If you have graduated with a degree in computer science, we are sure you could easily name a dozen or so tech companies based in Silicon Valley. After all, the name says it all. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot find a top job with a good company outside of Silicon Valley.

Here we will take a look at some trends in software engineering jobs, including the best up and coming cities for software engineers now. Whether you are a recent graduate or have an established career you should check out these cities.

The job outlook for software engineers and tech jobs is still very strong, as the demand for skills and knowledge in this area continues to rise. Data from LinkedIn shows software engineer to be the top choice of profession for recent graduates.

The attraction of a challenging and rewarding career, with opportunities to work on diverse and interesting projects whilst being very well paid and having amazing career prospects, is still strong.

However, recent figures suggest that many of the new jobs will no longer be concentrated in Silicon Valley, but spread to other cities across America. Data from Glassdoor last year showed that the share of software-related roles in San Jose declined in the previous five years.

Additionally, as more companies across different sectors position themselves more in tech, jobs are found not only in purely tech firms. The areas with the biggest growth in tech jobs were Retail, Banking and Finance, and Manufacturing.

Since Silicon Valley is also well-known for its sky-high cost of living, this is another reason to check out some other cities. It is important to look at the real wage, as we all know money simply goes further in some cities than others. There is evidence that even the highest paid tech workers in Silicon Valley might not be able to afford a house or live as comfortably as they would like.

As this continues, more and more talented people are going to be looking beyond just the top conditions that tech companies have so successfully attracted talent with until now but also seeking a place where they can afford to live well. They will start refusing to pay too much to live in tiny rooms.

In addition to the data from LinkedIn, there are some new figures from SpareFoot that are being shared around, and a list of the Happiest Cities in the U.S. for Software Engineers from Codementor.

For the Codemento survey they say that: ‘while salary was important for most of our devs, the majority of the developers noted that social interactions with like-minded people (at casual, informal developer meetups), as well as real earnings, had a larger impact on their happiness level than salary alone.’

Here are our recommendations for the top cities to work in for Software Engineers.

Seattle, WA

Real Adjusted Salary: $105,735
Average Rental Price: $2,176/mo
Tech Industry Job Growth (last 10 years): 47.7%
Great Companies to Work for:- Adobe, Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft, DocuSign

Seattle has been building as a tech center over the past decade, so even if it being top of the list surprises you, it has been a long time coming. Seattle also has a number of well-established companies and does not rely heavily on being populated by start-ups. Amazon is one of the big players which leads the way in the retail sector hiring more Software Engineers. The cost of living is also considerably lower than in Silicon Valley.

Salt Lake City, UT

Real Adjusted Salary: $87,262
Average Rental Price: $1,189/mo
Tech Industry Job Growth (last 10 years): 38.9%
Great Companies to Work for:- Adobe, Grow, Twitter, WorkDay, Instructure

Salt Lake City is a stunning place to call home. This area, now being dubbed Silicon Slopes, is shaping up as one of the country’s best locations for tech professionals in general and software engineers in particular. Neighboring Provo – also included in the so-called Silicon Slopes area also makes it onto the Happiest Cities in the U.S. for Software Engineers at number 6. DevMountain gives the rundown of the Coolest Tech Companies to work for in Utah- most in the Silicon Slopes area.

Dallas Fort-Worth, TX

Real Adjusted Salary: $88,294
Average Rental Price: $1,021/mo
Tech Industry Job Growth (last 10 years): 43.2%
Great Companies to Work for:– AT&T, Bottle Rocket, CyrusOne,

Dallas should be high on your list in terms of value for money. It is only around the national average in terms of cost of living, so your real income is pretty nice. If you don’t want to live in a big city with a crazy fast pace and likely long commutes, then Dallas is a good option. Apparently, this city is also set for even further growth in tech jobs.

Boulder, CO

Average Rental Price: $2009/mo
Great Companies to Work for:– Google, TechStars, RogueWave Software, Backflip Studios, Ball Aerospace, LogRhythm, and JNBridge

Boulder topped Codementor’s list of Happiest Cities in the U.S. for Software Engineers because it had a great mix of cost of living, salary, and a good community of meetups. Rent might be a little more expensive, but the overall cost of living in Boulder is relatively low compared to other cities in the West.

To the south-east is also Denver, where slightly higher paid tech jobs can be located. Phase one of Google’s new campus just opened here this year, and there is a second phase coming in 2019. Boulder has also been noted as an unlikely hub of start-ups. Overall growth in tech companies in Colorado is solid and in an upward trend.

Denver, CO

Real Adjusted Salary: $85,878
Average Rental Price: $1653/mo
Tech Industry Job Growth (last 10 years): 40.3%
Great Companies to Work for:- Gusto, IBM Corporation, Oracle, SendGrid

Denver also ranks well as for the cost of living, and a software engineer’s salary in Denver goes far. Local prices for transport, groceries and basic services are reasonable. Many IT companies are heading to and growing strongly in the area. The top 10 growing tech firms in Colorado added almost 800 local jobs combined between 2016 to 2017.

Phoenix, AZ

Real Adjusted Salary: $87,997
Average Rental Price: $1,105/mo
Tech Industry Job Growth (last 10 years): 48.5%
Great Companies to Work for:- Yelp, AFS Technologies, WebPT, Shutterfly

This is another area which is attracting increasing numbers of tech companies, and yet still has a reasonably low cost of living. Azcentral writes of the recent developments in downtown Phoenix which are geared towards attracting more tech companies. Figures say that “the number of tech companies in the roughly 4-mile stretch grew from 67 to about 260” in the period 2012 – 2017.