Hawaiʻi's Technology Community
The Great 2009-2010 Hawaii Brain Drain
At recent developer events, including today's UX Design Meetup, the effect of the great 2009-2010 Hawaii brain drain was readily apparent. Seth Ladd, Anthony Eden, Sam Joseph, Truman Leung, Ken Mayer, David Neely, Sherwin Gao, Seri Lee, Gabe Morris, Alex Salkever, Laurence Lee, Ken Berkun...this is just a handful of quality people I know personally. The list of talented tech industry people who have left or will soon be leaving over this very short period of time is truly depressing. Hawaii has experienced a series of brain drains over the past two decades, the most recent being in 2003/2004, but this is the worst I've seen by a long shot.
As Hawaii tech companies (largely 221 funded) collapse, the engineers and designers who were working for them aren't looking locally for new jobs. They are leaving our state, and it won't be easy to get them back. If we can't retain talented developers and creative personalities in our state the innovation economy is in serious trouble (not that this is news to anyone in the industry.) Any tech business owner who has recruited from the mainland or internationally knows its hard to relocate people to Hawaii. Many people view Hawaii as a vacation spot, but not a serious place for technology innovation. Employers have a hard time with questions such as, "I have three children. How is the public school system?" or "Will I be able to afford a house?" For younger professionals from the Bay Area or East Coast who don't have connections to Hawaii it can be hard to settle socially. Many relocations, which can be very expensive, fail in the first year.
I'm an optimistic person by nature. I believe we can still build an innovation economy in Hawaii, but we need to learn from our mistakes, identify our strengths, apply a healthy dose of pragmatism and a whole lot of elbow grease. Aside from fixing our horribly broken public education system, there isn't a lot the government can do to solve this problem for us. Its up to entrepreneurs and tech business leaders to come up with a plan for sustainable growth of a uniquely Hawaiian innovation economy.
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Comment by Brian on September 12, 2010 at 12:15am
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P.S. I think we already know the answer is; but while this discussion has been scoped as purely a high tech career phenomenon - how does it extend to other industries? How do the doctors, lawyers, research scientists, engineers, etc of Hawaii fare?
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School deficiencies are really a cost of living issue (housing was a big issue discussed earlier); and I think lower compensation, unstable business environment and poor career growth are all facets of the same issue - Hawaii's bad for business.
If I didn't get a cost of living allowance.. I wouldn't be that happy. As-is, being single I have fair disposable income. I could support a non-working partner because the additional household overhead is not significant. Throw in a kid with private school.. and the larger condo/house I'd need.. yep.. I'd be outta here.
The only way to live comfortably here and have a family is to either be wealthy outright or have both parents working in well-paying jobs. You can make a good life with a bit of luck.. but I certainly understand why many people simply move on.
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Comment by John on September 11, 2010 at 6:54am
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Ken, that's an devastating and, in my opinion, accurate description of the issues we face:
- public elementary school system deficincies
- unstable software companies
- poor career growth path
- significantly lower compensation
Ken, can you rank the impact of those concerns? Are any of them the 'worse' or the most significant?
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Comment by Johnson Choi on September 11, 2010 at 3:33am
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I do not think the politicians would understand or care about who is leaving or the Hawaii brain drain.
If you look at everyone running for public office, all they talk about is green and alternative energy, more pork from the Federal Government. The Green and Alternative Energy is a given. Every country and state are doing some form of alternative and/or green energy. I think the Fed is running out pig to slaughter and thus not sure how much more pork coming our way in the coming years? They are all talking about status quote. NO ONE TALK ABOUT EXPANDING HAWAII'S ECONOMIC BASE?
Daniel - the Palo Alto families I met, in the past most left Hawaii for business or career move, this group found new reasons to leave Hawaii, they left Hawaii primary for the future of their children.
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Comment by Daniel Leuck on September 11, 2010 at 12:55am
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@Ken Mayer - Thank you for sharing your story. I hope the politicians are reading your comments about the public education system. We were very sorry to see our friend, fellow techie and dive guru leave Hawaii. Mika and I wish you the best of luck in your new home.
