Jobs in California

I am wondering if anyone can tell me what the job's are like out in California. I am looking to relocate and have been out there to visit on numerous occasions. I currently am living in NC, I relocated here from NYC about 5 yrs. ago. I have a background in system administration and just started to get into information security. I most recently have been getting into Web design. I have about 3.5 years of funds saved up and family in Sacramento and San Diego. I am currently attending WGU and looking to attain my degree with a security focus in the next year. Is living out there and making a living possible? I have heard the taxes are very high. I am looking at other states such as Washington/Nevada and Colorado. Thanks in advance for your response.

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ptilsen

This question is pretty broad and vague. Jobs are jobs across the 50 states. California has particularly high unemployment, but plenty of employment in IT, for what should be obvious reasons. You're more likely to work for a large tech company in California or Washington than other states, more likely to work for a government agency or contractor in Virginia, a financial institution in New York, and so on.

Many areas of CA do have high relative cost of living, but frankly you can make a living anywhere in the US in an IT job. Tax rates in and of themselves are the wrong thing to look at, though. Look at cost of living relative to incomes, crime, house prices, employment rates, city rankings, school rankings, environmental quality rankings, climate, and so on.

Iristheangel

I would respond with a solid yes but I think a demonstration of my trash folder would be better suited.
Note: I have not applied for a job in over 5 months. I just have old resumes floating around on Dice, Indeed, and Monster that are searchable. I've received about 79 of these e-mails in the last 30 days for California-based jobs:

I'm a WGU grad and it all depends on what kind of IT job, where in California, and your own skills. There are TONS of IT jobs around here

Capture.jpg

otaku

@ptilsen Thanks for the response. I am looking more into the information security field.

Iristheangel

Yes, there are infosec jobs. San Diego, L.A and the Bay Area are full of them but you'll probably need to start out doing something other than direct security if you're new to the field

otaku

@Iristheangel, thanks for the response. By the looks of your trash folder I have very high hopes of being able to find something. Would you say that it is difficult for someone who is not from there to get a job.? I know not very many companies offer relocation assistance anymore.

otaku

Thanks that is just what I needed to know.

Iristheangel

Not being from here isn't an issue usually though you might not get relocation assistance. You just need to make sure you show up for the interview and can start the day of if they hire you.

Mrkali

Stick to looking in the major metro areas: Bay area, LA, Orange County, San Diego. The prospects are numerous.

Avoid inland areas such as all of central California (I'm looking at you Fresno), Riverside and San Bernardino County.

otaku

@Iristheangel and @MrKali Thanks so much for your feedback. What is wrong with Fresno?

Mrkali

It's more of a personal hatred than anything. Wife and I lived in the area for most of our lives. The area has a higher than state average concentration of unemployment and crime due to the area economy being primarily based around agriculture.

otaku

Thanks for the tip.

Nemowolf

Mrkali wrote: »

Stick to looking in the major metro areas: Bay area, LA, Orange County, San Diego. The prospects are numerous.

Avoid inland areas such as all of central California (I'm looking at you Fresno), Riverside and San Bernardino County.

Inland = cheaper; coastal = you better make good money.

It entirely depends on what your expecting from the move. If your expecting to rent a house for your family, your going to pay 4k+ in rent. If your renting an apartment on the peninsula (silicon valleyish) expect to start at around 1500-2000+ for a one bedroom apartment in a decent area with a newer or recently remodeled building. Gas is higher, currently 3.69 at my local safeway and much higher at chevron. I wouldnt exactly say im living it big working the help desk but i can manage to pay my rent on time now.

While there are plenty of jobs, many of them may not be exactly what they appear in an email nor will they always pay what your expecting.

** EDIT: Please note i have lived my entire life in the bay area. Both sides now.

petedude

Nemowolf wrote: »

Inland = cheaper; coastal = you better make good money.

Not only do you make more money at the coastal jobs, but there are also more jobs near the coastal cities. Inland jobs will usually tend to be rare one-off jobs, and competition may be worse for those as every dude with an A+ will hit the apply button whether he's qualified or not.

