Interested in Working for City of Atlanta, need to know the facts (Sandy Springs: attorneys, house)

[SleeplessInSanFran]

Greetings citizens of Atlanta. My name is Alex. I currently am employed for the city I live in, San Francisco. I love it up here, but I really want to spice it up a bit and move somehwere TOTALLY different.

Atlanta is pretty different.

I was just wondering though, about the city government, since I would like to keep the same type of job. I have read all the stories about the financial crisis, and it doesnt phase me.

How corrupt are the officials? I can work for a financially struggling city, but not a corrupt one.

On a different note, San Francisco has a lot of people from Russia, including me. I just hope that Atlanta's social scene dont have stereotypes against people of Russian descent, because I am going to want to meet new people and stuff!

[GF72]

The city of Atlanta has a pretty corrupt corrupt government, and so does Fulton County to an extent (and stay away, away, away from the place called Clayton County).


However, Atlanta city limits is a tiny part of the metro Atlanta area. Atlanta city population is about 400k, whereas the metro area is around 5 million.

Many, many counties and cities and unincorporated suburbs make up the area.

A county in Georgia is often the equivalent of a city in other states.

There are many cities or counties you could work for. Cobb County government is generally well run, for example.

There are many other major incorporated cities around Atlanta, such as Marietta, Roswell, Decatur, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Lawrenceville, Johns Creek, Smyrna, Douglasville, Peachtree City, the list goes on. (when I say "around", some of these are 5 or 10 miles from downtown Atlanta, to give you an impression of how small Atlanta city limits are).

And, this may surprise you, probably around 70% of the metro area is unincorporated and governed directly by the counties, including major areas such as East Cobb and Dunwoody.

Atlanta generally does not care about race, until you get really far into the outskirts. Atlanta metro area covers an enormous land area (Atlanta is basically suburban sprawl in every direction, except for the 5 urban sksycraper areas - Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, Perimeter, and Cumberland). The vast land area means Atlanta is very sparsely populated compared to San Francisco.

In fact, Atlanta is the fourth largest metropolis in the entire world by land area, after New York, Tokyo, and Chicago.

Basically the point of all this is that there are no shortage of different governments to work for.


Currently there is a political situation in Atlanta that relates to municipal governments. Basically, Atlanta city government and Fulton County government rely on cash from the northern suburbs (where all of the money is), and they don't treat the norther cities well and squander disproportionate amounts of northern cash on themselves and southern areas, so recently most of the northern suburbs have incorporated into cities, and now they are trying to secede from the county.....

Just so you know what kind of mess you are stepping into.

As for the financial struggling city... some areas are, some aren't. Those northern areas I mentioned... East Cobb, Alpharetta, Roswell, Buckhead, Milton, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Johns Creek.... these are very rich areas (all $100k+ avg. household income). Then you have places like Riverdale, Forest Park, Jonesboro, College Park, East Point, Morrow, Clayton County, very ghetto. And most other places are in between. So that really depends too.

[crux]

Our MARTA executive left Atlanta to work SF transportion structure. If you love the progressive nature there - you might cringe here.

[straighttalker75]

Requirements for working for City of Atlanta: 1. Willingness to chat on cellphone while customers are waiting. 2. Ability to roll eyes when customer asks you to do your job. 3. Expertise in botching even the simplest of requests.... think you can handle it? Send your resume today!

[atlantagreg30127]

Atlanta is about as far from the West Coast mentality as you can get. And generally, race unfortunately IS a big factor here when working with a city. Atlanta's Mayor, police chief, fire chief, planner, and most of those in financial and leadership rolls are black.

Most of those in many of the suburbs are white. In both cases, it's the "buddy buddy" system where folks are hired based on who they know, who they're related to, who they've done business with, etc. You might hit it lucky and the city leaders might do the, "Hey, lets hire the white Russian guy" as a token or pet type of thing, but you might have a better chance in one of the suburbs such as Smyrna, John's Creek, or Decatur.

