Dallas IT job market

I am californian. Tired of LA housing price and bad corrupted public education system.
Thinking about moving to Dallas area.
Is there plenty of network engineer jobs?

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Iristheangel

Where are you in California now?

ITSpectre

"bad corrupted public education system."

Well that is kinda everywhere. But that is neither here, nor there.

If you wanna remain in Cali Iris can give you the 411 on anything Network related.

kp10tang

Los angeles

Iristheangel

Dude... Los Angeles is a GREAT IT market right now. If you have some good skills and experience, it's easy to make 6-figures. Every single customer of mine is hurting for talent.

kp10tang

I make 96k. But can't afford to buy a house.

Iristheangel

Heh... There's jobs that pay a LOT more than $96K around here. I'm seeing engineers making $130-200K (myself included in that number). It sounds like you need a job change more than anything.

As far as the whole house thing, I guess it depends on where you're looking to buy a house and how big of a house? My household brings in over $300K every year and I'll never afford something in Santa Monica because I don't want to pay on a $3M mortgage for a shoebox. That being said, there's plenty of places all around LA that are under $600K with 3 bedrooms. See Zillow:

It all depends on where you want to live, how much personal debt you're holding, whether you're working from home or not and can live somewhere further from the west side, etc.

That being said, you might have other reasons for considering Dallas but the job market here in SoCal is pretty booming and there are places to get paid bank if you're good. The pay you cited is a bit on the low end - that's more Jr level pay - but not something that can't be improved locally. The big "IT hub" of Texas is Austin from my understanding. Public school systems are pretty crappy in a lot of states. I think Massachusetts, Colorado and New Jersey are currently doing the best in terms of quality. Mass and NJ aren't cheap places to live in more busy IT-areas. Colorado is a mix. Texas isn't even in the top 25. California is way down the list. State taxes will be different for sure and you could save on that depending on the state you go to.

Zillow.jpg

daviddws

The best thing I ever did was leave Cali after living there 20 years. Loved working in Silicon Valley, but its just crazy trying to survive unless your startup goes IPO. I ended up buying a house and living in the central valley commuting 2 hours each way for several years. I finally had enough and moved up to Washington State, and I'm so glad I did (although there is bad traffic up here as well). The home prices are mostly affordable and rent is pretty cheap. I live in a house that would easily be 2 million in Cali and I have a view of the ocean. Worth it.

kp10tang

U r ccie. Ccie makes easy 150k. Pasadena, torrance, Irvine. ...u cant buy a house with 600k....maybe a town house.
hate lausd tho. So corrupted.
Thanks for your details

Iristheangel

I made $150K well before I got my CCIE. I got my CCIE only in November. Been making six figures since 2012. Over $150K since 2014.

Also... I live in Pasadena. Take a look at that Zillow screenshot. The starting point was Pasadena.

tmtex

A 500K house in LA will buy a extremely super duper 5K Sqft house with possible land and depending on where could include staff LOL. Would definitely have a pool, 3/4 car garage. With that being said yes Texas or Dallas is way cheaper then CA. You said NW Engineer, well depending on skills, certs...etc I would say 65-100K+. Yes I have seen some posting that want everything for 55K.
Negatives: There are to many of you guys moving here and making it like CA. Ok I wont get going on that. Go to Houston

DPG

Iristheangel wrote: »

My household brings in over $300K every year and I'll never afford something in Santa Monica because I don't want to pay on a $3M mortgage for a shoebox.

Three years of your income tax liability would get you a paid in full McMansion in Texas!

Iristheangel

DPG wrote: »

Three years of your income tax liability would get you a paid in full McMansion in Texas!

Not really. I'd have maybe a quarter of a house in Dallas or 1/10th of one in Austin... I'm pretty good about tax write-offs and have a great accountant. I probably paid around $10K in state taxes last year. Federal taxes are where they hurt the most and that's wherever I go

Maybe a full house if I wanted to live in BFE in the middle of Waco or Lubbock. But then I'd live in a state where I could still be fired for being married to my wife or any other number of reasons

Plus some of the strange stuff I've read about them slipping in (or out) of history books in Texas.

P.s. I did actually visit Dallas about a month ago. Here's a nice big picture from the hotel room:

There ended up being a HUGE hail storm during the night and I could hear it banging against the windows. I went out later in the afternoon at around 1PM and a bunch of car windows in the hotel parking lot were all busted and the hail was still pretty big on the ground:

IMG_20160320_110355.jpg

IMG_20160324_121522.jpg

DPG

Iristheangel wrote: »

But then I'd live in a state where I could still be fired for being married to my wife or any other number of reasons Plus some of the strange stuff I've read about them slipping in (or out) of history books in Texas.

