As somebody who grew up in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Saudi Arabia, one thing I learned from my dad is - You gotta go where the work is. I agree with you there.
Honestly, if you can do the basics like - show up to work and do work, you can do very well in Los Angeles. People are bailing out of there as fast as they can and companies are scrambling to find people to fill those vacant roles because - it's super expensive to live there and very over-populated.
In Information Technology, working for any of the big companies is inherently an unstable career. I've been in IT for almost 28 years and worked for some major names in the industry but I can tell you that of that 28 years, there have only been about 9 years where I felt like - I'm critical to the operation and there is zero chance that I'm going to lose my job.
The other 2/3rds of the time, I've had to be ready to start looking for another job. I've been laid off 2x, ridden two companies into the ground (no longer going concerns), been through 2 mergers/acquisitions, countless reorgs, demoted 2x. reprimanded once and received 1 bad performance review.
If you want stability, get a job in the government sector.
If you want to grow your career, go find the technology and the company where you plan to work 60+ hours/week for 3-5 years to get your Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours. But do note that it has to be a double combination of the technology and the company. Simply picking one of those correctly will help but to really get ahead, you've got to get both of those factors right.
I encourage you to apply for open roles but it ain't 1998 in the Bay Area, much less 1967.
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