Personally, I think quality of life can be a little higher inland, but you want a stable job with good pay to really make it work. Depending on the area-- you may encounter less crime, less discrimination, less dishonesty and less traffic.

petedude

Iristheangel wrote: »

Not being from here isn't an issue usually though you might not get relocation assistance. You just need to make sure you show up for the interview and can start the day of if they hire you.

Agreed, but-- it helps to have some savings stashed. Advice to the young here: Career mobility with relocation is much easier if you have at least a few weeks' earnings stashed in case a job goes sour.

forestgiant

I have lived in almost all parts of south, central, and coastal California for the past 23 years, and I'd say that generally people don't really lived in these places, they barely survived out here. I've wasted thousands of hours in traffic on Fwy 10, 405, and 5 in the south, and 80, 880 and 680 in the north. Unlike most other states, one can't look at Google Maps and decide to get a job in the coastal cities and lived some place 20+ miles inland. Commutes WILL BE HORRIBLE. Let me say that again, YOUR COMMUTE WILL EAT AT YOUR HEART AND SOUL. It's true there are IT jobs out here, but you have to choose carefully if you wanted to keep your sanity between 6-9 AM and 3-7 PM. Come visit during a work week and see for yourself before you made the move; in fact I recommend the 405/101/110 interchange just for a taste. If you decided it wasn't so bad, perhaps then you could plan your move.

forestgiant

Mrkali wrote: »

It's more of a personal hatred than anything. Wife and I lived in the area for most of our lives. The area has a higher than state average concentration of unemployment and crime due to the area economy being primarily based around agriculture.

The areas between Fresno and Bakersfield are known as "the armpit of California". And it's not a joke. The agricultural and geography of the region means that most days out of the year air quality will be poor to very poor. Foul air from the bay area (San Jose/San Francisco) hang over the region like a thick blanket. If you liked fresh air or cared about your long term health, don't move there.

Iristheangel

I'm at the point where I just refuse to deal with the commute. I get to work early at 5AM so it's a 25 minute commute from Pasadena to West LA. I take that extra 3 hour window to do things that I would usually do at home: makeup, hair, studying, etc.
After work I don't jump into traffic immediately, I do things I would usually consider chores: run to the grocery store, pick up dry cleaners, etc all within the 2 mile region of my work without getting on the freeway. I then study for a few hours longer since I'd be doing that at home anyways and head home when traffic is an afterthought. Overall, I spend maybe 50-60 minutes driving a day. Another friend of mine works in Chino Hills and lives in Corona (locals here know that commute). He does the same thing. By the time he clears out at 7PM, it sails home. Way I see it: Leave the second the clock hits 5PM and get stuck in traffic until 7PM (while being unproductive) or do productive things for a couple hours and get home by 7:30-45. You may have an extra 30-45 minutes at home but you lost 2 hours of productivity. It's all in how you look at it.

I've lived in California my whole life except for a couple wayward years in Utah. Both in Southern California and Northern. I am not a huge fan of Southern California just because of the culture but I make a decent living. I have a good sized apartment at $1000/month (nice low-crime safe area of Pasadena), have a brand new car that's paid off, have a decent padding in my savings account (equivalent to 1/2 year of salary), I make well over six figures after being in IT for 5 years and I could afford the mortgage on a $400-500K house if I wanted to. But my lifestyle might be different than yours: I'm 5 years into my IT career with a degree and over a dozen certifications, I don't have kids, etc. There are a lot of opportunities in California as well as more than a few pitfalls. There are balances that can be achieved where you are spending only about 30-40% of your income on living and saving the rest. Depends on lifestyle, budgeting, weighing where you will live vs commute, etc.

shodown

^^^^^everyday I'm hustling^^^^^^

Nemowolf

forestgiant wrote: »

Commutes WILL BE HORRIBLE. Let me say that again, YOUR COMMUTE WILL EAT AT YOUR HEART AND SOUL.

