When you think of the growing tech hubs across the country, Silicon Valley is automatically the first place that comes to mind.
San Francisco, New York and other larger metropolitan areas aren’t the only places to launch a tech career. There are growing tech scenes also sprouting up in other places across the country.
With the low cost of living and tax breaks, tech is booming in smaller cities outside of areas like New York and Silicon Valley.
Here is a list of 6 cities other than Silicon Valley that have growing tech scenes:
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta’s rising tech scene includes big companies like Square, MailChimp, Pandora, Google, Twitter, Salesforce, Facebook and Opendoor. This Southern city’s tech ecosystem is growing exponentially with its alluring business-friendly tax credits and its young talent pool of Black entrepreneurs coming from schools like Georgia Tech, Morehouse, and Spelman.
San Diego, California
In the Dice.com annual salary report, San Diego’s growing tech scene offers one of the highest average salaries of $101,025. Besides the great weather, San Diego offers many professional opportunities in tech and over 170 startups are a part of Southern California’s tech incubator, EvoNexus incubator.
Huntsville, Alabama
According to job search site ZipRecruiter, nearly 17 percent of all jobs in Huntsville fall into the STEM category, with a median income for those jobs of $95,135. Huntsville’s 38,000-acre Redstone Arsenal complex is one of the U.S. Army’s key facilities for missile and rocket programs, housing important mechanisms of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Over 300 companies are housed out of Huntsville’s 3,800-acre Cummings Research Park. Some of the major tech companies like IBM, Boeing, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, AT&T and Comcast call Huntsville, Alabama home.
Phoenix, Arizona
This up and coming tech hub has shown over 188% tech job growth from 2016 to 2017, based on ZipRecruiter’s job database. In 2017, USAA announced plans to add 1,000 new software development jobs in its Phoenix office by the year of 2020. GoDaddy and American Express both have a presence in Phoenix.
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina has been described as the new Silicon Valley. Between NC State’s Centennial Campus and the co-working space HQ Raleigh, this Southern City has a vibrant tech scene. Raleigh is becoming a great location for entrepreneurs to thrive as the home to tech companies like One Better Ventures, Red Hat, Bandwidth and more. With the low-cost of living and great public transportation, Raleigh is one of most affordable and growing locations in the tech industry.
Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas is the No. 1 place to start a business, according to CNBC Metro 20: America’s Best Places to Start a Business. Austin is home to large tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook. This innovative city has a plethora of well-educated talent with students graduating from the University of Texas at Austin and other schools. Austin is definitely a place to be if you’re in the tech industry.