Recommendations for a relocation city for IT work

JockVSJock

Greetings, more then likely I will be separating from the US Army early.

I have no intentions of moving back to Omaha. There is no IT there, except for dead-end call centers/help desk type of work.

I am looking at moving to a different and bigger city to find better IT work. Right now I'm looking at Texas (Dallas and/or Austin) for work.

My two criteria is:

-more job opportunities
-ability to network with IT professional, say Meetup.com or professional groups

However I would like to get input on other cities in seeking better career opportunities.

thanks

gbdavidx

iowa may be boring but i hear it has the lowest unemployment rate in the us, if i was single and needed a job id probably move there, others id probably move to seattle or portland, but thats because i like those two cities

it_consultant

Austin is good, Denver/Boulder is good, San Jose is excellent (but competitive).

Psoasman

The Seattle area is very good right now.

ptilsen

Seattle, Minneapolis, Austin, Los Angeles. Seattle is really the only one I'd consider strongly for career reasons, personally.

N2IT

Seattle, Minneapolis is HOT, several cities in Texas. Back in 2011 over 1/3 of the new jobs were provided in the state of Texas, it's almost like it's own country. This is against the nation all 50 states and 1/3 of those new jobs were in Texas. I think that speaks volumes.

Nutsacjac

I've heard nothing but good about Austin from colleagues who have migrated there.

FloOz

Austin and RTP. I've also been seeing a ton of postings for openings in the Denver area

Iristheangel

Hopefully this will help you. It's a recent survey of job satisfaction per metro. There's also a lot of IT hubs in the first 5:
San Jose Best City To Work In; Glassdoor Employment Satisfaction Report Card By City | Glassdoor Blog

JockVSJock

N2IT wrote: »

Minneapolis is HOT, several cities in Texas. Back in 2011 over 1/3 of the new jobs were provided in the state of Texas, it's almost like it's own country. This is against the nation all 50 states and 1/3 of those new jobs were in Texas. I think that speaks volumes.

I have family in Minneapolis and applied for a job there on a whim. Got an interview, however it was the case that I wasn't qualified and the company wasn't willing to train either...Also I don't think I could take the harsh winters either. I don't know how you can do it.

As for Texas, its looking more and more like a great place to end up.

undomiel

I'll chime in with my support for the Seattle area as well. I am always seeing plenty of IT positions across the experience spectrum open around here. Though I also imagine that the competition for the jobs is a bit more fierce as well.

ptilsen

JockVSJock wrote: »

Also I don't think I could take the harsh winters either. I don't know how you can do it.

He doesn't have to anymore, but I love it. Realistically, if you don't like the cold, you don't need to spend more than 20 minutes a day in it, maybe 40 if your car takes time to heat up. Garages are almost omnipresent on houses and apartments.

By comparison, I couldn't stand the Texas heat for even five minutes. The commute would be unbearable.