Anchorage vs Kenai pen. jobs (Sterling, Palmer: apartments, rentals, how much)

[mitchthecrane]

Hello all! Long time reader and first time poster here. 2 close friends and i will be flying to Alaska mid-may in hopes of starting a new life. We are from Chicago and despise every aspect of it. By this point i am sure you think i am a typical bandwagon person moving to Alaska. While that may or may not be true, i do not care. We do not watch TV and do not plan on being crabbers or anything, we just need to go where we can be with people who are like us. Our plan is to bring enough money and supplies to last us 2 months, and if we fail to establish a life after 1 month we will go home. We each have ~$1,500 saved up, and we all get our plane tickets for free (uncle flies for Alaskan Air). We most certainly plan on doing minimum wage menial jobs for a while until we can save more and go south. Our end goal is to live somewhere on the Kenai Peninsula and work as a fish processor or something along those lines. We are all very outdoorsy people, and do not mind extreme temperatures nor do we spend money on much at all.

So my question is, would it be smart to fly into Kenai if we already have a place to stay and a working vehicle, and just spend a month looking for suitable work on the peninsula while we have our rent paid? OR, just fly into Anchorage and find a low paying menial job and save up more until we know for sure we have enough to survive for a while in Kenai. We do not care what work we do, we are very hardworking people. I have done hours of reading on these forums, and gotten almost every piece of advice i need from you guys

Very sorry for long post, if you have any questions or need clarification on anything let me know. If you are reading and ask yourself, "is this guy stupid?" the answer is yes. Thanks

Skipped the wall of text? Q: How hard is it to find a job on Kenai peninsula.

[Rance]

Right now it would be pretty much impossible. Come spring you'd have a much better chance getting on at a cannery or some other stuff. Might be some construction once the snow melts, and various stores, bars and restraunts.

[mitchthecrane]

Rance, We are planning on going mid-may. Would that be too late to be considered a spring applicant? Would it be smarter to go earlier?

[polarbytes]

Mid May should be ok especially if you want to work in the canneries as they typically are starting their seasonal hire by then. I have a good friend who is a manager at one and I'll ask him when they start. With our deep snows this year construction might not be in full bore by mid May. Hope this helps.

[Moose Whisperer]

Many of the big canneries usually start announcing their summer job hiring fairs here in Anchorage over the next few weeks. I usually hear them on the local radio stations up here, but maybe if you monitor the local papers (Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch, etc.) you will see the announcements. If you are able to come up and attend one of those job fairs I think it would make getting hired much easier. From what I hear they are usually able to fill most of their positions there.

[AKStafford]

You might also consider working in the visitor industry... It starts up about early to mid May and goes till mid September.
If your free airfare connection is good for multiple trips, I definitely would try and come up for some of the job fairs that'll be offered.
In addition to the newspapers, keep an eye on Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development and Craigslist. I believe the website for the summer tourism jobs is Alaska Jobs | CoolWorks.com

[LittleJazzyP]

You have a great advantage if you can fly free, because you can come up and interview for seasonal jobs prior to actually moving.

I don't know how much you would save living in Anchorage if you are working minimum wage jobs. Apartments here are expensive. You could try a hostel, though, if you don't mind living dormitory style.

I do think you should consider having enough money to last more than two months, and don't consider your attempt a failure if you are not established in one. That's not much time to build a new life.

[heathen]

In response to your original question, I'd say go straight to Kenai, as long as you'll have a reliable vehicle. The community (which includes Kenai, Soldotna, Nikiski, Sterling, and Kasilof) is large enough that you should be able to find "menial" jobs there, skipping the Anchorage step. I recommend this partly from personal experience. I got a job in Anchorage right off the bat, but suddenly realized that living in some appartment in Anchorage wasn't at all what I came to Alaska for. The city is about four times the size of where I moved from... I went the opposite direction, working a very low paying job in Palmer, and living 20 miles out in the woods in a cabin. It's roughly the same circumstances down in Kenai. Even barely scraping by money-wise, this was a very fulfilling experience.

[mitchthecrane]

Heathen, that is good advice, and thank you all for your advice as well. I have looked on craigslist at houses/cabins, and the rent rates for even a decent 2 bedroom house are very low, at least compared to where i live now.

[heathen]

I've been seeing an increasing amount of scam rentals of craigslist lately. They're a little bit tough to spot up here because there are some legitimate super cheap rentals. A non-scam low price will generally indicate that the place has no running water, has difficult access, or is poorly constructed / maintained. In any case, never commit to a rental until you've walked through it and talked to the landlord in person. And beware of steep driveways!