[Merin]

Whenever I have to call the City and interact with their employees, I receive good service. Fulton County is a different story. I interviewed for a City job once, they wanted to pay me very little. I said no thanks.

[SweetPea1]

I just have to weight in here. I live in Southern Cal and work for a large city as a paralegal. I have been trying to move to Atlanta for about a year but the job situation has been tough. I did get an interview with the City of Atlanta back in January. I flew out and stayed with some friends. I went to the interview and althought I was qualified and the interview went swimmingly they added at the end that they thought I would be better off looking in a city like Johns Creek, Alpharetta or Marietta. I almost fell out of my chair.

I am white and these two attorneys were African American. The blatent racism was mind-boggling. I walked out of there in shock. Needless to say I didnt get the job and even if I was offered it I would not have taken it.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by SweetPea1

I just have to weight in here. I live in Southern Cal and work for a large city as a paralegal. I have been trying to move to Atlanta for about a year but the job situation has been tough. I did get an interview with the City of Atlanta back in January. I flew out and stayed with some friends. I went to the interview and althought I was qualified and the interview went swimmingly they added at the end that they thought I would be better off looking in a city like Johns Creek, Alpharetta or Marietta. I almost fell out of my chair.

I am white and these two attorneys were African American. The blatent racism was mind-boggling. I walked out of there in shock. Needless to say I didnt get the job and even if I was offered it I would not have taken it.

And believe me, I've heard similar stories to yours countless times. But generally when topics like that get started in here it gets out of control and things have to get shut down. Your story is however, not as uncommon as many would believe.

[chip1980]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Atlanta is about as far from the West Coast mentality as you can get. And generally, race unfortunately IS a big factor here when working with a city. Atlanta's Mayor, police chief, fire chief, planner, and most of those in financial and leadership rolls are black.

Most of those in many of the suburbs are white. In both cases, it's the "buddy buddy" system where folks are hired based on who they know, who they're related to, who they've done business with, etc. You might hit it lucky and the city leaders might do the, "Hey, lets hire the white Russian guy" as a token or pet type of thing, but you might have a better chance in one of the suburbs such as Smyrna, John's Creek, or Decatur.

you could say the same for any other city but the racism is the other way around

atlanta city gov isnt as corrupt as the people in the white house

[rswlguy]

Originally Posted by SweetPea1

I just have to weight in here. I live in Southern Cal and work for a large city as a paralegal. I have been trying to move to Atlanta for about a year but the job situation has been tough. I did get an interview with the City of Atlanta back in January. I flew out and stayed with some friends. I went to the interview and althought I was qualified and the interview went swimmingly they added at the end that they thought I would be better off looking in a city like Johns Creek, Alpharetta or Marietta. I almost fell out of my chair.

I am white and these two attorneys were African American. The blatant racism was mind-boggling. I walked out of there in shock. Needless to say I didnt get the job and even if I was offered it I would not have taken it.

Thank you Ms. SweetPea1 for posting and reiterating your experience interviewing in the City of Atlanta ... so sorry that you endured this kind of nasty & uncalled for behavior that [us] Californians [or anyone for that matter] are not expected or prepared to encounter & deal with.

I'm a native Southern Californian (Long Beach born, San Luis Obispo raised) and resided in West Los Angeles many years before moving to Metro Atlanta in 1991.

I live borderline Roswell/Marietta and I truly wouldn't live anywhere else in the Metro Atlanta area. I do own a home between Midtown & Virginia Highlands, but that is rented out on a long term basis.

My advice? Move here, live in Alpharetta ... pass the Georgia bar and become a discrimination attorney - your choice of case(s). Visit the City of Atlanta on an occasional basis ... as many people choose to do.

Thanks for posting...BTW, I'm coming home Saturday (LAX) staying at my best friends house in WeHo. I cannot wait!