What I came to the Bay looking for
Pros
There is a truly unique atmosphere at Pinterest. With one of the cofounders being a designer, and the company heavily invested in engineering, it is equal parts creativity and data. As we scale out and grow internationally, the team is filling up with high-talent engineers from Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, etc. I came from none of the above. As an engineer, one of the cool new features of on-boarding is being able to choose what division of the company you want to work for (Platform, Growth, Monetization, etc). The company constantly seeks to foster creativity. For example, I thought of an idea of an automated tool that would save lots of time, so I spent the next week building out a prototype and then demoing it in front of the entire company at our Friday Q&A. Bring your ideas! But what I love the most, is the purposeful lack of holier-than-thou employees. The Bay Area is full of them, and we avoid them like the plague. At Pinterest you find unnaturally intelligent, yet humble and likable people trying to build a product to make people's lives better. Of course the pay is competitive, the equity is enticing, and the office is rad.
Cons
Sometimes the food isn't that great. Those days I just eat less and play more foosball (its competitive).