Time to relocate: advice about Seattle or Portland?

I have been wanting to leave Little Rock for many years. Well, actually I have been wanting to leave Arkansas since I moved here 15 years ago. I just graduated from WGU and have some desirable skills so hopefully I will be able to find employment somewhere that is not here. Specifically, I'm looking to move out of general IT and into security. My wife has been on the fence about moving. She has always lived here and all of her family is here. Due to ongoing family strife, and the recent triple digit heat wave, she has decided that it is time to go.

I worked a contract job in Colorado Springs for 3 months, several years ago and loved it there. They also have a very similar cost of living which would make the transition less painful. However, the economy there is on a downturn and has been for several years. Tech jobs are on the decline and due to the over abundant presence of the DoD, it's very hard to find a job without prior military experience.

While I have never been there, everything I have read leads me to believe that I would be happy in Seattle. The biggest negative that everyone says is the lack of sunny days, which is more of a positive for me. There are some major tech employers in the Seattle area which have many openings. I think that finding a job there will be pretty easy. The cost of living in Seattle is about 20% higher, which means that I would be wanting at least $90k, probably closer to $110k in order to keep me from job hopping, which I really really hate doing. I have already sent out about 20 applications to Seattle employers.

Another city that has been recommended to me by people on this forum and nearby, is Portland, OR. I haven't seen much that would have led me to start a job hunt there. The cost of living there is very similar to Seattle. Besides that, I know very little about the city.

I'm looking for advice about either city: good/bad neighborhoods, good/bad employers, etc. I hate commuting and will have to live within 30 minutes of where I work. If you have somewhere else with a lot of security jobs that rarely gets above 90 degrees, suggest that as well. If there is an opening where you work, let me know. There are certain areas I would like to avoid: California, Texas, Florida, and DC metro.

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Comments

petedude

Seattle: overcast, but you knew that. I personally have reservations about radiation there given I've had relatives affected by cancer in Western Washington. That's just me, though.
Portland: rainy. Eugene, to the south, was a small tech hotbed for a while but I'm not sure that's still the case.

swild

Radiation? do you have any links supporting this? I could see this being hard to prove except anecdotally, but I wouldn't necessarily discount that. I will see what I can find out about Eugene.

demonfurbie

ever consider other citys

atlanta is good for it as well as many cities in new mexico

swild

Atlanta, too hot. New Mexico, too hot. I don't want to live anywhere that routinely sees triple digit summers.

bdub

The Minneapolis area is good and might be one to consider. There are a fair amount of IT jobs here and cost of living isnt too high. Pretty good education system too (not sure if you have or plan to have kids). If you like seasons we have them here, winter is the worst part unless you really like winter. Its not too bad though.

I thought about moving out to Oregon or Seattle mainly for the scenery (photography and camping) but I know several people that live(d) out there and even during my own job searches it seems a bit more competitive than here and as a result there are fewer open positions.

Maybe someday I'll move out west who knows.

inscom.brigade

whats wrong with DC Metro?

okplaya

Have a friend that moved down to Raleigh, NC. Says there are a bunch of opportunities in the Raleigh/Durham area.

swild

inscom.brigade wrote: »

whats wrong with DC Metro?

the crime rate is barely an improvement over my current situation. If I am going through the trouble of moving, I want to at least move somewhere safer.

Hypntick

I'm looking at NC myself actually. Really liked the area when I lived there about 10 years ago.

@swild do not come to Memphis!

DB Cooper

I'm from Portland and have spent a lot of time is Seattle. What I know about Seattle, its a beautiful city and it does have a lot of rainy over cast days. The one thing that has always kept me from Seattle is the traffic, make sure you live close to where you work. When you compare Seattle to Portland, you notice Seattle has a big city feel and Portland doesn't. Seattle has a pro football and baseball team, and Portland only has a basketball team, sorry I don't count soccer has a sport. If it wasn't for the traffic and cost of living I would love to live in Seattle.

Portland has a slower feel to it, great for someone moving from a small community. I grew up on an Indian Reservation on the Oregon coast and didn't have any trouble adapting to Portland in my early 20's. Our biggest IT industry is in Beaverton, its about a 15 min drive from downtown Portland. Its has companies like Nike and Intel. You can get a nice 3-4 bedroom house for $200,000-$250,000. Some nice smaller towns 15 minutes from Beaverton are Wilsonville and Tualatin. Lots of new development and housing, and great schools. Also near by is Lake Oswego, its known for the rich and upper middle class. A lot of the Portland Trail Blazers live there.

