Moving To Boise (low income, cliquey, crime)

[jthompson76]

My family and I are moving to Boise from Michigan. I have been on this site researching Boise data and I am impressed. My husband has lived in Boise before but returned to Michigan some years ago.His brother is still living there and he works for the Historical Society.
I am posting here to see if I can get some help from some locals. We are both in need of jobs as we are leaving Michigan due to the lack of employment here. My husband has a background in the construction business and home improvement. He has owned his own business here for 10 yrs. and the market is terrible! He gave up his business for this move. He also moonlights building websites and owns a local online classified website for our area.He is extremely talented when it comes to business, advertising and web development. He specializes in Joomla.
I am a nursing student and certified birth doula. I will be transferring to BSU. However I still need to work, my experience is...waitress, cocktail serving, cheerleading and dance instruction, figureskating instructor, secretarial and office work, grapic design and even event planning and catering. I am a certified doula, birth assistant, and I have volunteered my services with many non profit agencies for low income women and teen mothers. We are educated, good people that have hit rock bottom here in MI. If anyone has any resources for employment it would really help us out. We have 3 chikdren ages 12 10 and 8...We are moving to Boise to provide a better life and environment for our children.Can anyone help direct us to employers that are hiring with our qualifications?

[ramenfan]

I'm not trying to scare you, but I am trying to expose you to the harsh reality here. Take it from someone who also moved here with no real hard connections and has yet to find a good steady job two years later: I hope you have a LOT of survival money saved up before you move, especially with three children. I survive because I'm single with no responsibility and have a truck that's been paid off, and I stayed at my last job an extra year simply to stockpile cash in case a worst-case scenario happened (which it did obviously).

Construction is dead. Even before the recession, I knew someone in construction who wanted to move here and was repeatedly told by foremen not to come due to an oversaturation of workers. Working at a home improvement business sounds like a better bet. And for all the talk about a lot of nursing jobs available, I read an article in the local paper about a glut of people in nursing schools with no jobs available to them once they do finish school. Be prepared to temp and make low wages, and even then the temp market is so saturated that even getting a day of work here and there can be tough. In May I was working with a temp who got laid off in Micron last October, and the job we were at was the first temp job that he was able to get since being laid off. Here's a smart, well-educated man who had to wait seven months simply to get a day's work at a temp agency. You hear a lot of stuff from the media about the job market, but that's when reality truly hit the hardest for me.

[HoldensGma]

Ramenfan, After reading your posts of your inablility to find work for two years, Do you regret the move to Boise at all? besides the obvious job issue, what other negatives have you had to deal with? Also there must be some amazing positives there for you to stay for two years without a job and continue to struggle financially. I hope you can find something soon in your desired field of work!

[gimme it]

from what i have been reading, please have a job lined up before moving unless you have a lot of money saved up. I feel for you and wish you the best.

[h2ohzrd]

We moved from the Boise area last December. Negatives....hmmm. Well, they drive slow but that's not a bad thing. Just takes some getting used to. We had no friends or family in the area so that was a real negative for us. My wife was used to bigger city shopping (like Chicago) so that was a negative for her.
Not sure this is a negative but Boise is the most remote metro area in the U.S. Five to six hours from it's nearest metro area.
The economy is a negative, especially since Micron seems to be in exit strategy mode. Our house sold for $87,000 less than what we paid for it but luckily my company's relocation policy covered this.
The occasional inversion is a negative (stagnant air), especially if you have asthma.

[ramenfan]

Originally Posted by HoldensGma

Ramenfan, After reading your posts of your inablility to find work for two years, Do you regret the move to Boise at all? besides the obvious job issue, what other negatives have you had to deal with? Also there must be some amazing positives there for you to stay for two years without a job and continue to struggle financially. I hope you can find something soon in your desired field of work!

Do I regret it? Absolutely not. Yeah, there's certain disadvantages to living here that I've had to get used to. But I've probably lived at least half of my life in one spot, and it was time for me to move on. I knew people here, and I had visited 2-3 times during road trips to see them. So I kinda knew a little bit of the area and what to expect. My life has certainly been more interesting here, through both bad and good. I live in probably the nicest area I'll ever live in right now. When job hunting or filling out the two billionth online application to a job you know you probably won't get gets me down, all it takes is a trip over to Hyde Park or a small stroll around the North End to set my senses straight and appreciate what I DO have. Good quality of life, low crime (not once have I ever stumbled home from a downtown bar or club and felt unsafe), outdoor opportunities.....the usual stuff people like about Boise.

