bluejellorabbit wrote: » 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.
Iristheangel wrote: » I didn't pay anywhere near $3000 when I had a 1 bedroom. I used to pay about $700 in Long Beach, $1000 in Pasadena, and $800 in Anaheim Hell, even when I started going for 2 bedrooms, it was still an average of $1400~. I guess if you live right on the beach in a fancy place on the west side, you'll have to drop $3000 but I'm ok with a nice apartment without being right on the beach. Currently, I'm in a two-story 4 bedroom/3 bath with 2000 sq feet in Pasadena for $2600 a month in a nice area. This is actually the biggest and most expensive place I've lived at but we wanted the room so we could have our own offices at home and room for the baby. Not everywhere in California is unaffordable. As far as "highly skilled," I've got clients who can't even find true CCNA-level folks when they get down to an interview. There's a lot of people in the market looking for a job with CCNAs but not all of them really have a CCNA-level knowledge if you catch my drift. Problem is there's a lot of paper certs on the market who can't even spell BGP but they have 3x CCNPs? Yeah.... Kind of sad. My former employer was interviewing for over a year to fill my spot and couldn't even find a strong CCNA. Lot of interviews - sure - but a very dry talent pool. I know they ended up filling the position with someone who didn't have a lot of experience but ended up getting 6-figures anyways with full benefits because she did have the technical skill.
bluejellorabbit wrote: » That sounds more reasonable than anything I've heard. Every time I hear a cost of living story about California, it usually sounds fairly frightening. As far as job go around Atlanta, most positions I see advertised are senior level. Not too much in the way of entry level and 1-2 years experience around here. That's a shame about the CCNA's not having a good knowledge foundation. I've heard CCNA used to be a lot easier, so maybe they're just old school people and way out of practice. In any case, as soon as I finish mine, I hope I can find some work that allows me to keep the skills fresh.
joelsfood wrote: » And instant hire and raise if they answer Open/R?
Iristheangel wrote: » We had a guy recently interview with us with 15 years of experience in various network engineer positions at companies all across SoCal and the guy couldn't respond with a single routing protocol when we asked him "What's your favorite routing protocol and why?" I mean... spitting out RIPv1 would have been preferable to not being able to come up with a single on in this case. Also had no idea what IPSec was.... Kid you not. Interviewing people makes me sad.
Iristheangel wrote: » I didn't pay anywhere near $3000 when I had a 1 bedroom. I used to pay about $700 in Long Beach, $1000 in Pasadena, and $800 in Anaheim Hell, even when I started going for 2 bedrooms, it was still an average of $1400~. I guess if you live right on the beach in a fancy place on the west side, you'll have to drop $3000 but I'm ok with a nice apartment without being right on the beach. Currently, I'm in a two-story 4 bedroom/3 bath with 2000 sq feet in Pasadena for $2600 a month in a nice area. This is actually the biggest and most expensive place I've lived at but we wanted the room so we could have our own offices at home and room for the baby. Not everywhere in California is unaffordable.
fmitawaps wrote: » I used to do a desktop support contract with this one jackass who was your typical small town idiot, he had been in trouble with the law and used drugs, I don't know how he ever got into IT. I actually caught him huffing cans of computer air spray duster once at work, but since the company had security rules in place and we couldn't have our cell phones in there, I couldn't take video to show the bosses. I told them and they found 3 empty cans in his desk drawer, but didn't fire him.
rwmidl wrote: » 2001-2002 I was paying $1100/mo rent in Long Beach. Of course I was pulling about 55k/yr at the time so it was pricey for me.
Iristheangel wrote: » I'm a bit too logical for my own good when it comes to apartment hunting. This is probably more info that you want to know but here goes: It was 2003-2004 for me for Long Beach. I was on 6th and Orange across the street from that little diner and the shopping center-ish thing. It was a big 3-story apartment building with a terrace. Wasn't bad at all and having gated entry was nice but I was pulling in probably about $13/hr so it was pricey to me at $700 and I was commuting via the Blue line to the Gold line every day to my little job at Bank of America credit card services. I had too many crazy people approach me at midnight as I was walking home from the Blue line (Anyone who knows Long Beach knows that you can walk through 2 good neighborhoods then through 2 bad and so on...) that I finally ended up getting a 2 bed/2 bath with a buddy of mine down the street from work and Old Town in Pasadena for around $1400 a month that was pretty comparable to something like this but closer to Old Town: Beautiful Newly Renovated 2 Story Unit There's some pretty good places around but I like value and saving my money where I can. To me, there are some things that I don't compromise on: - Needs to be near a freeway so commuting is easier. After all, what's the point if you just added 30 minutes on side streets to get to a freeway where you have to drive for 15-60 minutes? - Needs to be in a safe area. Don't need to die to save a buck. - Needs to have enough space that I feel comfortable. I hate small crampy apartments - Must have parking - Must have washer/dryer or the hookups - Needs more than one bathroom - Needs more than one electrical circuit - Come on! How am I going to run a lab? - Needs to have central AC/heating - Must allow pets (Cat lady) - Can't be in a crazy traffic center. Seriously, Santa Monica people, it must suck to have traffic just to go to the grocery store. Things to me that don't matter: - Fancy stuff like pools, gym, underground parking, "Free (read: crap) internet," saunas, "feature" walls, etc. Having these things just drive up the cost of living and I don't find myself using them - Living on the beach - This seems to be one that people are obsessed with. Again, I don't have time to go to the beach every day and I'm ok driving 30 minutes to get there on the weekend. - Living in a party area. I'm in my 30s. I'm good ubering to a club on a random Saturday night if I feel the wild need but I don't need to live next to it. - Living within 15 minutes of work if your work if flexible. This is a hard one for most people. Sometimes it works out that you get a job parked right next to your house. This was the case for me when I worked in Anaheim. Not so much when I started working in West LA. Instead, I found compromises like leaving earlier in the morning to avoid all traffic, getting my studying in early in the morning and then only having to battle traffic one way. By the time I got home, I had less studying to do. Ever since coming to Cisco tho, it was a little different because it's not a job that we work out of an office or anything. We visited clients when needed and had a sent list of them. The rest of the time, it was WFH. I just got a promotion though so it's going to be more WFH. I know a few folks on here that were able to swing WFH or 50/50 and that works out too. Who cares if you live further away if you're never going to an office or you only go in for 2 days a week? - It shouldn't be decorated out of the 90s or full of mold but simpler is better. Paying $500 more a month for those prettier stones in your bathroom or nice marble counter tops for a place you'll never own always seemed silly to me.
Iristheangel wrote: » (Anyone who knows Long Beach knows that you can walk through 2 good neighborhoods then through 2 bad and so on...)
kp10tang wrote: » 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?
Experienced_ISN'T_old wrote: » Doesn't dallas have a LOT of TELECOM roots? I remember doing Verizon's big FTTP rollout back in the day (dark ages when compared to what's out there now and on steroids) so Verizon is one telecom that is investing billions there.
Iristheangel wrote: » @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?
Iristheangel wrote: » Yep, I know Pine The warning I got about Long Beach was it was decent until you get above 10th street. Then you GTFO :P BTW, all this talk about living in SoCal reminds me of the "Judgmental Map" for LA: JUDGMENTAL MAPS : Photo