If I was starting off with a family, I would take the Portland area over Seattle. If I didn't have any kids, Seattle would be the place for me.

swild

@Hypntick, lol! don't worry. Being in Little Rock, I have spent all the time I ever want to spend in Memphis. Mainly on the interstates, what a nightmare!

@DB Cooper, This is the exact kind of thing I was looking for. From what you are saying, I think my wife would like Portland more, while I think I would like Seattle. We aren't having kids, so that won't be a problem. An issue we have run into here is finding the house we want. We want to live in a nice neighborhood, but we only want a 700 to 800 sq ft, 1 or 2 bed, 1 bath house. That is just impossible to find here. We bought a 1200 sq ft monster and seriously never use 2 rooms. I've looked at Colorado Springs and that seems pretty easy to come by with many houses being 100+ years old (another check in the plus column), but haven't looked anywhere else yet.

Devilry

I live/work in Atlanta. This summer is supposed to be some record heat here, avoid it! Plus the people in this city tend to make me sick with their attitudes and low class.

I would have to second Raleigh/Durham area, the cost of living is a little higher but jobs pay well. The only downside is there is some stiff competition due to it being one of the most educated population in the US per capita.

Whiteout

Love Seattle! Tons of 6 figure tech jobs around here. Think Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing(fair amount of infosec jobs here, especially if you have a security clearance), Nintendo, among many many others. Although I don't have one yet, some day. Ha ha.

Yes the weather can be crappy in Seattle, but those beautiful days in the Summer make up for it.

And Traffic can be an issue. What I do is live across the pond and take the ferry into work/school. Don't have to worry about my car/parking and it gives me time to study/read etc. Some employers even let you count some of this time as work! The train or light rail is another viable option if you don't want to live near down town.

Not sure what type of area you are trying to live, but some cities/places (These are all outside of downtown) to check out are Issaquah, Redmond, Carnation, Bainbridge Island, Snoqualmie Ridge area, Newcastle/Newport.

And I'm not a fan of Portland, to weird down there for me... I get confused just driving on I-5 through Portland.

PM if you have any questions, I am a wealth of knowledge about Washington!

swild

I really can't wait to be in a city with a decent public transportation system. To call what we have in Little Rock a system is a really bad joke. Ferry, train, bus; all viable options that I have no experience with. I may even be ok with a longer commute if I don't feel like I'm totally wasting that time.

DB Cooper

If you are looking at older small homes, they will be cheaper and your commute would be 20-30 minutes to Beaverton, Portland, and Vancouver.

I would look in Oregon City, Clackamas, and Milwaukie, older homes, cheaper, and usually have a bigger lot. Clackamas has a nice mall and theater, thats where you'll find me for movie night.
Clackamas Town Center - Premier Shopping, Dining, Entertainment in Portland / Happy Valley, Oregon

Stay away from Vancouver if you are planning on having any kids. Compare Portland to Vancouver:
National Sex Offender Registry - Family Watchdog

swild

I have been talking with my administrative manager and my division president (both of them work in my office) about leaving my current position and told them to go ahead and advertise so that I can train my replacement. I am the only IT person for my division, so I feel that just giving 2 weeks is not enough. My division president is very happy that I decided to let them plan for my leaving and said that he would rather pay two people for a month or two than to be without for any amount of time.

So yesterday I told my functional manager, who is halfway across the country, that I have decided to leave and would like to discuss what he would like for me to do about training a replacement and to call me to discuss further. He responded with a single line: "Have your administrative manager contact me."

I have dreaded going telling him since I have never actually met him and didn't know how he would react. I am just utterly flabbergasted by his nonchalant, apathetic response. I expected him to at least ask me why or what could be done to keep me on.

I like the people that I work with and if it wasn't for that, I would have given notice and be done with it. This just makes me want to walk out. I won't because I'm more professional than that, but I want to.

Time to move on.

Iristheangel

No kidding. I hate cryptic one-line emails like that. Oh well... If you do end up getting let go or something early, take up some contracting work to pay the bills and keep moving on with your plan

swild

With the amount of contract work available here, I really could quit and do that full time and make more that I am making now. I just would rather have steady hours and steady income. The more I read about Seattle, the more excited I get. I have pretty much decided on that city unless a six figure offer comes my way from elsewhere.