Move to Austin - Need advice. (Dallas, Fort Worth: fit in, apartment complex, job market)

[nxm]

Hello,
We (wife, a 4 year daughter and a 5 month son) are planning a move to Texas, most likely to Austin or Dallas/Fort Worth. I used to live in Midwest and loved it. Right now, we are living in Miami, FL and find it is not an appropriate place to raise children and the IT job market is very bad here. I have a steady job in software engineering with almost 10 years of experience but with no potential professional growth in my current job.

I am not sure, and this is where I need some advise on how to, go about searching for a good job in Austin area. I have been hearing all good things about this area and its job market. In fact Fort Worth/Dallas has lots of software development jobs, but I am more inclined towards Austin.

I am really tired of Southeast and cannot wait to get ouf of here. Sometimes I just want to quit my job and move to Austin and then find a job but then I think that I shouldn't be unthankful in this type of job market.

I would love to hear from you on what should my approach be in finding a job, how to target the companies and find out the contacts within the compaines.

How long can a job search take me to find a decent job?

Thanks much.

[someguyatx]

Try searching dice.com or indeed.com and create a profile on linkedin so potential employers who search for you online find professional info. When people start calling dont waste too much time talking to recruiters but dont count them out either. Also check here Austin Business News - Austin Business Journal for various info on local business. Fortune 500 companies like Dell, Samsung, Apple and others all have offices here and some only post jobs on their websites. Good luck finding a new job is a job in itself.

[nxm]

That is exactly what I have been doing, checking it out on dice and indeed.

From others people experiences, who moved to Texas from other states, how hard was it for you guys to find a job in Austin in software development?

My biggest concern is not being in Texas. If you are a local candidate you have much better chances of landing a job. If you are out of state the whole process just takes a lot longer and is definitely a job in itself.

We are planning to make a move (hopefully) by end of this year or by first quarter of next year. Hopefully, if I start in a month or two, I will have plenty of time.

[h886]

If you say there are lots of jobs in Dallas/Fort Worth, why not begin applying for those from Miami? I agree locals have an advantage in many fields, though from what I understand, that has less of an influence if you have unusual skills that are highly in demand. You're the one who knows how you stack up in that regard, whether there are many with a similar skill set (in which case, being local may make a difference.)

I would save up a 6 month cushion before moving, especially since you have kids.

[hoffdano]

OP - what skills do you have in software development? What kind of software have you developed?

Austin's software job market is solid if you have more senior or advanced skills (such as systems, network, security, database, etc.) programming.

Austin is full of Java and C++ programmers with commodity skills. Always openings for those skills too, but lots of competition and they aren't the most interesting jobs.

[someguyatx]

Saying you are in software development is like saying you are in sales, lots of jobs out there. If you have specialty skills or develop software for a particular industry then you will be able to find a job quicker and being local might not matter. If your skills are the same as the rest of the job market then yes being local matters. I would suggest visiting the city and getting a local PO box with a central austin zipcode and use a random apartment complex address as your physical address for the purposes of job hunting or applications.

[eepstein]

Moving to Austin is not complicated. Just be sure that you buy lots of orange clothing and have at least one gas guzzling vehicle (preferably a truck or huge SUV). When talking to others, make sure you constantly mention how Austin is the only city that matters in the country. Do these things and everything else should fall into place.

Originally Posted by nxm

Hello,
We (wife, a 4 year daughter and a 5 month son) are planning a move to Texas, most likely to Austin or Dallas/Fort Worth. I used to live in Midwest and loved it. Right now, we are living in Miami, FL and find it is not an appropriate place to raise children and the IT job market is very bad here. I have a steady job in software engineering with almost 10 years of experience but with no potential professional growth in my current job.

I am not sure, and this is where I need some advise on how to, go about searching for a good job in Austin area. I have been hearing all good things about this area and its job market. In fact Fort Worth/Dallas has lots of software development jobs, but I am more inclined towards Austin.

I am really tired of Southeast and cannot wait to get ouf of here. Sometimes I just want to quit my job and move to Austin and then find a job but then I think that I shouldn't be unthankful in this type of job market.

I would love to hear from you on what should my approach be in finding a job, how to target the companies and find out the contacts within the compaines.

How long can a job search take me to find a decent job?

Thanks much.

[nxm]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

OP - what skills do you have in software development? What kind of software have you developed?

Austin's software job market is solid if you have more senior or advanced skills (such as systems, network, security, database, etc.) programming.

Austin is full of Java and C++ programmers with commodity skills. Always openings for those skills too, but lots of competition and they aren't the most interesting jobs.

I have experience in C# .NET on web technologies side using jQuery, this also includes MVC2, Entity Framework, Linq, WCF, etc... Currently I am working as a Team Lead/Solution Architect, creating applications architecture for large sites.

[nxm]

Originally Posted by someguyatx

Saying you are in software development is like saying you are in sales, lots of jobs out there. If you have specialty skills or develop software for a particular industry then you will be able to find a job quicker and being local might not matter. If your skills are the same as the rest of the job market then yes being local matters. I would suggest visiting the city and getting a local PO box with a central austin zipcode and use a random apartment complex address as your physical address for the purposes of job hunting or applications.

That is an interesting suggestion on opening a POBox but what will I achieve from this? I can get a Google voice telephone number with Austin areacode but when it comes to interviewing in person then its on me to spare an air-fare.

I don't know how my skills stack against the local market in Austin, also the reason why I want to explore the market before submitting resume all over the place so I can tailor the resume appropriately for each job posting.

Hoping this forum might shed some light on the skills in demand in Austin.

[nxm]

Originally Posted by eepstein

Moving to Austin is not complicated. Just be sure that you buy lots of orange clothing and have at least one gas guzzling vehicle (preferably a truck or huge SUV). When talking to others, make sure you constantly mention how Austin is the only city that matters in the country. Do these things and everything else should fall into place.

A family man cannot afford a gas guzzler but I will try my best to fit in.