Forbes: Boise is No.2 for business, careers (Hope: broker, wages)

[Mtnbkrdr98]

Edit:
Okay, going to eat crow. I admit I HAD, some very good opportunity there, and I need to be totally honest and factor in that I needed to get away due to bad breakup and trying to forget and become happy again. I'm now down in SoCal. Got a job paying about 41K per year. My plan is to learn and work this job well for a year, while planning to return. In fact, I'm going to keep putting feelers out up there - I like Boise BETTER than SoCal (except I do like the ocean!).

Personal: I thought I'd be happy moving back here and I'm not. But just know folks, if you go somewhere or come somewhere to escape something, well, there YOU are, you're still there. I guess you/we have to be happy within ourselves and can't really rely on a PLACE to do it for us. That being said, I do feel a lot more community in Boise than I do here, less stress, etc... But being 44 now, and single, I can't jump back up there, need to stick it out here for a while, work, then come back up with some savings.
Change to buy a home up there, down here nada, I mean how???

thanks, have a good weekend all!

[Sage of Sagle]

Thank you for sharing your very candid and personal insight with us here.

[Torrie]

Originally Posted by Mtnbkrdr98

Edit:
Okay, going to eat crow. I admit I HAD, some very good opportunity there, and I need to be totally honest and factor in that I needed to get away due to bad breakup and trying to forget and become happy again. I'm now down in SoCal. Got a job paying about 41K per year. My plan is to learn and work this job well for a year, while planning to return. In fact, I'm going to keep putting feelers out up there - I like Boise BETTER than SoCal (except I do like the ocean!).

Personal: I thought I'd be happy moving back here and I'm not. But just know folks, if you go somewhere or come somewhere to escape something, well, there YOU are, you're still there. I guess you/we have to be happy within ourselves and can't really rely on a PLACE to do it for us. That being said, I do feel a lot more community in Boise than I do here, less stress, etc... But being 44 now, and single, I can't jump back up there, need to stick it out here for a while, work, then come back up with some savings.
Change to buy a home up there, down here nada, I mean how???

thanks, have a good weekend all!

Yes, very honest of you to share with everyone. I don't know how Boise does it, but there is more of a sense of community here, even with our population growing as it has over the past few years the sense of community seems to remain. Stress for me is minimal here, IMO, compared to living in So.Cal. I never realized how stress had become a part of my life until I moved away from there.

You ever notice when you look back on your life...that sometimes you have to go through some hardships before you get to the place you want to be? I mean, if you hadn't made the move like you did, maybe you wouldn't have grown or come to the realization that you have now. You needed that move to come to that conclusion. So I wouldn't be too hard on yourself for the choice you made to relocate. I know when I look back on my life, I realized all the steps I had to go through to get to the point where I'm at now. Had I not made some mistakes/realizations, I wouldn't have grown as a person. I'm not sure if what I'm trying to say resonates with you- just trying to offer support. Just think how fast a year will fly by...just more experience under your belt to bring with you when you come back...so definitely not a wasted adventure...just a step in the right direction.

[Mtnbkrdr98]

Thank you Torrie! -

[stevetogo]

It truly is a cool little place to live - but with one problem - I believe unless you are a high level professional (engineer, doctor, or with extensive experience in your field), there is just no opportunity here.


There are problems in these professions as well. I'm an engineer with 20 years of experience and have not been able to find a job for 7 months now after layoffs last year. Most professionals that I speak with do not expect an economic turnaround for at least a few more years. I may be forced to relocate as well and I've only been here for 2 years.

After 5 years of wishful thinking, followed by earnest planning, I managed to move the family out here to my "dreamland". I read all the articles -- Forbes, Money, Fortune -- on the benefits of life in Boise. Evidently, too many read the same articles and flooded the market. So now the battle is against an oversaturated employee pool and the "who you know" politics of the area. The job market may be better in the bigger cities where everybody knows nobody and the playing field is equal.

One question I have (probably a stupid question) -- what is " a sense of community"? I imagine that essence to be found in any small town in New England say, where generations of families have lived continuously and everybody has known their neighbors from birth. How can this exist in a Boise that consists of a spread of subdivisions and quadrants of neighborhoods?

Thanks

[Torrie]

Sorry to hear you're having difficulties. I was a little surprised to read your post as I have a neighbor who's an engineer and he just switch companies without any difficulties. He wanted a change from what he was doing. He had no problems finding something within the same industry. I'm not exact on his area of expertise, just that he's been in the industry for at least 10 years if not longer.

I think I mentioned this in a post a long time ago, but it seems like the times of today require people to be well rounded in several areas when it comes to the job experience. It doesn't seem to matter where you live, you never know when a change is going to take place so it's beneficial to have other skills under your belt if difficulties arise within your profession. Gone are the days when you could work for the same company 20+ years. That being said, I'm not trying to sound harsh; I am sympathetic to your plight. I know what I'm saying is not a popular answer and probably something you don't want to hear. I'm sure you worked hard to get the skill level you've attained and the last thing you want to do is start all over again in another profession. I've just seen this scenario all too many times happen to friends, clients and even myself through the years. The conclusion I get from it, is to be as well rounded as you can so if the time comes that you need to go and do something different, you have something to fall back on.

