There has been an overwhelming amount of development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States and around the world, but Silicon Valley actually accounts for one-third of all of the venture capital investments in the United States. As technology rapidly advances, more job opportunities arise-especially in Silicon Valley.
Stanford University’s affiliates and graduates had a major role in the development of Silicon Valley. In the 1940s and 1950s, Stanford’s Dean, Frederick Terman – also known as “the father of Silicon Valley” encouraged members in the community to start their own companies, which pushed Hewlett-Packard and other high-tech firms to be where they are today. Other startup companies followed their footsteps and today, popular companies like Google, Yahoo!, and Apple developed and are headquartered in Silicon Valley.
In 2016, Apple is going to open its 2.8 billion “spaceship” campus, which will open more job opportunities. Currently, more than 75 percent of residents in the hometown of Apple Inc. are employed in tech, science, business or management and there is no doubt that those numbers will rise. Another city in Silicon Valley that has been growing is Fremont. Recently, Tesla and Seagate have helped Fremont grow and the BART is scheduled to expand and open in about three years, which will open 20,000 jobs in the area. Currently, the average Fremont house is only on the market for about 25 days, which foreshadows future growth and development.
The Silicon Valley region is also home to five of California’s top 10 job markets heading into 2014. Out of any metropolitan area, Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of high-tech workers, with 286 out of every 1,000 private-sector workers with an average salary of $144,800. Ever since our “father of Silicon Valley” pushed to help make what we see today, there is no doubt that the direction of software and IT job opportunities will continue to rise.
-Leslie Tran
Intern at Ryzen Solutions