Dallas/Ft. Worth: How is the job market?

And would it be worth relocating to that area for my career? My fiance and I are planning on getting married next spring, but we are debating on moving away from Kansas City and to the DFW area because we would actually have some family nearby. Here, we are at least 5 hours away from any family and the thoughts that eventually we'd want to have kids we'd appreciate having one of our parents nearby. The other area we've lightly talked about was the Orlando area, but we both have reservations about living in Florida and aren't excited about that. Another is Chicago, but it's fairly expensive to live there and neither of our parents live there any longer (although my fiance has some family still there).

Basically I have 4 years of IT support experience working help desk, desktop support, database support and imaging support. A little server administration, but was very limited at my last position that did that. After being laid off a year ago (on April Fools day, no less) I have worked 2 jobs, one being a seasonal tier 1 help desk (pure hell) in a large corporate environment, and now for a local company that is a authorized repair depot where I do break/fix on laptops non-stop all day, everyday. As you would expect, it's boring and gets monotonous quickly. Not to mention the pay is far less than I was making before I was laid off, but was better than no unemployment (which was getting close to running out). I've been at this position for over 4 months now and have been looking the whole time I've been there for a better career move to get me where I want to be, which is either server or network admin. Lately, the job market seems to have dried up for someone with my experience and have been either lowballed severely for jobs, or they knock me for not having 5 years of experience.

Personally, we'd rather be closer to Ft Worth, or one of the Burb's in the area. Any advice would be very welcome and appreciated.

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Comments

MeanDrunkR2D2

I guess there is no one here that lives near that area... Bummer.

How about anyone who has tips and advice on how to interview and relocate to a new area?

motogpman

Check out this topic: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/53370-best-location-us-work.html

There are a few people on TE from DFW and several of us from Houston. I haven't had to go to DFW in over a year, so not sure exactly how the economy is. I imagine it is like the other Texas cities who are doing fairly well despite the economy. I know in our area the hot topic is how many out of state plates have been on the rise for the last several months. My realtor, selling a second home here, as told me that the marklet is picking back up, mainly from people relocating from Cali and the North East states.

Good luck and as far as the interviewing topic, not sure, been here for 16 years now. I would suggest looking at the IT recruiting sites and get in touch with them. Not trying to throw plugs for anyone, but we use RHT, I had a great experience with them.

MeanDrunkR2D2

motogpman wrote: »

Check out this topic: http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/53370-best-location-us-work.html

There are a few people on TE from DFW and several of us from Houston. I haven't had to go to DFW in over a year, so not sure exactly how the economy is. I imagine it is like the other Texas cities who are doing fairly well despite the economy. I know in our area the hot topic is how many out of state plates have been on the rise for the last several months. My realtor, selling a second home here, as told me that the marklet is picking back up, mainly from people relocating from Cali and the North East states.

Good luck and as far as the interviewing topic, not sure, been here for 16 years now. I would suggest looking at the IT recruiting sites and get in touch with them. Not trying to throw plugs for anyone, but we use RHT, I had a great experience with them.

Thanks for the advice. From everything I hear Texas and the DFW area is doing pretty god right now, even though other parts of the country are struggling. I'm looking at being one of those additions of out of state plates eventually. Of course, I'd have to sell my home here, which would be ok as I got it for a steal 2 years ago and should have no issues selling it for market value.

One of the benefits I do have is my Fiance's family that lives in the area is fairly well connected and are in positions to hopefully influence some of the hiring managers there. Time will tell though. I just am nervous about moving that far away and trying to interview from a distance.

eMeS

I live right smack in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth. IMO the economy here has weathered much better than just about everywhere else over the last couple of years, and as a result the job market has been and continues to remain better than elsewhere.

This is the case for the majority of the major urban areas in Texas. The economy here is quite diverse.

Part of this is because over the last several years many of us have been making extra $$ from leasing our mineral rights to oil and gas companies. I know many people that are making extra money that way in the North Texas area, and sometimes it is a significant monthly amount. Energy production has had a definite effect on keeping the Texas economy robust.

I travel around quite a bit, and over the last 2 years have definitely noticed that almost everywhere I go, things seem a bit worse than in Texas. I spend a lot of time in New England and California, and the effect of the last 2 years is particularly noticeable in those areas.