I just passed up a job because the added time commuting and bridge toll would have made me lose money and my sanity.

SwitchingGears

For SoCal, the majority of business and commerce remains in the LA and Orange County areas. Years ago (like 25) I had hoped that by now the Inland areas would have enough infrastructure to rival OC/LA, but we're still not there yet.

Another angle is that some people are not geared for traffic, period. As in, they freak while at long traffic signals or in line at a fast-food joint (my wife is one of them). Me, I live in the IE and for many, many years had an office in downtown LA at 7th/Figueroa. Sitting on the freeway doesn't bother me.

OP, you are young, come check it out for yourself. Identifying your tolerance for traffic and population density is something you should figure out sooner, than later.

Personally, I don't think you can beat the OC beach area. Northern SD beach areas are also nice. Conversely, I like open areas and the ability to have acreage and horses; so I live in the IE.

Go for it man!

bela456

Yes, there are infosec jobs.

santaowns

not a whole lot of infosec jobs local to sacto, but if your willing to commute to bay area there are a lot there. right now its basically who you know, do you have any networking opportunities here in sac?

Slowhand

I'll throw in my two cents here, since I work and live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Commuting: it's murder here if you have to drive. Bridge toll is expensive, gas is much more expensive here than in most parts of the country, and finding someone to carpool with can be on the same difficulty-scale as dropping a ring into a far-off volcano. Then there's the extra time involved, sometimes anywhere from 1 to 2 hours can be added to a drive that would take half an hour if conditions are bad - multiple accidents, bad weather, other issues - which they are all too often.

The only reason I make it through my days without major incident is because I live very close to our light rail, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train. I also have a commuter bus to one of the large travel hubs in San Francisco that stops directly outside my house. If you're thinking of moving to this area, consider living somewhere that has a BART line nearby. In big cities like Oakland and San Francisco there is no shortage of public transit.

Cost of Living: Living in the Bay Area is hard on the wallet. Gas is expensive, food tends to be more expensive in places like San Francisco, Marin County, Berkeley, Santa Clara, San Jose, etc., than in other places, simply because they are higher-income areas. Housing doesn't come cheap, either. I recently moved into a 1-bedroom apartment that's going to set me back $1275 per month, and that's considered to be an outright bargain. In San Francisco itself, the same space can go for as much as double that.

Once again, live near public transit if you have the choice. If you're commuting, it'll be MUCH cheaper get around with trains, buses, and a reliable bicycle. And, if you can avoid it, don't live in one of the major areas like San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, etc. Live in one of the outlying suburbs, renting and buying is a lot less painful once you're out of the popular areas. As I said, I rent a 900+ square-foot apartment for $1275 in Alameda, whereas I'd be paying about double that for a lot less space in San Francisco.

Working in the Bay Area: there's plenty of work to be had in places like San Francisco, Oakland, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, etc. However, with a lot of opportunities in an area known for being highly competitive comes some pretty steep job requirements. A lot of companies are looking for sysadmins that are at both MCSE and RHCE levels, or network engineers that are as knowledgeable on VoIP as they are on Routing & Switching, or they want developers who know both the code and have some experience working on the sysadmin or helpdesk side of the house. Over the years I've seen some fierce competition in the job-market out here.

Last year, I applied for a position at UC Berkeley as a sysadmin, and all but had the job in the bag at the end of my 3-hour interview with the director of the department. They had one person left to interview after me. . . and it turned out he had similar experience, but he was walking around with a Master's degree in electrical engineering as well as MCITP: Enterprise Administrator, MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator, a CCNA, and a higher-level Juniper cert, along with tons of experience on Linux administration. Suffice it to say, that pretty much blew me out of the water. A few weeks later, I had an almost identical experience with another job, where I met a guy with pretty much the same qualifications sitting in the waiting room as I left.

The job-market is a lot tougher here, in terms of how much you have to know and how much experience is expected of you, than in a lot of places around the country. If you're willing to step up, though, the pay and the perks that come with working for big corporations and/or little startups in a place like San Francisco really do outweigh the amount of effort and time you have to spend to get there.

