Re: Irvine and Santa Ana
Lest we forget the venerable 101! 237, 680, 280, and 580 almost intersect each other and each have their own special little slowdown areas. 580 is quite nice, once you make it past Livermore to the newly expanded section before I-5.
Yes, HP, Cisco, Intel, and now WD. Lots of new job seekers are out this summer. Luckily I got picked up before Intel let loose thousands of highly trained workers into the market. Still, there's always another tech job out here. That's what I've found through 25+ years in the Silicon Valley area; there's hardly ever a major slowdown that does not end up landing you another interesting job. Just wait around a bit and another job will come at you through dice, indeed, or wherever you search. Plenty of quality people, and most not needing an H1B. With extra people to fend off, there will be many applicants to the available jobs, and most of very high quality. I'm pretty sure the market will absorb these newly laid off folks and most will be at new gigs in very short order.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