As far as sense of community, for me, I would describe it as a sense of belonging. Before, in other places I've lived, people would just keep to themselves. You hardly knew your neighbors and you were lucky if they even grunted at you. There wasn't that feeling that people really cared for one another. Before I moved to Boise, the last time I felt a sense of community was when I was growing up. We knew all the neighbors and spent many a weekends, evenings, holidays hanging out and just sharing life together. If you needed anything or had a problem someone would always be there to help out. It's very hard to find that. For me, Boise has that and then some. We know almost every neighbor down our street. We have cook-outs together, spend evenings on the porch visiting, etc. If I'm in the middle of cooking something and I run out of sugar or whatever, my neighbors would be more than happy to help me out.

Here's another example, one night, a few years back, an ambulance and fire truck pulled up in front of my neighbors house. Myself and several other neighbors responded immediately to see if they needed any help with the kids in case they had to go to the hospital. Even the ambulance driver was like, "wow, you have great neighbors." I couldn't say that would have happened in the various other places I lived.

If you watch the news, there are lots of stories that exemplify "sense of community" that you wouldn't find in other areas. You hear about volunteers working to keep their community clean or help plant trees or even heartfelt stories about people helping others in their times of need. I don't know why, but one story that sticks in my mind is the one where the high school kids put on a prom for the senior citizens- it was so cute.

So I guess my point is, these are all things, in my eyes, that create a sense of community. I live in one of those "spread of subdivisions" that you refer to and the sense of community couldn't be better. Several people that I've worked with have had the same experience. To build a sense of community it does take work and participation from everyone. You have to be willing to make the effort to meet people, get involved and put yourself out there. Not everyone will want to participate; and you most likely won't find it in every neighborhood, but when you do come across it, it's an absolutely wonderful experience.

[stevetogo]

Torrie,

Thank you for your response on the sense of community question. I realize it was a silly question but I wanted to hear how others described it. I would say that it sounds like you live in a good neighborhood. However, I personally do not extend that tag to describing an entire city. I simply see isolated examples of nice neighborhoods.

But my experience is limited since I spent the last 30 something years in busy, crowded South Florida. There it is perpetually too hot and humid most of the year to enjoy any activities other than enjoying a well functioning air conditioning unit. Also, staying inside tends to keep one off the "kill or be killed" system of road rage travelways. So I guess I won't recognize a "sense of community" until it slaps me in the face several times.

I'm in the civil enginering arena. So my work is tied to growth, development, infrastructure etc. With the current drop in growth (especially new residential construction) most civil engineering companies have ceased hiring and many have laid off staff.

Thanks

[Torrie]

aaahhh, I see. I wouldn't count Boise out yet. If you can hang on and do something else temporarily you might be able to make it till the next surge of growth. Are you aware of all the planned communities in the works for this area? I'm sure you are, but if not, I can find that link and forward it to you. I see many opportunities coming up in the future for Boise-Metro. Markets go up and down, and this real estate cycle, isn't going to last forever. I'm sure that means little to you now when you need to put food on the table, but if you can I would try and tough it out, especially if you really like it here.

As far as sense of community, maybe it means something different to others, but above is the best way I can think to describe it. I think the reason that I noticed it was due to the fact I grew up in a smaller community(it's not small anymore), and even though I didn't fully understand what "sense of community" really was, by the time I got here, I began to notice the similarities to my experiences as a youth and the light bulb went off. It was refreshing to have that feeling of belonging all over again. Granted, it took us about 2.5 years and a lot of effort to get to this point, it has been well worth it. IMO, it's harder to find a "sense of community" in larger areas as people get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and more time is spent in the car, than making friendships or spreading acts of kindness. My thought is the sense of community can be felt more here, because there are so many families and that common interest is enough to form bonds between people. I could be wrong about that, but that's what I have observed.

I sure hope things begin to look up for you.

[stevetogo]

I appreciate the good thoughts.

Waiting it out may be tough to swallow, especially since most in my industry feel we are in for a bad ride for another few years. So if I wait, I risk losing possible opportunities elsewhere. From what I've heard, the market in Washington has not suffered much in comparison to Boise, Las Vegas, Denver etc.

I have been getting a few interviews lately so maybe something good will happen. As for whether I really like it here...I don't know. My feelings have been tainted by the negative experiences I've had. I simply may need to cut my losses and move on.

Thanks

[ds495]

I was wondering too about the reliability on opinions of people who are selling something. Usually really positive. and then the people who post here are often really negative. Its hard to get a clear picture.

Anyone know the availability of web and graphic design jobs?