Cali or bust

phrase

Expressing a desire to work for a company in Silicon Valley, California (especially a FAANG company).

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Meanings

phrase
  1. university slangcomputerExpressing a desire to work for a company in Silicon Valley, California (especially a FAANG company).

    CALI OR BUST (overline)

    2018 May 11, Lila MacLellan, “Alarm bells should be going off in Canada's STEM industry”, in Quartz
    3 more examples

    Many more are coming to the same realisation as Fox: "Cali or bust". But this is at the expense of other tech hubs. Boston, for example, was once tipped to be the hub Silicon Valley has become. While it is still a major player, particularly in med tech, for various reasons, California came out on top.

    2015 October 12, John Holden, “The networking in Silicon Valley is unparalleled”, in The Irish Times

    University of Waterloo graduates stressed there is a lot of peer pressure to land jobs in Silicon Valley. The saying on campus is: "Cali or bust."

    2018 May 3, Terry Pender, “'Cali or bust': Tech sector losing grads to Silicon Valley”, in Waterloo Chronicle

    The main reasons for why a student would 'Cali or bust' are: higher internship pay in the US, experience new locations & cultures, work at reputable companies, and the fact that the many of their classmates are also heading to the US.

    2018 May 15, Bo Peng, “The Cali or Bust Conundrum”, in bopeng.io
Cite this entry
APA

Cali or bust. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cali%20or%20bust

MLA

“Cali or bust.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cali%20or%20bust. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Cali or bust,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cali%20or%20bust.

Source: Cali or bust on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.