Conclusion: I'm glad I live where I live and get to work and study in this area. I like this part of the world, and I enjoy having the opportunity to work for some of the largest technology companies in the world, as well as little development shops and other statups that let you go to work in flip-flops and a hoodie. While there are drawbacks, like the cost of living and dealing with commuter traffic, the kind of pay, benefits, and opportunities companies the likes of those that can afford giant offices in downtown San Francisco or smaller ones out in SOMA tend to be very attractive. There's plenty of avenues to explore, lots and lots of different fields to work in, and as long as you're willing to ride that big wave of competition, you can really build your career up out here.

networkjutsu

As Slowhand already mentioned, Bay Area is highly competitive. I had to move out CA to further my career. Roughly two years ago, I came back to the bay since the employers started to call me due to my experience though still limited compared to the others in my field. Good luck with your job hunting!

brownwrap

Actually I would love to return to California. I'm in Arizona now and its not me, but it looks like I am stuck here. I do have about a 2 mile commute, but so what. There is nothing to do with all of my free time anyway. I've been here a little over two years, but the last job I have in Pasadena, I took a room there and went home to Moreno Valley on the weekends.

otaku

@ santaowns. I currently do not have any networking opp. lined up I have an uncle who owns a house in San Diego, he travels a lot so he has opened his home up to me. I will begin my search later on this year. I plan to move out there w/in the next 18-24 months.

otaku

@SwitchingGears I am geared for traffic. I am an Army brat who grew up in major metropolitan cities (Philly/NYC and Atlanta) I also spent about 2.5 years in Germany and nothing compares to driving on the autobahn. I know that each place is different but I am ready for the challenge.

TKKJL

Hi,
This is a great idea for wherever there is a traffic.
We are in FL but hoping to find a job in CA and move there. We've been looking at some jobs and housing rentals in Pasadena. Can you tell me which side of town in Pasadena is great for family?

Iristheangel wrote: »

I'm at the point where I just refuse to deal with the commute. I get to work early at 5AM so it's a 25 minute commute from Pasadena to West LA. I take that extra 3 hour window to do things that I would usually do at home: makeup, hair, studying, etc.
After work I don't jump into traffic immediately, I do things I would usually consider chores: run to the grocery store, pick up dry cleaners, etc all within the 2 mile region of my work without getting on the freeway. I then study for a few hours longer since I'd be doing that at home anyways and head home when traffic is an afterthought. Overall, I spend maybe 50-60 minutes driving a day. Another friend of mine works in Chino Hills and lives in Corona (locals here know that commute). He does the same thing. By the time he clears out at 7PM, it sails home. Way I see it: Leave the second the clock hits 5PM and get stuck in traffic until 7PM (while being unproductive) or do productive things for a couple hours and get home by 7:30-45. You may have an extra 30-45 minutes at home but you lost 2 hours of productivity. It's all in how you look at it.

I've lived in California my whole life except for a couple wayward years in Utah. Both in Southern California and Northern. I am not a huge fan of Southern California just because of the culture but I make a decent living. I have a good sized apartment at $1000/month (nice low-crime safe area of Pasadena), have a brand new car that's paid off, have a decent padding in my savings account (equivalent to 1/2 year of salary), I make well over six figures after being in IT for 5 years and I could afford the mortgage on a $400-500K house if I wanted to. But my lifestyle might be different than yours: I'm 5 years into my IT career with a degree and over a dozen certifications, I don't have kids, etc. There are a lot of opportunities in California as well as more than a few pitfalls. There are balances that can be achieved where you are spending only about 30-40% of your income on living and saving the rest. Depends on lifestyle, budgeting, weighing where you will live vs commute, etc.

Iristheangel

Anything south of the 210 freeway in Pasadena is very family-friendly. The nicest part of town is near the Rose Bowl but Old Town, South Pasadena and near PCC are all nice areas to be. I live in Pasadena because it's close to everything fun and work. It's about 15-25 minutes from Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Burbank without traffic