Highly unlikely considering the urban centers (where all of the IT jobs are) in Texas are as blue as can be.

06textbook-web-superJumbo.jpg

Iristheangel

Unlikely? Maybe. But completely legal and not worth the risk for myself, wife, or soon to be children if it comes to our financial health

Not quite sure why you're showing a random pic of immigration?

As far as the details of the history books and other social issues, that's not something either of us want to dig into very deeply on this forum. Needless to say, I have my reasons to rule out certain states that are important to me. If I end up moving anywhere, it'll probably be north to Oregon or Washington state at some point in the future.

bluejellorabbit

I still live in my mom's basement, but I have all the Ramen I want.

tmtex

Iristheangel wrote: »

Unlikely? Maybe. But completely legal and not worth the risk for myself, wife, or soon to be children if it comes to our financial health

Not quite sure why you're showing a random pic of immigration?

As far as the details of the history books and other social issues, that's not something either of us want to dig into very deeply on this forum. Needless to say, I have my reasons to rule out certain states that are important to me. If I end up moving anywhere, it'll probably be north to Oregon or Washington state at some point in the future.

1 question, are you male ? Also, good stay over there. Relax all in good fun

Iristheangel

Nope. Not male but I thought that I was pretty obvious

mistabrumley89

Iristheangel wrote: »

Nope. Not male but I thought that I was pretty obvious

Hahahahahahaha&#55357;&#56877;&#55357;&#56877;&#55357;&#56834;&#55357;&#56877;&#55357;&#56834;&#55357;&#56877;&#55357;&#56834;&#55357;&#56877;&#55357;&#56834;

tmtex

Iristheangel wrote: »

Nope. Not male but I thought that I was pretty obvious

I was just going by this "worth the risk for myself, wife, or soon to be children" . No offense

Iristheangel

tmtex wrote: »

I was just going by this "worth the risk for myself, wife, or soon to be children" . No offense

That's fine. No offense taken. I'm not exactly secretive with my identify from the Linkedin link in my profile, pictures linked in my signature, blog, girly-sounding name, avatar headshot, etc :P

GSXR750K2

I'm very interested in this too. I'm in the same boat as kp10tang, but for variations on the reason. I've also watched Iris' rise in the Cisco ranks with a bit of envy.

My girlfriend and I are talking about moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth area later this year. Regrettably, I live in Fort Smith, AR at the moment (that's Arkansas, not Arizona...you'd be surprised), which is about four hours northeast of the DFW metroplex. Just about everything blows here, and if you doubt it check this out...

America's happiest and most miserable cities

I'm 33 and at $80k base, and sadly that is good for this area, albeit the cost of living is considerably lower than California, it still isn't "good" in the scheme of things. I work for a pretty decent company here, but there just isn't a lot of opportunity in general and it looks more dismal each year because of the city's "let's live in the past" mindset. It's not so much about I'd like to make more money, I do, but I want to work with the technologies that I've studied and on the scale I desire. I worked a year for Walmart supporting their store servers in the US and UK, and while I liked the environment there were factors that made it difficult to enjoy the work.

I'm inherently Hyper-V because of the MCSE and my WinServ background and I work with multiple clusters every day (doing some P2Vs as we speak) but I'm debating on shelling out the left arm it costs for the VMware course, not because I think it's worth it (I don't, but that's another topic), but because VMware is huge in Dallas. Wanting to move is also one of the reasons I started the master's degree.

Sorry I got on kind of a rant there.

Experienced_ISN'T_old

Guys, I hear (as we all already know to be true) Cloud computing is HOT, HOT, HOT and it also remains one of the sole certs that Iris the Angel can't touch, so there is always that, No, but seriously, Cloud computing is hot and I got an offer for unpaid free training just to "certifiy" into it.