Not sure if any of this helps, other than to qualitatively say that the economy and job market here in Texas is significantly better than in other places. As always, YMMV.

MS

luckybob

It is funny, your question is the same one my wife and I have been toiling over for the past few years. I currently live in College Station and have hit the IT ceiling.

With that, we do have family and friends in Dallas, and my brother is moving there next month. I have done my fair share of mild and selective job hunting in DFW, and have found that the jobs have increased in the last 4 months or so. A lot of the work is contract to hire (which I am not a fan of in my situation), but there are also a lot of solid full time opportunities. One of the IT hot spots in the area is Irving, but like you we are more interested in the Fort Worth (Keller/Southlake) area, and I don't want a crazy commute across DFW every day. I was always told as long as you stay above HWY 30, you should be OK.

The thing that makes looking for a job out of town tough is having to be selective and get as much info over the phone as possible due to traveling for interviews. I am in DFW area about once every 2 months, and have always setup interviews during my trips.

Good luck on the job hunting, and maybe I will see you in DFW one day.

chmorin

I live north of Houston and plan on moving up to Dallas In A few years for similar reasons. I am confidant in the economy Down there but do a proper job search before devoting to anything.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Thats what I'm most fearful of is doing alot of traveling for interviews down there and trying to secure as many in one trip as I can to save costs. It's easier to fly there from here instead of driving, but it could get costly especially since my current job pays me jack and I don't get any PTO or Vacation time to use up for those. It's all unpaid leave.

How does one ferret out the good jobs, to those that are a waste of time? I've been looking at the jobs in the area and there are alot. I'm comfortable with contract to hire as they have always turned into permanent jobs in the past. Of course I was more selective about that and made sure the recruiter and company was up front and honest about that.

Paul Boz

eMeS wrote: »

I live right smack in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth. IMO the economy here has weathered much better than just about everywhere else over the last couple of years, and as a result the job market has been and continues to remain better than elsewhere.

This is the case for the majority of the major urban areas in Texas. The economy here is quite diverse.

Part of this is because over the last several years many of us have been making extra $$ from leasing our mineral rights to oil and gas companies. I know many people that are making extra money that way in the North Texas area, and sometimes it is a significant monthly amount. Energy production has had a definite effect on keeping the Texas economy robust.

I travel around quite a bit, and over the last 2 years have definitely noticed that almost everywhere I go, things seem a bit worse than in Texas. I spend a lot of time in New England and California, and the effect of the last 2 years is particularly noticeable in those areas.

Not sure if any of this helps, other than to qualitatively say that the economy and job market here in Texas is significantly better than in other places. As always, YMMV.

MS

Oil money is why Baton Rouge was rated in the top 5 of best cities to ride out the recession. I definitely echo your sentiment about the economy being low everywhere else. It's especially bad in Florida and in the north mid-west. I think this year or the last was the first year in over 50 that florida lost more people than moved in.

impelse

There are a lot of datacentes in Dallas.

notext

Go for the North Dallas are of Frisco/Plano/Richardson area. There are some really big companies there. Telecom Corridor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is in Richardson. Plano Plano, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has a bunch of very large corporate world headquarters(Frito-Lay, Dr.Pepper, JC Penney) and according to the US Census has the highest average household income of any city in the US with a population over 250,000. There is also a good sized Cisco campus near telecom corridor along with a few large data centers such as Bank of America/Perot Systems/Experian etc.

Despite all the income and jobs there, the cost of living in the area is actually pretty low as is the entire DFW area. I have a couple friends who moved from San Francisco and they couldn't believe how much cheaper everything was while still being just as nice. One of them already had a job at HP(there is a very large HP division in Plano) and it took the other about 3 weeks to find a sys admin job at Frito Lay(Free Doritos!). I talk to them all the time(I am currently in Iraq) and ask them about jobs, since I am getting out of the Army shortly after I get back stateside, and they have been telling me that there is still plenty of hiring going on in the area.

determinedgerman

My company moved me from Chicago to the DFW area. There was nothing to hold me in Chicago so I relocated to Denton which is North of Fort Worth. . There are alot of tech companies down here especially in the Irving area and the cost of living is so much cheaper. I bought the same house that I had in Chicago down here in Denton for about $100K less.

I don't think there is a better place to be at the moment because more and more companies re-locate their business to the DFW area.

I can only recommend it but you might have to travel for those interviews just like you said ....