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Hey all, long time lurker who decided to join up and ask for some information about a life changing decision that I need input and help with that has been bugging me the last few years and now even more so, when and how to move outa my homestate of Montana that i've been in for now 32 years after my recent birthday a few weeks ago.
I've got a pretty good job in my area with good benefits and I hope to transfer if a position opens up in the area's i've been looking at for number of years, especially Portland. I"m currently once again in Vancouver and the Portland area. I drove through the Seattle area after finishing up the Warrior Dash and got to see the Belluve, Issaquah and Tacoma area's and I really liked what I saw. I'm aware that the weather in either of these cities isn't the greatest or the most morally uplifting with all the rain and clouds in comparison to my Montana climate. I'm not an avid outdoorsman like I used to be, I probably will only be doing mountain biking in the area's and light hiking on a light basis, so I don't need to have good weather all the time.
But to my main point, im still pretty much a geek like I have been all my life and I basically just want more of everything then what Montana has to offer. I wanna experience big LAN parties with lots of people on a regular basis, I wanna be able to go to gaming and anime conventions were lots of geeks like me get together and meet new people and make new friends and start a new section of my life. I wanna be able to experience hopefully technology expo's, conventions or stuff like that. I wanna have a much larger dating pool of woman who are career oriented and not wanting to have children which is hard to find in Montana. Hell, i'd love to have gatherings for guys and gals for the new My Little Pony cartoon series and meet fellow bronys.
So for those of who live or have lived in this area's, which one would give more opportunities and chances to meet people and experience what I mentioned above? Please don't mention towns and states outside of the Northwest region, I don't wanna move to Austin TX, California or anything like that even if they offer more gaming and convention opportunities as I won't be able to handle insanely large cities like those, I can't stand high heat and high humidity cliens and mostly the big reason, I wanna remain in this Northwest area so i can still be close to my family and be able to drive and see them within a days time.
That all being said, what are your guys incite and suggestions to which city and or outlaying area would give me the best opportunities to start the next phase of my life away from my home state and town after 32 years. FYI, I don't wanna live in the core of Seattle as its a big too big and crazy, i'd rather live in the smaller outlying towns like Redmond or Bellavue and instead visit Seattle for day visits for whatever is going on that interests me.
Portland/Vancouver, like any major city, will have it's share of geekdom, but Seattle seems to be so much better organized with the things you're talking about. I spend a fair amount of time there and am always impressed with what that city has to offer.
It's crazy to me to hear that someone who is 32 and single and doesn't want kids or a career-oreiented woman desires to live in the suburbs. I have to think living in the suburbs is just going to be hard to find a mate or a lot of things to do. I know my 32 year old friend just moved back into Seattle after 7 years living in Redmond for this exact reason. All his friends were in Seattle and he was going over there all the time. He then got laid off from Microsoft, so it kind of almost worked out.
Seattle might be shellshock for you, coming from Montana. It's a fair bit bigger than Portland.
That said, I agree that Seattle might be your best bet, but I wouldn't discount living in the city. Try the U district or Ballard areas.
Let me preface this by saying everything below here is a generalization and only based on my experiences.
What kind of IT skills do you have? That's going to decide your move more then anything else. If you have generalized Desktop/Help Desk skills, go to Seattle. You can find such jobs in Portland but they'll be low paying with little chance of getting anywhere. If you have server admin, (especially Mac, FreeBSD, and Linux,) or Ruby/Java/IOS skills, Portland wants you now and will actually pay higher then regionally adjusted rates.
Portland is more geek friendly then Seattle by a fair shot. Seattle's IT conferences tend to be more corporate oriented and businesses suits rule. Portland's tend to be more oriented towards the people who actually get things done. We also tend to have a lot more very specialized conferences.
Portland's IT Networking groups tend to be closer knit then Seattle's. Up there they tend to not cross industries, Amazon IT people don't tend to hob-knob with Microsoft IT people, you never see Cisco guys hanging out with the Adobe Folks. It's kind of hard to explain, but it feels like IT people in Seattle are more transitionary and willing to move to another city for a job. My circle of IT friends in Seattle is mostly ex-Portlanders, who I've worked with in either city with. Whereas my Portland IT circle is composed of people I know through someone else, and much fewer ex-coworkers.
On the other hand, Portland's IT employment is based much more on networking then Seattle's. You're much more likely to land a job through a friend of a friend, then via a recruiter. Unfortunately the recruiters know this. Portland ones stop looking for you after about two weeks, so you end up having to keep contacting them back. Frequently you'll see a job opening through their company even, and will have to call them to let them know you're interested. Seattle recruiters seem a lot more proactive, I'd be called for jobs within hours of them being posted.
Both Seattle and Portland have big gaming and anime conventions, but Seattle ones cost nearly double what Portland ones do. On the other hand they're much bigger and in some cases feel more "professional" or "corporate." Portland has major artists from the Comic Book industry as residents, along with several well known game designers, and a lot of well known local authors.
Dating in Portland is a little easier then Seattle in my experience, but the quality of women is admittedly lower. Fewer professional women, a lot more artists, and life-long baristas. On the other hand, if you're looking for a Vegan who cooks everything from scratch, using only home grown organic products, Portland may be a better choice. Portland women aren't any less intelligent or ambitious, their priorities skew towards individualism instead of careers.
On the flip side, single Seattle women tend to not have kids and ex-husband baggage. Portland is easier to go out on a cheap and spur of the moment date though.
Again, I'm hoping to transfer with my current company if at all possible because thmuey do take good care of me and I enjoy the job most of the time. I have not had a had a chance or reason to learn Linux, freebsd or java, mostly cause I hate programing, I rather work with my hands and people then type code all day. I am thinking of leaving IT in future if I get burnt out or sick of the ever changing and demanding industry become a wind turbine tech which I feel would work better in the Washington or Oregon area vs Montana if I pursue that route.
As far as woman qualities, I'd much rather date a weirdly dressed barista geek gal with a personality and heart then a rich and snobby Seattle yuppy girl.
I went down i5 from issaque to Vancouver a few days ago on my vacation and I rather enjoyed the drive and it wasnt that long of a drive IMO, so I'm thinking I can travel and visit Seattle from Portland when I want too if I can't find work in that area.
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