Team-BHP - Metro Vs Second Tier City

Folks,

I live and work in chennai currently(past 1 year). I was in Bangalore for 2.5 and NY for 3 years before that. Right now I am considering moving to a smaller city(TVM) for good. I am in IT sector. Was just thinking about the long term utility of this move.

Advantages of Metro like Chennai.
1.Relatively Better opportunities in terms of jobs.
2.Better Facilities./Movies/Malls etc

Disadvantages.
1. Traffic/Commute Time/Dust/Crowd
2. Opportunities for investments in land etc are not as good as in a smaller places just because of higher base price.
3. Facilities are expensive.
4. Locals Fleece you more in a metro if you are not from that place.
5. Quality of life in general is not good enough. Infrastructure is a shame in places like medavakkom/shols/tambaram and is not really metro class or even normal city class.For eg my Figo bottoms out multiple times in chennai but it never does that in TVM.

Advantages of smaller Cities.
1. Rapidly growing opportunities in jobs as well as investments.
2. Better Quality of life.
3. Better return for the money you spend.

Disadvantages.
1. Facilities like Pubs/Movies/Malls are not present.
2. There is a chance that I could hit a glass ceiling in terms of growth in say 5 years when for more growth i will have to migrate out of the city.

Would be great to hear some views on this.

Unless you run your own business or one of the top-execs, the IT salaries/income-levels are not comparable across these two segments. This will probably be the single most mental blocker. There are truck loads of IT people in Bangalore who make 30+ CTC, I might add - with zero work stress. If you can convince yourself that the overall better quality of life in tier-2 cities is more important than higher income levels of metros - then there is no other deal breaker. Who in their right mind would want to put up with Bangalore if not for this reason?

Hospitals, schools, shops, etc. are comparable to Metros. In fact, the peripheral areas of Bangalore where lot of the IT crowd lives are no better than tier-2 cities :) Even tier-3 towns offer decent healthcare and educational infrastructure that is comparable to Metros. People who want to setup hospitals and schools, and there are lots of them, find tier-2/3 cities offer better ROI than metros and hence there are lot of good hospitals and schools in these cities. Of course, for restaurants/hotels and high-end shopping, tier-2/3 cities have some catching up to do (not counting gujarat/maharastra).

Other major issue: Not all car makers will have their dealerships in tier-2 cities ;-)

Look at your disposable income and not just total income. If you have your own residence there, nothing like it. But do consider the fact that 5 years down the line, you will see your peers 'growing' at a faster pace than you will. But that growth will only be in terms of money and certainly not quality of life (hence the quotes!)

30 Lakhs CTC sounds attractive enough but i am not going to get that kind of money in the near future(next 5 years) for my job profile unless i work in the US Timezone(night shift in india). I see a difference of only 20% in pay between Metro and 2nd tier city.

For instance i know quite a few people in 7 years experience category who get 10L CTC in the 2nd tier cities.If they shift to say a bangalore,they might get ssay 12-13 at most.

Vishnu, if you are talking about "quality" of life then anyday a small town will score better just because you are saved from the mess what a "metro" can offer!

I moved to mangalore from Bangalore a year back, though its my home town but the the life at Bangalore made me look and and today am much peaceful then i was in Bangalore ..

but the down side is the opportunities!

Quote:

Originally Posted by androdev (Post 2184116)

There are truck loads of IT people in Bangalore who make 30+ CTC, I might add - with zero work stress.

Taken it a bit too far I think.

30+ CTC with zero work stress ?

I for one (and I am sure most of us here) would like to understand more on this.

Companies are not there to do charity. If they pay 30+, for sure they would be extracting 50 + worth of work from that individual - and that CANT be stress free.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jigbarai (Post 2184167)

Whether 30+ is fair or not is a totally different discussion. For example, what experience level are we talking about? A VP of a company may be paid 70L, but he too works for only 8 or 10 hours a day.

I think we are deviating from the main topic. The point however seems to be that there is a definite difference in salaries between tier 1 and tier 2 cities. It may be 20% to 25%, and say a few years down the line, that 25% may be quite a big amount.

One way of looking at it is to see how to get a good quality of line within bangalore - the best of both worlds. For example, shifting closer to the work place - that takes away all the traffic problems. Look for ways to address the problems before saying bye to Tier 1 cities. Tier 2 citys will surely not be able to offer medical facilities like Tier 1 cities. You may have 20 schools that suit your kid, but only 2 or 3 in a smaller city.

I feel that medical facilities and school facilities in tier 2 cities are actually better than metros. For cutting edge medical care/education(post grad) you might have to still go to a chennai or say a Delhi or where ever it is offered but for normal health care/education till plus 2 i think the smaller cities rule from my personal experience. Would definitely like to hear other views on this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by deep_bang (Post 2184186)

Sir, we are talking stress here, not work hours.
And if you are talking VP levels and 70 L salaries here in the way you are, dont think you have much idea into what stress is - at those levels.

Quote:

I think we are deviating from the main topic. The point however seems to be that there is a definite difference in salaries between tier 1 and tier 2 cities. It may be 20% to 25%, and say a few years down the line, that 25% may be quite a big amount.

The same difference would come to the expense part too.

for example, look at the cost of a flat. Similar area flat in a metro would cost almost double of what it would in a tier 2. Take a 25L flat or a 2 crore one.
'branded' schools in metros would have tution fees several times of the 'good' schools in tier 2s - quality of education not being very different.

A movie ticket on saturday night in a posh metro cinema is upwards of 300-400 bucks. Halve it in a tier 2.

For me there are no two ways about it. I have been waiting for some growth in my Industry to move towards my hometown and the moment it does, I'll lap up the opportunity to move. Have been dwelling in B'lore for the last 9 years except for a short stint of 2 years outside India and I could never settle here.

And frankly CTC is not the only thing to be considered when you are considering the move. Its about the whole package the job and the city/town offers. Not to forget one also needs to consider the upbringing/development of their kids as well.

I am living in Delhi for past 10 years, before this I have lived in places like Jabalpur, Rohtak, Karnal, Ahmed Nagar etc.

I would any day prefer to move to a smaller city if I get an opprtunity. The biggest advantage of these cities is the time we have at our disposal. In Delhi I spend about 3.5 hours commuting. In Jabalpur this time was about 20 Mins and in Karnal and Rohtal it was just 10 mins.

The cost of living is also lower in these cities.

The tier 2 cities are bound to grow in the future. However, if one is moving for reasons of dust, pollution, traffic, crowd etc, it should be factored in that these things will increase in proportion along with the growth of the city. As our cities and towns are not well planned it only depends on when chaos will set in and not 'if'

The transformation of Bangalore from it being a lovely quiet and green city to a chaotic concrete mess should be one of the examples of this.

So if you come from a smaller city and have an opportunity to move back to it and would like to do so, then perhaps it is a good idea. But if TVM grows as the same pace as Chennai, it will have the same disadvantages that are listed below!

Quote:

Originally Posted by vishnurp99 (Post 2184041)

Disadvantages.
1. Traffic/Commute Time/Dust/Crowd
2. Opportunities for investments in land etc are not as good as in a smaller places just because of higher base price.
3. Facilities are expensive.
4. Locals Fleece you more in a metro if you are not from that place.
5. Quality of life in general is not good enough. Infrastructure is a shame in places like medavakkom/shols/tambaram and is not really metro class or even normal city class.For eg my Figo bottoms out multiple times in chennai but it never does that in TVM.