Job prospects in Austin picking up?

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by jentaylor

I moved here on 9/1 due to my husband's job relocation. It took me 53 days but I landed a great job at about 95% of what I was making back in Cincinnati, plus the office is only 2 miles from my house! I was terrified because in my industry, many firms were not hiring at all or where hiring but paying about 50% of what I was earning pre-move.
I spent about 6 hours per day looking for work. It took at least 30 days of just applying for jobs before some interviews happened. For all of those out of work, don't give up, keep looking and think outside the box. I am working at a company I never would have looked at, but when I read the job description I thought "I can do that" and it turned out well.

Let's hear it for persistence....

PERSISTENCE: The willpower to keep at a goal while immediate results are not yet had.

...my only addition to this is to make sure, if you have NOT landed a job before you move to Austin, to bring MORE than you think you will need to live for 5-6 months. You will incur the same monthly expenses whether you are working or not(groceries, rent, insurance, gas, clothing, entertainment). Also, if you bring more than you need you will feel more secure, and less manic, in your job search, and won't signal desperation to your interviewers.....

Persistence rules....

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

I know it can't be quantified, but I would guess Ausitn has the highest UNDERemployment rate of all of those cities. I see the job postings here in CT now that I have moved out of Austin. Jobs that pay $13/hour in Austin pay $55K here. And no, except for housing, COL is the same.

Wise observation...and would it not be interesting to have a top ten list of cities with highest "UNDEREMPLOYMENT" ....

I would imagine Austin would easily be in the top 5 in that one....others would be Key West; Madison, Wisc.(where many servers have graduate degrees); Miami-South Florida(paid in "sunshine"); New Orleans; Orlando
(wearing character costumes not being terribly lucrative); Vail/Aspen
(where kids with degrees "slum" for a time in the "make-believe" time of their early/mid 20's pre-family); and the thousands of actors/actresses waiting tables in LA/Chicago waiting to be discovered.....

I don't think anyone would disagree that you pay a salary/wages premium living in Austin.....question is, not everyone thinks the sacrifice is worth it..

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Please - give me an example or two or three of these kinds of jobs.

Chairside Dental Assistant-- Austin $11/hour CT $20/hour
Receptionist-- Austin $9.50/hour CT $36,000 / year
Entry Level Web Programmer-- Austin $30-$40K CT $67K


Found these in CT after just a few minutes on Craigslist. I think most people will agree the pay is substantially higher in the NE and if you think otherwise, you're living in Lala Land!

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

Chairside Dental Assistant-- Austin $11/hour CT $20/hour
Receptionist-- Austin $9.50/hour CT $36,000 / year
Entry Level Web Programmer-- Austin $30-$40K CT $67K


Found these in CT after just a few minutes on Craigslist. I think most people will agree the pay is substantially higher in the NE and if you think otherwise, you're living in Lala Land!

Maybe in CT but when I lived in RI and then moved here, I didn't see much of a difference.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

Chairside Dental Assistant-- Austin $11/hour CT $20/hour
Receptionist-- Austin $9.50/hour CT $36,000 / year
Entry Level Web Programmer-- Austin $30-$40K CT $67K


Found these in CT after just a few minutes on Craigslist. I think most people will agree the pay is substantially higher in the NE and if you think otherwise, you're living in Lala Land!

Why is someone in CT willing to pay $67K for an entry level web programmer?

I spent a few minutes looking for "web programmer" or "web developer" in Craigslist for Hartford and New Haven and found no such jobs. Not many web jobs at all in CT. Most were in NY or MA or other places. Many, perhaps most of the job listings were temporary or contract.

I don't doubt pay is higher in the NE. But I don't think there are many jobs to be had.

I searched for "receptionist" and most jobs, if they listed pay, showed between $10-$14/hour.

[jentaylor]

Originally Posted by inthecut

Let's hear it for persistence....

PERSISTENCE: The willpower to keep at a goal while immediate results are not yet had.

...my only addition to this is to make sure, if you have NOT landed a job before you move to Austin, to bring MORE than you think you will need to live for 5-6 months. You will incur the same monthly expenses whether you are working or not(groceries, rent, insurance, gas, clothing, entertainment). Also, if you bring more than you need you will feel more secure, and less manic, in your job search, and won't signal desperation to your interviewers.....

Persistence rules....

Agree with this, my husband was transferred here for his job, so many of our moving expenses were covered for awhile but we also planned on a 5 month or so cash reserve in case I couldn't get a decent job. We slashed our budget and made do with less until I found employment.

