Good place to live?

[der_kluge]

*sigh*

You know, the bad thing about working in I.T. is the job market is fairly narrow. My wife, on the other hand, is a social worker, and can theoretically find a job in any city in the world.

Long story short - my employer sucks, and while it's getting *better*, I don't see any real future here. Unfortunately, my employer also happens to be the largest employer in my area, which leaves me very few options for other opportunities. So, while I am still gainfully employed (a status has been in question for quite some time), and will remain employed (or so *they* say) for at least a year more, it doesn't change the fact that I'm going to be stuck in the same job for the entire amount of that time, with virtually no hope of advancement.

My wife and I have talked about moving away, but we've only been in our house for about 2 years now, which means selling it would likely cost us money. So, I'm not too excited about that prospect. It might not work out that way, but it seems likely since we don't have much equity built into it yet.

We've takled about where we would want to move to. Certainly, there are I.T. jobs out there, just not in Kansas City (at least not jobs that I'm really qualified for). There are a lot on the east coast, and silicon valley seems to be picking up a lot, since my queries are showing up there quite readily. But, the cost of living there would be out of sight for this midwesterner.

So, where's a good place to live? From looking at where I've found jobs online, Ft. Lauderdale, Richmond, and Raleigh all seem to come up fairly regularly. Minneapolis seems to have some good opportunites, but that's just far too cold for my taste (especially my wife's taste). San Francisco would be far too expensive, though the climate is certainly right.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Macbeth]

Well, I can't way much about the employment oportunities, but the cost of living in New Mexico is a very nice change, compared to more metropolitan areas. Las Cruces, in southern NM, has New Mexico State university, which would be a good place to look for a job. Socorrro has New Mexico tech, and I happen to know the Copmuter Science/I.T. department is hiring almost continually, since we have alot of CS majors. Albuquerque is the largest city, and fairly nice place, more expensive then Las Cruces or Socorro, but probably the easiest to find a job in. I know BardStephenFox lives in Albq. (I game with him up there weekly) and that he works as a SysAdmin, so he probably could give you a better idea of what the job situation is like there.

Overall, if you're looking for a nice place with low cost of living, New Mexico is a good choice. You also seem to like warm weather, and we've got plenty of that.

 

[trentonjoe]

What about Delaware?

It is on the East Coast, decent weather, low cost of living (compared to its surronding states), Wilmington and Newark are smallish cities but you are an hour from Philly, 90ish minutes form Baltimore and 3~ hours form DC and NYC.

 

[Dimwhit]

I grew up in the Silicon Valley, and I do not recommend it. Not only for the cost of living issues. It's crowded, noisy, etc.

My wife and I moved to Boise 5 years ago and absolutely love it. The climate is mild (we get snow in the winter, but not that much--hot in the summer) and the quality of life is good. The cost of living is very reasonable, and it's becoming a city that business is moving into. I think it was rated the #2 city in the nation for businesses, actually. I don't know what kinds of IT jobs are here, but we have Micron, Hewlett-Packard, and other sizable companies. Plus, if you like to ski, Idaho has great skiing.

And Idaho, at least Boise, isn't a country hick place at all.

Anyway, those are my thoughts from my own experience.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Well, you have Richmond on your list, and that's a good choice. I'd also like to suggest Charlottesville (not that I'm partial to it or anything...). UVA is always looking for more IT people, and the University has great benefits, both traditional benefits, and extra perks that come from working in an educational institution. Outside the University, C'ville has a nice little tech cluster downtown, with several different companies here. It's a small town feel with a great social scene. Not the lowest cost of living in Virginia, but certainly competitive with anything on the east coast.

 

[der_kluge]

I admit that those are some options I hadn't really considered - Delaware, and New Mexico. My parents met in NM, and so I've been there. Flat, and boring. I remember driving along the northern part and having the radio dial scan through the entire FM frequency band and finding nothing. That's desolate!

Not sure my wife would go for that, too much. She saw a thing on TV about scorpions, and decided she didn't want to go anywhere near where there are scorpions.

I seem to recall finding a job on Monster that was listed in Delaware. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd even be able to find Delaware on a map!

 

[pensiv]

I know that Bank of America in Chicago is looking for new hires.

specifically, I know of positions in web infrastructure and web application server administration (java servers, though knowledge of java can be gained after hire)

 

[DaveStebbins]

The Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina is a very nice choice. I briefly thought of relocating there myself several years ago. My company's headquarters is in nearby Cary. Good climate, great people, good economic conditions. The area is growing, but not nearly as congested as, say, Charlotte.