I was well aware that coming here was a risk careerwise. My background is in media, more specifically working at one of the top post-production facilities in Hollywood. In fact towards the end my job was so specialized that I'm 99.99% certain that no one in this entire state does what I did. I was hoping to angle that background into some sort of TV job here (even entry-level). But the sniffs that I got amounted to nothing, and I got those "overqualified" vibes from the interviewers. There's a film networking group through the Idaho Film Bureau that started up around the time I came here. But that wasn't leading anywhere, and then they became a non-profit agency and wanted I think $75 to join. No thanks! It's a market now where you'll take anything, but upon moving here I kept holding out for something decent and hopefully in my line of field. And I kept holding out and holding out, and then the economy hit the crapper. I realized maybe I should take any old job, but by that point EVERYBODY was looking for any old job to get. Now I'm at a point where I feel fortunate that one place I'm temping at can hire me from time to time! What a difference two years make. But like I said, it was a risk. So I can't be 100% surprised by this. I would've been laid off in Jan. 2008 if I had stayed at my last job anyway. But the unemployment compensation sure could've helped.

Anyway I'm waiting on a production company that was going to be building some studios and was supposed to be hiring about now, but that seems to be on hold. That might be the scenario that pushes me out of here, if I don't get as much as a sniff from these people given my background. My Plan B all along was to move to Japan. It won't be as one of those English teachers anymore (I did the whole recruiting thing, and those recruiters freaked me out), so it would require me to get a federal job to get over there. Unfortunately with a media background and some stiff competition probably, I'm not sure how feasible it will be to be able to get a job over there, unless I work an entry-level job (if any federal workers here want to chime in, feel free!). Kinda tough to get paid low wages in one of the most expensive nations to live in! Too bad my savings are goin' down the crapper here, but I'm still OK financially and can pickpocket my IRA if I need to. And if Japan doesn't work out, I'll probably have to go to a larger media market like Portland or Seattle, where I don't know anyone in either city.

[boiseguy]

I think the sad reality is.. there aren't really any places in the country to go where it's better overall though... which is why moving without a job lead ANYWHERE is risky...
There are jobs out there... but like it's been said.. they aren't necessarily in line with everyone's set skills... which is why you could pick any spot on the map and be faced with the same challenges.. or different challenges... If you're at rock bottom where your at... I say you can't get any worse anywhere else.. even in boise...
it's bad around here...that's for sure.. but we have it pretty good compared to many areas, and the awfulness we percieve now is because it was too good for too long before...
I guess its a matter of how you see things...
From my experience and through friend's.. boise is one of those cliquey places.. where it isn't really what you know that will get you the job.. it's who you know...
before I was a teacher.. I worked at various places here in town.. I won't say where.. but some of the people moving quickly up the chains of command were downright disturbing...

[boisefan88]

It's bad everywhere, but I just get the impression Boise's extremely bad for many people because it's always been tough to land a job here, unless you like working well below where you should be. As you said, Boise's a cliquey place, and the "good ol' boy" networking will get you far. Helps if you're a UI grad sometimes. But coming from out of town? Good luck then, and hope you win the lottery (so to speak) now.

[boiseguy]

Originally Posted by boisefan88

It's bad everywhere, but I just get the impression Boise's extremely bad for many people because it's always been tough to land a job here, unless you like working well below where you should be. As you said, Boise's a cliquey place, and the "good ol' boy" networking will get you far. Helps if you're a UI grad sometimes. But coming from out of town? Good luck then, and hope you win the lottery (so to speak) now.

I would agree with this.... the professional climate here is kind of like a bad gene pool.... perhaps that is what is keeping big employers that aren't homegrown from coming here??? I certainly wouldn't hand the operations of my company over to some of happenings that go on around here...
I mean look at micron.. it is a product of idaho that doesn't involve agriculture.. and it pretty much is going to hell in a handbasket...

[jwest09]

[quote=Boise;9770677]I think the sad reality is.. there aren't really any places in the country to go where it's better overall though.


IMO, it is harder to get a job in the Boise area, than other places in the country that have lower unemployment . It is not a good place to search, and land a job on line. You have to get out, network, compete and sell yourself. Sometimes you might be competing with your last job laid off boss for the same position.