Previous to moving to Austin, I was a senior paralegal at a large Cincinnati firm and I oversaw e-discovery productions, ran large document cases (commercial/complex litigation). I have 10+ years of specialized experience. However, not one large Austin law firm was hiring, many are cutting back. I landed a job at a very small company (non law firm) that does regulatory/auditing work. I consider myself extremely lucky. I actually had two job offers on the same day after almost two months of non-stop worrying and looking for employment.

Some tips for those seeking work:
perfect the resume - I must have revised mine 20+ times.
Tailor your resume to the ad - if you use the buzz words, they will call
join local professional organizations and get to using linkedin to connect with others in your field
apply for jobs even if you only have a couple of the skills they are looking for, if they interview you and you click, that is an opportunity
Think about other fields your experience could translate into (I applied at law firms, at insurance companies, mortgage companies, banks - anything where I thought prior legal experience could be a plus). I had 5 interviews lined up on the day I got the job offer.
One final tip, looking for a job is work, so treat it like work. It is so easy to get down on yourself, but don't give up.
one final tip that should be obvious - if you get a job interview, look your absolute best. Get a haircut, etc so you look polished. Dress professionally and present yourself in the best light possible.

[inthecut]

great advice...I would add this.....if you do these things in the city you are moving from, and you are moving because you can't find anything, maybe you can just do that in the city you were "going" to leave from and just stay there......

These tips work in all cities, not just Austin....if people did these things in the cities they are fleeing from, perhaps half of the folks would not have to come out here to Austin in the first place!

[Nomadic9460678748]

[quote=inthecut;11524452]great advice...I would add this.....if you do these things in the city you are moving from, and you are moving because you can't find anything, maybe you can just do that in the city you were "going" to leave from and just stay there......

These tips work in all cities, not just Austin....if people did these things in the cities they are fleeing from, perhaps half of the folks would not have to come out here to Austin in the first place![/quote]

Maybe people are looking for a change? Perhaps it's not just lack of employment prospects in a city which compel some to find greener pastures, but an actual desire for a change in scenery which motivates some to relocate?

[inthecut]

[quote=Nomadic9460678748;11525892]

Originally Posted by inthecut

great advice...I would add this.....if you do these things in the city you are moving from, and you are moving because you can't find anything, maybe you can just do that in the city you were "going" to leave from and just stay there......

These tips work in all cities, not just Austin....if people did these things in the cities they are fleeing from, perhaps half of the folks would not have to come out here to Austin in the first place![/quote]

Maybe people are looking for a change? Perhaps it's not just lack of employment prospects in a city which compel some to find greener pastures, but an actual desire for a change in scenery which motivates some to relocate?

Personally, I left a pretty well paying job to come to Austin....was tech related work for Citigroup, before they imploded....just came myself for a change as well.......and I would say most people that came to Austin did so for a change....call it a chance to renew oneself and shake things up a bit.....

However, with the sad state of much of the nations's economy now, a ton of folks have come to Texas FOR employment prospects, including Austin.
I would very much say that most people are moving to Austin at this point for economic reasons. That will continue to be the case until things pick up nationally. Surely there is a mix of several things causing people to move to Austin, but economic issues surely are the main driver by far for relocatees at this point.....

BTW, unaffordable housing in California was the main driver for California relocatees for at least 5-7 years now. Frankly, if housing was affordable in California, most of them would not have left the state.

Money, especially, nowadays, is always going to be a huge issue per movement. Now, it simply is top of the heap....

[austinhome]

Well we all got jobs now, mine job will lets just say that out of every company in Austin the one that hired me has the worst customer service reviews of any company in austin. Very first day customer went screaming out of the store. The owner has not been shot at yet and I am a little concerned about that. Where I come from sooner or later the wrong one is going to snap. I thought the lady was going to drive her car thru the front of the store. She was steaming hot.

Daughter got a 3rd shift position at a 4 star hotel so she is in danger.

Son transferred his job and seems to be the only one happy here.

Now landlord is threatening to file eviction, we now have jobs within three weeks and looks like we will be homeless now. I wrote a lieing real estate agent a 5100.00 dollar check and I am days from being homeless. I have tried to get the landlord to work with us and have mentioned that I did write him a check for 5100.00 dollars which included a 2800.00 deposit. He tells me in paid that to his lieing real estate agent so thats that move out. Pretty expensive 5100.00 for thirty-seven days.