Relocating from Florida to wherever

Since I hit a real disappointment with a previous job experience (4 interviews at Tampa General Hospital) I've think I've had enough of Florida especially Tampa, this place is horrible. It's the good boy system where ever I go, no one gets rewarded for hardwork and consistency anymore and I can't sit here and allow my family to suffer and differently won't live or take anything from the gov't. California is expensive, I'm hearing a lot about Texas. What's the consensus out there?

Definitely not differently

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Comments

MiikeB

Well I just signed a lease in Austin. No job yet but I get 5-7 calls a week. I think most of the reason I haven't locked something down is I am not available until mid June, and unless the job is really great ideally I am not coming back from Afghanistan until at least the end of August.

BradleyHU

yeah, i heard about texas...austin & houston in particular. DMV area has a ton of jobs too, but a lot of them you already have to have, or will need to be able to obtain security clearance.

JoJoCal19

Just saw in the other thread, sorry to hear that. I think that is BS that they had you do 4 separate interviews to not offer you the job. I would look in Atlanta. It's the IT hub of the south and when I do targeted job searches in ATL, there are easily over 4x as many jobs that I find.

zidian

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Just saw in the other thread, sorry to hear that. I think that is BS that they had you do 4 separate interviews to not offer you the job. I would look in Atlanta. It's the IT hub of the south and when I do targeted job searches in ATL, there are easily over 4x as many jobs that I find.

Atlanta is a great area. I have a friend that works at Amazon as a software development manager. He's been very happy there for a few years.

wes allen

Austin would be on my list of "cool places to live" based on reports of friends. Really, there are tech jobs to be had just about anywhere, I would look at cost and quality of living as well as job options.

zeroth

If you're serious about relocating to Texas, don't rule out the DFW area. Dallas, Irving, Plano all have plenty of jobs available. The cost of living is low relative to Austin. In fact, I just put in notice at my current workplace and as far as I know they haven't found a replacement, and it's a security role. Let me know if you want details. I'm only leaving because of another opportunity, not because the environment is horrible or anything.

Network_Engineer

Move to Atlanta!

Bokeh

Well if you believe the various articles, the DC beltway is one of the best. Boston, Atlanta, Raleigh, Austin, DFW, Houston, Minneapolis-St Paul are all high on the list. Some other recent players have been Columbus (OH), Boise. Im sure Seattle is still up there as well.

Akaricloud

Yeah, Seattle has tons of jobs from my experience. All the IT professionals I know in the area have had no problem finding mid-senior level positions.

forestgiant

Come visit San Diego (and probably the rest of Southern California), but don't move here. When the sun is out (which is about 11.5 months out of the year), you're too hard at work trying to earn the privilege to pay sunshine taxes.

It's a sincere advice.

MiikeB

Bokeh wrote: »

Well if you believe the various articles, the DC beltway is one of the best. Boston, Atlanta, Raleigh, Austin, DFW, Houston, Minneapolis-St Paul are all high on the list. Some other recent players have been Columbus (OH), Boise. Im sure Seattle is still up there as well.

I feel like the beltway requires a huge sacrifice in quality of life though compared to the others on the list.

richnewman

MiikeB wrote: »

I feel like the beltway requires a huge sacrifice in quality of life though compared to the others on the list.

I moved near DC from Michigan recently. I have to pay more to live closer to work, but I have a 10 minute commute (what I'm used to in Michigan). From what I understand, the further you go out from the beltway, the more house you get for your money. I'm single, so I only rent part of a house.

Did you mean quality of life in another way? I love it here, but I can only compare it to Michigan.

W Stewart

I'm in Tampa and we definitely don't have the best job market down here. If I were going to move out of state it would most likely be to Houston or Virginia. I hear Houston has a low cost of living and a decent amount of IT jobs and there's a ton of IT jobs(especially goverment IT) in the DC, Maryland Virginia area. Orlando may not be that bad either but Virginia is probably really the place to be for IT jobs.

Nyblizzard

Come to NYC!

Corrsta

As a New York resident, a frequent traveler, and someone who can't imagine living anywhere else, I think Austin is one of the greatest cities I've ever been to. I try to visit at least twice a year. There's plenty to do, the job market is great, and the cost of living is fantastic (compared to NY). Definitely worth looking into.

Claymoore

The biggest problem with Tampa is the lack of high-end IT jobs due to lack of large business. There are only 3 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the Tampa/St Pete/Clearwater area. Many companies have offices here, but HQ and the data center is somewhere in the Northeast. If you would like to stay in Florida, have you looked at Jacksonville?
Fortune 500 2012: States: Florida Companies - FORTUNE on CNNMoney.com

I work for a national firm and Tampa has an airport so I can always stay busy if I want to travel.

pinkydapimp

what type of positions are you looking for?

Psoasman

Another vote for Seattle, tons of great opportunities here.

TBRAYS

I'm in the senior level role of information security, since I've marketed my resume in the Houston\Austin area, I've been getting 3-4 calls a day. Itsreally tempting. Houston cost of living is slightly lower than Tampa, which is freaking awesome..... Once my daughter is born, which is anyday now, I will definitely be more aggressive in their job market.

webgeek

I've been debating about Austin recently as well....plus Google Fiber! lol

TBRAYS

I just PM'd you

Syntax

Kind of in a similar boat... I have a job but it's not really what I want to do (more desktop support than anything even though I'm a "network administrator"). Seems hard to find a good IT job here in Florida. Plus I am really getting sick of Orlando. Keep hearing about Austin, Houston, Dallas etc having a good job market (or at least much better than here) with a similar cost of living. Might look into visiting out there hopefully sometime soon.

maniac_73

I was actually looking at moving to the Orlando area (currently in Canada). What about it don't you like?

gunbunnysoulja

TBRAYS wrote: »

I'm in the senior level role of information security

Did you check out govt. jobs @ MacDill AFB? They have InfoSec opportunities. My buddy who is an upper level InfoSec guy was offered $150k there. Your (pending) CISSP would certainly help. He does however have an active TS. Not sure how sponsorship works through them. I only have Secret, which was easy to get.

Side note, you could not pay me enough to leave Florida. I love it here.

Bokeh

I lived in the Dallas area many moons ago, and the IT jobs there were a dime a dozen. You name it, you could find it. From mom & pop's looking for techs, even weekend ones, to high level positions. I dont know if it is still going on, but I loved the "First Saturday" sales in Dallas the first Sat of the month downtown. Started at midnight, went to like 2pm that Saturday. Vendors from all over, and the prices were awesome. Built many a box from those trips.

Syntax

maniac_73 wrote: »

I was actually looking at moving to the Orlando area (currently in Canada). What about it don't you like?

The traffic, the way people drive, the tourists and people from out of state mainly. Maybe if I had a job that I enjoyed a lot I would suffer through it, but right now it isn't worth it to me.

Also to add to it, I have lived in Florida most of my life and I'm tired of the humidity in the summer.. Ready to try out a drier climate.