and those looking to come in at entry level positions.
Austin, Texas. Another brainy city, 40 percent of Austin residents hold at least a bachelor′s degree, in part due to its colleges: The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A& M University. Local businesses include Dell Computers, National Instruments, and Austin Semiconductors. An advantage of living in Austin is there are no state income taxes in Texas.
San Francisco Bay Area in California remains a technological force to be reckoned with. Local companies include BitTorrent, Craigslist, Blogspot, Digg, Google, Linden Lab (Second Life), Salesforce.com, Typepad, Technorati, Cnet, SBC Communications, and Sega. It ranks second only to Seattle for the number of residents with college degrees. The upside is the sheer number of Internet companies in the srea; the downside, there's a lot more competition for the available jobs.
The Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina is known for its trifecta of outstanding universities-Duke University, NC State, and University North Carolina at Chapel Hill-and and Research Triangle Park, a noted biotech, business, and research center. Tech companies that make the area their home include Cisco, IBM, Lenovo, SAS, Progress Energy, NetApp, and RBC Centura.
The south is rising again. Atlanta, Georgia has become a Mecca for technology professionals. Local companies include AT&T, CNN, Cox Communications, Lucent Technologies, Data General, Hewlett-Packard, Earthlink, Delta Airlines, Lockheed Martin (in Marietta), Siemens, Equifax, and Web.com.