Firstly your experience is very good, and it must be very enriching. Do not undersell yourself, you can give a very positive spin on your indie experience. You can cite this as your entrepreneurial foray.
Secondly, why not try for few interviews at good companies, and see how you like the feel - You might like it - If it does not work out well, you can always go back.
I don't understand the lofty valuation of these food startups - Most of them are running huge losses, their customer acquisition/marketing cost is so high - Look at Blue Apron.
You can get ANY salary increase % depending on the following:
- You should do very well in the interview
- It should be dependent on how much they need your skills
- It should be dependent on how much they can pay for a role like yours, or one notch above [Please take Glassdoor data with a pinch of salt - some of the data is averaged out, or outdated]
Relocated from Bay area to NYC 7 years back - Back then, options were limited primarily to the financial sector. Right now, options are getting better , but still much lesser than the bay area
- You can find dev centers for most of the big companies such as Google/FB/Twitter etc. but their sizes and requirements are much lesser than Bay area. They are mostly satellite offices, and operate as such.
- You can find quite a few startups, but again they are not as many as Bay area and not as established as well.
- Of course there is the financial sector, which has lots of jobs - but expect a big culture difference, its highly competitive and cutthroat.
Housing:
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I am not aware of how expensive Bay area housing is - but you can find pretty good houses an hour from NYC at < 500-600K, which is pretty good.
Same is true of rent - If you are willing to commute 45-75 minutes, you can find lots of good affordable options.
Public transport is better than Bay area, that makes commute easier.
Last but not the least, NYC has a unique global feel which is unparalleled :)
This is a tough situation to be in.
In my opinion, there are two ways of dealing with it
1) Escalate to reliable competent authority - Tell them whats the problem
2) If (1) does not work, its just a caustic place to work, get a project change or change companies. These situations deteriorate fast, and its difficult to get out of them.
- You can try something like Pomodoro, which is like a timer running forcing you to focus for 25 mins, followed by a 5 minute rest.
- You can install web plugins, which will allow you to measure where you are spending time online, this will sort of show you how bad it has been
- If a complete computer detox helps, you need to follow it up
- You need to fill your day with more enriching activities
Remember, every habit takes ~21 days to get complete hold of. So, need to consistently do it for a while.