What are the hot IT areas in the US at the moment?

jayc71

I live in the Northern VA area, near DC. I know this area is always big, but where else in the country is IT hot at the moment? Seattle? LA? Charlotte?

Interested to hear the thoughts of people who live elsewhere

rogue2shadow

San Fransisco and the Valley I hear are exploding IT wise (web, mobile apps, and security).

katierose

Silicon Valley (San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose, etc) will ALWAYS be a plethora of Fortune 500 companies and huge IT headquarters. I wouldn't say it's a great place to live though. It's beyond expensive and lots of competition.

Some good places right now:

TEXAS. We have done great throughout the recession with some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Austin, San Antonio, Houston are all great places to be right now in IT. The Dallas and Fort Worth area has about 50 Fortune 500 companies. Being that we are centrally located with cheap land you can imagine why people like to plant their server farms here.

Other great places that are growing in the IT field:
Salt Lake City, Utah
Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina
Bellevue and Redmond, Washington (Just outside of Seattle)

tearofs

I was gonna say New England Area (Boston) with tons of education institutions. But oh well, nvm.

katierose

Boston is great if you want to get into medical, but I am not sure how IT is doing there at the moment. I would love to visit that city one day though.

jayc71

katierose wrote: »

Some good places right now:

TEXAS. We have done great throughout the recession with some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Austin, San Antonio, Houston are all great places to be right now in IT. The Dallas and Fort Worth area has about 50 Fortune 500 companies. Being that we are centrally located with cheap land you can imagine why people like to plant their server farms here.

Other great places that are growing in the IT field:
Salt Lake City, Utah
Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina
Bellevue and Redmond, Washington (Just outside of Seattle)

This is good to hear! I'm from Tx originally and would love to move back to the Austin-San An area. I've been on a business trip or three to Raleigh, that area seems very nice as well.

I think it's time to pound out a few more certs, beef up the resume, then start looking for someone who will pay me to relocate

Mike-Mike

I hope Louisville, KY in about one month when I start job searching

GAngel

Texas is definately in the top 3 and for bang for buck probably #1.

networker050184

GAngel wrote: »

Texas is definately in the top 3 and for bang for buck probably #1.

Yeah, but you have to live in Texas which automatically brings it down like 10 spots.

katierose

networker050184 wrote: »

Yeah, but you have to live in Texas which automatically brings it down like 10 spots.

Heeeeey now. I just moved here and I enjoy it quite a lot mister. How can you beat good BBQ, cheap cost of living, and great jobs? It has it's beautiful parts as well.

I can't say I will be here forever though. I deeply want to move to the Northwest. I want rain everyday and a house in the forest.

networker050184

Haha I was kidding. I've never lived in Texas, but visited quite a few times and its not bad.

My choice would be the Raleigh-Cary-Durham area. Very nice place to live and work with plenty of tech jobs. I'd still be there if I didn't get a better job offer here in SC.

shodown

networker050184 wrote: »

Haha I was kidding. I've never lived in Texas, but visited quite a few times and its not bad.

My choice would be the Raleigh-Cary-Durham area. Very nice place to live and work with plenty of tech jobs. I'd still be there if I didn't get a better job offer here in SC.

That maybe my next move. DC is nice, but I dont' think I can get ahead here. I make over 6 figures and I can't afford to live in the city. So I'm thinking about North Carolina in the next 2 years.

rogue2shadow

shodown wrote: »

That maybe my next move. DC is nice, but I dont' think I can get ahead here. I make over 6 figures and I can't afford to live in the city. So I'm thinking about North Carolina in the next 2 years.

I'm from/in the MD/DC area and I definitely hear ya on that.

tdean

tearofs wrote: »

I was gonna say New England Area (Boston) with tons of education institutions. But oh well, nvm.

im finding the Boston area very difficult. there dont seem to be any jobs that allow you to concentrate on 1-2 technologies. If you look at the jobs posted, theres a laundry list a mile long. You cant be an expert at a couple things, you have to be an expert at everything from AD to email, VoIP, wireless, sonicwall, pix, checkpoint, routing, switching, sql, security, virtualization, linux, apache, iis, "some" programming etc etc.... i dont know if this is the case in other areas or not, but it sure makes things confusing and frustrating. also drains what confidence you may have.

jayc71

shodown wrote: »

I make over 6 figures and I can't afford to live in the city. So I'm thinking about North Carolina in the next 2 years.

Exactly. When people I know in other parts of the country find out the ballpark my salary is in, they think "wow!". But this area is so friggen expensive that it more than makes up for the higher pay around here.

phantasm

jayc71 wrote: »

Exactly. When people I know in other parts of the country find out the ballpark my salary is in, they think "wow!". But this area is so friggen expensive that it more than makes up for the higher pay around here.

