Thinking about moving to American where are the best places for IT jobs

Hi guys

In three times I thinking about leaving England and moving to America. The three main places i was thinking where San Francisco, LA, or New York. I was wondering where the best places are in America are for IT jobs

By that time I will have the following under my belt

Bcs Open Degree
HNC in Computing Information Systems
MCITP/MCSA
CCNA,S AND CCNP
Ability to program in c#, PHP and write scripts(powershell and Bash)
nearly 8 years working in IT.

I probably have around $45,000 to take over as well and just wondering what sort of pay scale should I be looking at in American for a decent life style nothing other the top. Either a nice apartment or house.

Thanks for any input.

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Comments

jmritenour

MrBishop wrote: »

There areas are great if you have a security clearance. Everything in that area is usually government related jobs and if you have no no clearance, you're probably gonna have a tough time finding work.

That's not necessarily true. There are lots of great opportunities to be had around this area - I don't have, nor do I want, a clearance of any type, and I've never had problem finding jobs that paid well. Sure, the highest paying stuff is government, but that's not all that's out there.

MrBishop

jmritenour wrote: »

That's not necessarily true. There are lots of great opportunities to be had around this area - I don't have, nor do I want, a clearance of any type, and I've never had problem finding jobs that paid well. Sure, the highest paying stuff is government, but that's not all that's out there.

I've gotten offers from out that way and it seems like everything needs to have a security clearance. I do appreciate you clearing that up for me, I do want to work in government someday.

jibbajabba

thomas130 wrote: »

I would try and get a work visa .

Nearly impossible to be honest. I don't want to be Mr Glas Half Empty here but unless you know someone who would sponser you a H1-B visa, you are almost out of luck, unless you have massive amounts of money and be an "investor". OR you have a job / education which is rare in the US and desperatly needed.. Which I doubt is the case with "IT Jobs".

I have been down that route without luck .. Plus every H1-B is only tight to a specific company. So if you find a company who actually goes through the hassle of sponsoring you (costs $$$$) then you cannot simply change jobs unless the new company supports you as well ...

I would do a LOT of research before you lose sleep over the location or apartment etc., simply to avoid disapointments ..

thomas130

So would it be hard to get a green card and become a citizen.

Iristheangel

Ehhhh. It depends on your education, what you bring to the country, what country you're from, etc. Getting a green card is a LOT easier if you're a UK citizen than say someone from China or an eastern European country. Some companies many sponsor you if you're will to get paid less than the market average. I know the company ADP does this for many of their employees that they've brought over from India.

Also, you might want to consider getting a job with a company that has international branches in the US and then use the company to transfer to the US. They should be able to sponsor you easily if that's the case

jibbajabba

I've tried to get a company sponsoring me for years without luck and a green card is only easy if you work in an area which is urgently needed in the US and I believe IT isn't one of them. You need to do a bit more research really

ptilsen

Plenty of IT jobs all over the place. Very few metropolitan areas are not doing well in this field, and they will generally scale pay well with cost of living. Think more about the type of culture you want to live in and what type of environment you want to work in. There are a lot of IT jobs in DC and VA, for example, but many of them are with defense contractors and government agencies, and they are probably unlikely to or unable to consider a non-citizen.

NYC or LA lifestyle might be most similar to London, especially NYC which should also have a fairly similar climate. Chicago is worth looking at as well if you're looking for a big city.

Smaller metros will have lower cost of living and pay. Minneapolis is a great area for IT. Cost of living in the suburbs is pretty low relative to the salaries. You'd easily pull 80-90K in a big corporate infrastructure team, and $45K is enough to make a downpayment on a house, buy a car outright, and pay mortgage for a year or three (or rent for two years or so). Other metropolitan areas of similar size are generally going to be similar cost of living and salaries, but there will be some variance. LA, NYC, and Chicago are where you're going to see drastically higher salaries (over six figures) and higher cost of living.

Seattle, NYC, and CA are definitely IT hot-spots for reasons that should be obvious, but I can't be clear enough in saying that IT is doing well in most of the country, especially at your level. It really should come down to what kind of culture and climate you want to live it. I can't stress enough that culture and climate both vary greatly between U.S. metros, probably much more than you'd expect. Commuting is another big (and related) factor. In some cities, car ownership is all but a necessity, while in others it ranges from completely unnecessary to impossibly impractical.

djfunz

Iris and Jibba are on the money with this one. H-1B will be tough. Really tough. Coming from east Europe especially. Padmapper is a great resource for apartments. The best actually.

drkat

I hear Charlotte North Carolina is very good for IT Jobs, mostly a M$ Market.

N2IT

Steve absolutely. In 2011 over 1/3 of all job creation was in the state of Texas.

thomas130

Well thanks for your advice so far been really helpful.

If I'm going to do this, i see what my chances of getting citizenship are. Hopefully my qualifications and ability and the fact I don't have a criminal record and want to come to the country to work and not live of the state might help my chances ( not sure though).

The only thing I can think of is the current company I'm working for is trying to expand their market into the US, which would provide work in the USA not sure if that would help my chances.

cvxnetwork

im Thai people, is it possible to work there? Im now working as Network Engineer @ Chevron Thailand Downstream (HP represent).

YuckTheFankees

I would like to add Denver to this list. There are A LOT of I.T. jobs here...along with some major I.T. companies Avaya, Oracle,IBM, etc..