@Johnson Choi - Your story of meeting so many recent transplanted Hawaii techies in Palo Alto stands as further evidence of the Great 2009-2010 Hawaii Brain Drain. Thank you for sharing.
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Comment by Ken Mayer on September 11, 2010 at 12:22am
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I just stumbled over this post, and I'd thought I could add my personal perspective. My reasons for leaving were, I think, pretty typical:
- Inadequate school system for my children;
I have one son who will be 3 in November, and another due in December. The prospect of putting them through the public school system scared the hell out of my wife and I. With the exception of one person (who works at the voyager charter school -- support them any way you can, please), every public school educator I met had horror stories about students that didn't learn, parents that didn't care and a bureaucracy that failed to do anything but perpetuate its own existence. The cost of enrolling my children in private school was out of reach.
- Economic volatility without "diversity"
When I rejoined the tech sector, every job I held lost funding, and my position was placed at risk or cut, and then I was forced to go hunting again. After 3 years of that mess, I surrendered. I've spent many years working for startups. I'm a believer in Agile, I embrace volatility. But when there's not enough diversity in the market, I wondered whether I might be unable to support my family. That exceed my risk tolerance level.
A bunch of us who left the islands work in the Ruby on Rails tech space. It's small compared to Python or Perl or PHP. Okay, it's small compared to almost anything. On the other hand, it has developed a good track record, it's growing, and mainland companies are hiring more senior engineers these days. You go where the money is and there's not a lot of RoR projects in Hawaii.
- No credible career growth path
Even if I managed to scrape together another job, there was no way to grow professionally. I have to look ahead to assure enough income for my retirement, my kid's education, a few luxuries here and there.
- Timing
Economic disruptions have always caused geographic upheavals. In addition, Hawaii's economy naturally trails the mainland's. This time, it trailed too long. I could have stayed, hoped that the economic cycle would rebound, and burned through some more of my reserve cash to get through the rough times. I chose to pick another set of waves, elsewhere.
- Economy
How many times have you seen the look? "Oh, you live in Hawaii..." The tourism image of our state does not match what it takes to work here at all. The cost of living in Walnut Creek, California, according to web sites like payscale.com, is only 4% more expensive than Honolulu, and yet I was able to pick up a 2x increase in compensation, doing almost exactly the same job, by moving. I nicknamed that "The Paradise Tax." We've all encountered it. Like any businessperson, I made an economic decision to maximize my return.
I've been in California only a month now, and working for only 2 weeks, so everything is still very new. Even so, we miss the aina. We miss our friends we'd made over the years. We miss the life we'd built. We're making a new one, hopefully better, but in the meantime, there's a struggle to survive the transplanting.
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Both Palo Alto and San Jose have a lot of Tech people who bailed out of Hawaii last 15+ years. I was invited to a party at Palo Alto last week attended by more than 120 people, more than 1/2 were from Hawaii. 6 families from Hawaii who were long time residents here arrived in Palo Alto last 90 days. I was told the Tech community from Hawaii continue to grow, many with strong ties to Asia. Their strong Asia ties has resulted in many deals flow between California, Singapore, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. When I mentioned Hawaii as a tech and clean energy place, the usual response is a courtesy smile.
Since most of the people relocated to Silicon Valley has family members in Hawaii. They do not see change of leadership on State and City level will help Hawaii business-wise...it will be the same old same old....
Most in Silicon Valley understood much more in scope and depth on what is happening in Asia. They tend to take a more middle of the road view on things happening in Asia taking things more objectively, rather than using the Washington DC mentality of guilty by association.
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From the west coast to the east it's the same - from east to Hawaii - it's not.
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Hi Blaine - There are dozens of open positions in the job forum, including several from our sponsor, Superb. I wish you the best of luck in your job hunting.
Note that several of the people I listed are from Hawaii (i.e. born and raised here) and in general, an exodus of smart people is never a good thing, regardless of their place of origin.
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Comment by Blaine Fergerstrom on September 6, 2010 at 11:00pm
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Hey, if those guys want to leave, let them. I don't pretend to be as good as any of them, but I am unemployed, I want a job, and I will stay here if it kills me! I was born and raised here. I have no other home to run to. I will not leave the islands, at any cost! Anybody got a job?
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