Orlando

bgold87

I wanted to know if anyone on here was from Orlando. The wife is desperate to move there, but some of the reviews online are saying that IT is really competitive and has low wages, as well as it being an overall bad place to live.

Anyone have any experience?

spiderjericho

You could always move to Tampa. There is the government-related and private sector jobs in the area. Can't say the pay is great since I'm still in the military.

Orlando is a hop skip away.

But from what I know, Florida is not the best place to relocate for IT jobs.

mistabrumley89

I'm from Orlando, but I have never worked an IT job there. My dad is the president of the technology department for a big bank. He worked telecommunications for 20 years in the army. And he has been CCNP (maybe more certs, but that's as far as I know of... never really asked) for probably close to 10 years. Without his army retirement I think he brings in between 80k-100k, but he has been with the same company since he got out of the army.

glenn_33

I've lived in Orlando but never worked in IT while living there. The weather is great and there's lots to do. As spiderjericho said Tampa is where it's at regarding IT jobs. Tampa is nice, too. Those gulf coast beaches are easily some of the best in the US

bgold87

Tampa looks nice, but they said Brandon is the hurrican capital. Thanks for the repsponses!

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

I live in Orlando. I personally have been very successful with my IT career here. A lot of technical positions I see out here require some level of programming experience.

We do have a lot of large businesses and tech companies compared to the rest of Florida. For instance, there's Oracle, SAP, Norton, Electronic Arts, Florida Hospital, Northrop Gruman, Lockheed Martin, SAIC (and countless other government contractors), Siemens, Disney (and the rest of the theme parks), Hotels, and not to mention my company (we're a software company).

Usually the people complaining about jobs here tend to be in SA and Desktop positions. From what I can see, that's a very saturated market, so competition is high. That also means that the job market is very tough here for newer folks trying to get into IT and others with limited experience.

However, if you know how to program then there's plenty of opportunity.

t_knight

Alif_Sadida_Ekin wrote: »

I live in Orlando. I personally have been very successful with my IT career here. A lot of technical positions I see out here require some level of programming experience.

We do have a lot of large businesses and tech companies compared to the rest of Florida. For instance, there's Oracle, SAP, Norton, Electronic Arts, Florida Hospital, Northrop Gruman, Lockheed Martin, SAIC (and countless other government contractors), Siemens, Disney (and the rest of the theme parks), Hotels, and not to mention my company (we're a software company).

Usually the people complaining about jobs here tend to be in SA and Desktop positions. From what I can see, that's a very saturated market, so competition is high. That also means that the job market is very tough here for newer folks trying to get into IT and others with limited experience.

However, if you know how to program then there's plenty of opportunity.

I use to live in Orlando and market was not bad at all. I now live in Miami and its a little different market down here that I've notice with almost a year of living here. I saw you accepted a great opportunity doing ETL development I am happy for you and it gives me motivation. Currently I am a Network Administrator but as you once said you do get tired of putting out fires and baby sitting servers. Do you have any recommendation to get int ETL development and BI? and what I can do for practice since I am familiar with MS SQL?

ottoscav

As a former law enforcement officer in Orange County (Orlando is in Orange County)...be prepared for a large amount of violent crime. Many people have the false view of Orlando as Mickey-land. In reality, most of it is very dumpy and full of crime (even areas you wouldn't think have it). I moved away because of the crime, low wages and the fact without air conditioning, Florida is basically uninhabitable.

w00t

Stay way from Florida if you're trying to find an IT job there. I was about 45 minutes from Tampa in the Bradenton/Sarasota area and there are way too many people trying to find jobs there and the pay isn't very good. I relocated to Atlanta Georgia to have better success in my career. I was born and raised in FL and I'm so much happier since I moved from there.

dpsmooth15

ottoscav wrote: »

As a former law enforcement officer in Orange County (Orlando is in Orange County)...be prepared for a large amount of violent crime. Many people have the false view of Orlando as Mickey-land. In reality, most of it is very dumpy and full of crime (even areas you wouldn't think have it). I moved away because of the crime, low wages and the fact without air conditioning, Florida is basically uninhabitable.

That is enough to scratch Florida off of my list, you heard it from the man himself! Thanks

Success101

bgold87 wrote: »

I wanted to know if anyone on here was from Orlando. The wife is desperate to move there, but some of the reviews online are saying that IT is really competitive and has low wages, as well as it being an overall bad place to live.

Anyone have any experience?

Personally I wouldn't recommend it. I live in Florida and the job market for IT is horrible. Really horrible. I don't want to get started on salary...yes even for individuals with experience.

That's my two cents.

Kelkin

Yea I tend to agree with success101 here.. Job Market isnt that great around here..

thenjduke

Tell your wife to stay away from Orlando or Tampa. I use to live there and the IT fields sucks there.

sanrus

I have nothing to compare with but its TOUGH here for who new to IT.

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

t_knight wrote: »

I use to live in Orlando and market was not bad at all. I now live in Miami and its a little different market down here that I've notice with almost a year of living here. I saw you accepted a great opportunity doing ETL development I am happy for you and it gives me motivation. Currently I am a Network Administrator but as you once said you do get tired of putting out fires and baby sitting servers. Do you have any recommendation to get int ETL development and BI? and what I can do for practice since I am familiar with MS SQL?

My recommendation is to get into some sort of Database Developer role. This will give you experience with writing queries, designing tables and schemas, and understanding how data fits with a business. This is the basis of any BI role. From there, it's a matter of learning the different report writing and ETL tools that are used out there. Some database developer roles will give you some exposure to these tools.

Depending on what exactly you're wanting to do in BI, Microsoft and Oracle seem to be the biggest players in the market from what I see.

jackveneno

I did the biggest mistake when I moved from the DC area to Tampa/Orlando. Down here it doesn't matter if you have a clearance, over 8 years of experience, MS degree and bunch of certs at the end of the day companies either want you to work for temp company (if you're lucky when they do make you an offer to pick you up as a permanent employee they will offer way less money because you will be getting benefits) or they want to offer very little $$$ for the experience they are requiring you to have. In the past two years I have applied for opportunities in which I'm very well qualified and out of 50+ applications I got only got one call and from that a job offer for 45k a year, which I declined.

The GOV positions that you might see will never call you because in most cases they already have someone for that position, which the same can be said about any job out there. I just want to find a direct hire position with a great company in the Orlando area and if things continue the way they are I might have to take an opportunity and travel all the time for work as I can't move (upside-down on a mortgage). Does anyone in this forum works in Orlando or knows people in the IT Security field? I would like to see what opportunities might be out there and have someone in the inside. Thanks