What's the best cities for IT jobs from your experience?

I've already checked Google, but now I want to hear directly from the people. From my experience anywhere in Florida is horrible unless your extremely experienced (12+ years).

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6502

Seattle was very good to me. Pay was fine, lots of jobs and people to network with. You just had to be careful to not get one of those jobs that work you +40 hours for little reward. Commutes can be bad depending on where you work and where you live. I'd take a Seattle commute over a S Florida commute. Seattle is more annoying stop and go, Florida you wonder how they got licenses and if your life insurance is paid up.

kohr-ah

Chicago is pretty good for always having work the burbs but not out too far. Once you hit a certain point you have thinned out your job options greatly.

Otherwise I been told Raleigh, NC.

anoeljr

I know that in Texas the Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin areas are always looking for IT people. I never have trouble finding a job.

goldenlight

surprised no one mention the DC Metro area

MrAgent

+1 for the DC metro area. It is/was the .com capital (or at least some of the license plates would have you believe).

spicy ahi

I like San Antonio for DoD contract jobs. Very affordable cost of living when compared to the average salary for contractors there. Good public school system, lots of things for kids (and adults) to do, lots of lakes and hills if you wanna get away and the Gulf isn't too far away if you need to see the ocean. Traffic (I heard) is getting better as they start to build out and away from the downtown area. I've been getting regular inquiries over the years and have looked long and hard a few of them. Only thing that holds me back are my kids: one's a sophomore and the other's an 8th grader and they want to finish high school where we're at. When they're gone, howdy SA!

Polynomial

Boston is so good.

Boston is also so expensive. >.>

jdancer

kohr-ah wrote: »

Chicago is pretty good for always having work the burbs but not out too far. Once you hit a certain point you have thinned out your job options greatly.

Otherwise I been told Raleigh, NC.

Chicago is good for senior experienced people. It's horrible for entry-level positions and sometimes mid-level too.

nerdinhiding

Raleigh, NC if you want decent (but rapidly rising) cost of living. As far as ultimate climb the corporate IT ladder I'd guess the bay area, Seattle, and NYC.

Tom Servo

As others have said, Chicago is not bad. I do think it is tough if you are entry level. Also, there is the great debate as to how much commute you will be willing to deal with. My rough best guess is that 60% of the jobs are in the burbs. If you live in the city, the commute can get old very quickly. I am looking for work, and have essentially taken myself out of a great many job prospects by refusing to consider working in the suburbs.

eLs

If you have no experience and wanting entry level IT job it is hard anywhere in America I think no way around it just some are harder than others. NYC is horrible with entry level positions wanting experience and trying to pay you crap considering NYC high cost of living.

JoJoCal19

In the Southeast, Atlanta cannot be beat. DC metro. Dallas, TX. Seattle, WA. I've also found a lot of jobs in the major California cities: San Diego, San Fran, Silicon Valley (San Jose), Los Angeles.

kohr-ah

Tom Servo wrote: »

As others have said, Chicago is not bad. I do think it is tough if you are entry level. Also, there is the great debate as to how much commute you will be willing to deal with. My rough best guess is that 60% of the jobs are in the burbs. If you live in the city, the commute can get old very quickly. I am looking for work, and have essentially taken myself out of a great many job prospects by refusing to consider working in the suburbs.

I unfortunately am having the opposite issue

I keep only getting contacted about work in the city and I'd like to find work towards the west / northwest burbs as I am tired of the commute downtown

Blackout

Raleigh, NC you cannot beat the amount of jobs vs the cost of living. I love Raleigh TBH. I have not regretted moving here.

FloOz

The new jersey area is also really booming right now I hear.

bgold87

+1 on Raleigh, I moved here in March and it's been good to me.

thenjduke

FloOz wrote: »

The new jersey area is also really booming right now I hear.

I doubt that. I use to live there and I watch the job market there and it is still the same crap.

jdancer

kohr-ah wrote: »

I unfortunately am having the opposite issue I keep only getting contacted about work in the city and I'd like to find work towards the west / northwest burbs as I am tired of the commute downtown

You may want to do an advanced search on indeed.com on the zip codes you are interested in. Lots of experienced network positions available.

And yeah, the commute blows if you live in the burbs to the city.

Chitownjedi

I've been monitoring entry level networking work in Chicago land for months, and 90% of them want 3 years of experience or more... for Jr. Network Engineering... lol.. even the NOC positions... I've taken to taking screen caps of this mess and keeping a list in a blog post to highlight the insanity of it all...

CyberfiSecurity

Washington DC Metropolitan area (DMV aka DC Maryland Virginia) good for IT if you have Clearance or able to obtain Clearance. I had a co-worker lost his Top Secret Clearance, and was not able to find job almost a year. Even though he has 20 + years experiences in Linux.

Chitownjedi

CyberfiSecurity wrote: »

Washington DC Metropolitan area (DMV aka DC Maryland Virginia) good for IT if you have Clearance or able to obtain Clearance. I had a co-worker lost his Top Secret Clearance, and was not able to find job almost a year. Even though he has 20 + years experiences in Linux.

Wow.

MSP-IT

Blackout wrote: »

Raleigh, NC you cannot beat the amount of jobs vs the cost of living. I love Raleigh TBH. I have not regretted moving here.

What are commute times like around RTC/Raleigh?

kohr-ah

jdancer wrote: »

You may want to do an advanced search on indeed.com on the zip codes you are interested in. Lots of experienced network positions available.

And yeah, the commute blows if you live in the burbs to the city.

Nice will do

I am going to ride this one out for a while I have only been here 6 months and I have a little one on the way but I will definitely do that after I feel my time here has ended.

DoubleNNs

The NYC area might be decent for mid-level jobs, but seems to suck for both for both sides of the spectrum. The high cost of living in the area eats into the "high salaries" for upper level positions. Entry-level wants experience and pays low.

eLs

Forgot about the fortunate high paid IT professionals in NYC they get screwed over too.

BradleyHU

thenjduke wrote: »

I doubt that. I use to live there and I watch the job market there and it is still the same crap.

plus its so spread out....i see postings for stuff in Mahwah, Baskings Ridge, Franklin Lakes, Newark, etc...and coming from NYC, thats not a fun commute...

timesvan32

Because I am from San Jose aka Silicon Valley, California, there are plenty of tech jobs around there. They don't call Silicon Valley "Tech Valley" for nothing. However, competition is extremely high.