I think it is a misconception that you need to be in the Bay Area to advance an tech career. Unless you have some ultra-non-portable skill that only develops in one region on Earth, you might need to reconsider your career path, because it sounds too limited to be useful.
I took them as saying that they'd need to move to the Bay Area to advance in the specific tech mega-corp they were in previously, not that you have to be in the Bay Area to advance in tech in general.