Iristheangel

@GSXR750K2 - Go for it. If you're in a place that's NOT going to achieve your goals, GTFO. Don't waste your time or your career sticking around where you're at. I diverged a bit on my posts above since Dallas isn't really *my* place of choice and got off the point I was leading to:

My advice to the OP more had to do with his previous started threads - not a personal preference to gobble up all the CA folks and keep them here

I have this habit of clicking on a poster's history before responding so I get some context into what they're asking and why they're asking. While California does have a higher cost of living for sure and I can't speak to the school system locally except most states public school systems are pretty wack, based on his posts for the last few months it sounds like he's been struggling finding a good paying job in Los Angeles. I would completely understand if he were living in a more remote area but I've seen a HUGE desperate need for network engineers in the LA area. To me, that might indicate another issue in terms of resume, skill set, interview skills, experience, etc that preventing him from having employers banging down his door to throw money at him for a network engineer job. If that's the case and that's not resolved first, that probably won't change anything by moving across the country.

@OP - How are you doing in terms of job response? Interviews? Recruiter and HR callbacks?

GSXR750K2

Ah, I didn't realize there was prior threads you were referencing. Sorry if I helped drive this thread off of the track any, I was just curious what others had to say about the DFW area. You may see a few mentions of that in my post history as well.

I've been looking, but most there seem reluctant to hire someone from so far away when they have a plethora of candidate to choose from locally. Once I finish my master's (hopefully by the end of the year if I stop slacking off) and our lease is up in November we're probably going to move and look for work after. Probably not the wisest of choices, but, audaces fortuna iuvat.

bluejellorabbit

"You get on that horse and you ride, and you keep riding until you get out of Arkansas and you don't come back here ever." -Nicholas Earp

I've actually taken a look at jobs in Dallas a few times, and I can say with a degree of certainty that it looks better than Atlanta. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area has a lot to offer as well. I've considered a move out there, but all the friends I have out there are alcoholics, and I'm afraid if I move I'll end up drunk all the time. Other than that, I like the area and I've found a number of good opportunities listed with large companies over the last few months (IBM is one I've been wanting to get on with).

Austin used to be great for IT, and maybe still is. I haven't looked in recent years, but it's another city to consider. Oddly, though, everyone I knew there has moved away, with the last friend having moved to the bay area in California just a few months ago. A lot of the Austin culture seems centered around the very large university, so it could be that the city is younger at heart than Dallas/Ft. Worth, and perhaps attracts a younger crowd.

In either case, Texas has no income tax, so that's a plus, whichever city one may end up in there.

ITSpectre

Iristheangel wrote: »

I made $150K well before I got my CCIE. I got my CCIE only in November. Been making six figures since 2012. Over $150K since 2014.

Also... I live in Pasadena. Take a look at that Zillow screenshot. The starting point was Pasadena.

Shoot.... Iris you gonna make me have to move to Cali... But I only have a Sec+ and a MTA. Im not sure I would make it out there with just those certs and basic Win Admin knowledge.

ITSpectre

I completely agree with you Iris about moving... im in that boat myself. The jobs in Virginia are good but they are mostly govt jobs that require a clearance... and some of them are not that good anyway. Plus where I live you have to drive an hr or more to even find good IT jobs. There are jobs in DC but most are federal and federal contracting, and in Richmond VA (an hr drive) the IT market sucks there.... Im hoping that I can go with the company im with now to Georgia so I can take advantage of a new area instead of being stuck here in VA. I mean if I have to stay I will but I want to get outta here and go to a different state with a different job market.

fmitawaps

Not to get things off track, but Iris mentioned a huge need for network people in LA. Why do you think that is? I'm surprised to hear that, I would have thought that tech people would be flooding the west coast, all wanting to go to Silicon Valley and the big cities and like that.

Why is there a shortage of networking people in LA? Companies don't pay well? Poor working conditions? They use the term "network engineer" when they really mean sysadmin or something else? How's the data center market for jobs in LA? I know that area doesn't exactly have cheap electricity rates.

DPG

There is a huge demand for highly skilled positions in almost all markets. There are more job openings than people to fill them.

bluejellorabbit

fmitawaps wrote: »

Not to get things off track, but Iris mentioned a huge need for network people in LA. Why do you think that is?

The cost of living in California is obscene. That's one reason, I'm sure. Who wants to pay $3000/month in rent? Even if you're making a lot, the market could take a turn, you could be unemployed, and finding part-time work at Starbucks isn't going to cover your bills. I suppose Atlanta has spoiled me in that way because I can find a fairly nice one bdrm here for around $600-$700.

But also, I think the key words, as DPG said, are "highly skilled". Most of the job openings companies can't fill aren't positions for CCNA's with a couple years experience. They want CCIE's or RHCA's with 10+ years in the field. Maybe they really need those people, or maybe their wish list is overly ambitious. Couldn't say.