Tell me about it. I'm a recent migrant to NoVa and dear God is it a culture shock. lol.

Sounds Good

new york city

blargoe

We don't need anyone else down here taking all of our jobs. Thanks.

phoeneous

Definitely not Las Vegas.

brianeaglesfan

Being in Houston for 3 weeks I've already interviewed with 4 companies including 3 in-person and have an offer for a temp-to-perm position in my industry of choice (health care). Seems to be a great area to me.

Johnta20

I cant beileve some people want to move to NC from DC or other places for a job in IT. Sure we have alot of IT job posted on some of the career sites but for every post there is 100-200 appliciants applying for the postion. Alot of people move here thinking the same thing and then cant find anything.

networker050184

Johnta20 wrote: »

I cant beileve some people want to move to NC from DC or other places for a job in IT. Sure we have alot of IT job posted on some of the career sites but for every post there is 100-200 appliciants applying for the postion. Alot of people move here thinking the same thing and then cant find anything.

NC has one of the better IT markets in the country. There are definitely some nice growing job markets in the Carolinas also. Not a bad place to move if you are looking for an IT career.

Johnta20

networker050184 wrote: »

NC has one of the better IT markets in the country. There are definitely some nice growing job markets in the Carolinas also. Not a bad place to move if you are looking for an IT career.

It may be but there is still a way bigger supply of IT people compared to the actual number of job postings. Alot of the people moving here for IT jobs then they arent able to get anything. And I know plenty of people now who are giving up finding IT jobs here and moving to DC.

Priston

Their might be 1000+ IT jobs in Raleigh/Cary/Durham/Chapel Hill, but I bet there is also atleast 5000+ unemployed IT workers. Then you have to consider all the college grads that are working part-time doing non-IT related Jobs that are trying to get into IT. We have 3 universities almost right next to each other and 2 community colleges.

So I agree with blargoe.

Unless things change in NC entry-level IT jobs are going to start paying less than fast food and retail stores... O wait, some of them already do...

Johnta20

Priston wrote: »

Their might be 1000+ IT jobs in Raleigh/Cary/Durham/Chapel Hill, but I bet there is also atleast 5000+ unemployed IT workers. Then you have to consider all the college grads that are working part-time doing non-IT related Jobs that are trying to get into IT. We have 3 universities almost right next to each other and 2 community colleges.

So I agree with blargoe.

Unless things change in NC entry-level IT jobs are going to start paying less than fast food and retail stores... O wait, some of them already do...

Tell me about it especially when your getting payed close to minimum wage for a help desk position at the biggest bank in Charlotte.

Hypntick

Anyone know anything about Charlotte? Lived there about 10 years ago and it was a pretty nice place i'd like to get back to. I know there's a lot of financial and banking stuff, but hey that needs support too. More geared toward security i'd imagine. I was looking at the Raleigh area myself actually, just desperately trying to get out of Memphis.

Johnta20

Hypntick wrote: »

Anyone know anything about Charlotte? Lived there about 10 years ago and it was a pretty nice place i'd like to get back to. I know there's a lot of financial and banking stuff, but hey that needs support too. More geared toward security i'd imagine. I was looking at the Raleigh area myself actually, just desperately trying to get out of Memphis.

Well im going to be be starting tier 2+ helpdesk tomorrow for one of the biggest banks in Charlotte making $10 an hour. Hope that gets you thinking before you move here.

Hypntick

Johnta20 wrote: »

Well im going to be be starting tier 2+ helpdesk tomorrow for one of the biggest banks in Charlotte making $10 an hour. Hope that gets you thinking before you move here.

Are you serious? Do you have any other experience? Is this a contract or a direct hire? That's just mind boggling.

rwmidl

Hypntick wrote: »

Are you serious? Do you have any other experience? Is this a contract or a direct hire? That's just mind boggling.

There use to be quite a bit of banking in the Charlotte area (BoA was hq'd there I believe). I'm not so sure anymore - though I think banking is still pretty big.

Xcluziv

I definitely know that Texas is one of the prominent meccas for IT, as well as NC. I work in Atlanta and I think its pretty decent here I know the DC/MD/VA area is thriving too

Johnta20

Hypntick wrote: »

Are you serious? Do you have any other experience? Is this a contract or a direct hire? That's just mind boggling.

No Technically Ill be all tiers of support since the only way the call can be escalted if it's something someone would have to physically go out and do. It's a contract the bank Im working for the biggest in charlotte is only hiring contractors for it's IT department and moving internal employee's around. No raises and no chance of getting a permant postion either. This will be my First helpdesk jobs. But alot of the people I work with have done it before the agent beside me has a ccnp, and another agent was previously a system admin. Jobs may look plentiful in NC but there's hundreads of applicaiants for every job posted.