What most companies are really looking for is undervalued high performers. And there's probably a lot of those still that haven't moved to the bay area.
I think MBA's these days have decided that they'll hold labor costs low by not rewarding high performers, and then hire whoever they can to fit their budget, but then have a yearly 5% layoff to hold their employee's feet to the fire.
And then those same MBA's get a bonus for keeping costs low, meanwhile enjoying their beach houses on the weekends.
Granted it sucks to be an individual contributor, but if you're a manager, you have incentives for cutting costs to the bone.
