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Jobs are pretty sparse in Wilmington. Also, not a lot of nightlife for a young person like you. I am near VA Beach and you will have much better luck landing a job in Norfolk, Va Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk areas. Plus there is so much to do and so many places to go. You can go from one large city to the next one. You have the ocean, the bay and the rivers. Mountains are 3 hours away. Washington DC is 3 hours away also. Hit up the Outer Banks of NC about 1 hour and 30 minutes from Va Beach or Chesapeake. The closest big city to Wilmington is Raleigh and that is about a couple of hours away and that is it. I have relatives in Wilmington and my impression has always been it is young professional mid 30's families, college students and retirees. I am at that retiree age and would like to get away from the hectic life around here and make that move to Wilmington. You are young, make that move. But seriously, check out VA where the opportunities are plentiful. Get your experience and then you can move on.
Thanks for the inspiration and advice. It just feels like an uphill battle to get out of my current location. Anything good is always worth the effort, though.
This is exactly it, right here. Anything worth doing is hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it. It seems like an uphill battle now, but if you're driven you'll find a way to make it work and you'll look back on the struggles years from now and laugh.
marid4061 offers good advice because the Norfolk/VA Beach area is booming. I have never been there myself, but I've heard good things.
Thank You all for the advice, knowledge, and stories. I have enjoyed reading them all. My only problem with Virginia Beach is that it is a little too far north for my liking... But I may have to compromise, atleast for a little while. Being able to go to the beach, and have access to a larger city would be be beneficial. I have been to Virginia Beach many times, and have always liked it there. Not sure what the area is like during the winter. Thanks Guys!
Last edited by Zip2theCoast; 07-08-2017 at 03:26 PM..
Select the month and year you want to view. See if it's manageable. I live in Philadelphia so it sure looks nice to me. We are lucky to see 40's as a high in January. It usually only gets into the 40's if it rains.
I understand about the weather. It is cooler in the winter. You can usually expect a snowfall each winter. And a couple of inches of snow shuts down schools and everything. And I am very serious! This is why my husband wants to move a little further south. Best of luck to you! You will find your happy place and don't give up trying to get there.
Select the month and year you want to view. See if it's manageable. I live in Philadelphia so it sure looks nice to me. We are lucky to see 40's as a high in January. It usually only gets into the 40's if it rains.
I hear that. Being pretty close to Lake Erie, we get lake-effect snow, but the past couple of winters haven't been too bad. They have been mild, and I still dislike them. Thanks for the weather link. Weather Underground is a pretty neat site- lots of near information. Thanks! At any rate, Virginia Beach is farther south than my current location.
I understand about the weather. It is cooler in the winter. You can usually expect a snowfall each winter. And a couple of inches of snow shuts down schools and everything. And I am very serious! This is why my husband wants to move a little further south. Best of luck to you! You will find your happy place and don't give up trying to get there.
I've never seen a snow covered beach- that would be cool. I believe a couple inches of snow shuts the city down. It's hard to handle something when you don't have the equipment or people to handle it. Thank You for your kind words and encouragement.
Just for accuracy purposes...I would not categorize the Wilmington job market as being "sparse"...I would categorize it as being "very competitive", which leads to lower wages.
It is a growing job market, but the competition for those jobs is high.
And the reason for that is that it is that it is a desirable place to live.
I would agree. The wages are lower here, but many of the locals seem to accept this as the norm.
I made the mistake of moving to Wilmington, NC, and it has been awful. I would recommend NOT to move here. For one thing, the infrastructure is shot. Probably, funding for roadways was spent on other things (misappropriated funds) but I'm just guessing. There is one "main" way in, and one way out. There is traffic usually all the time, but rush hour is the worst. You may need to only go 6 miles, but it could take you 35 minutes. FORGET about working in the city and living on one of the beaches. People in the forum may tell you, "traffic is bad everywhere" and that is probably true. But it is really, really bad here. University of NC at Wilmington doesn't help matters, either. Tons of people, many of whom drive like complete idiots. For some reason in what basically is bumper to bumper traffic, these troglodytes want to crawl up your butt as if this saves any time. Accidents are many. Had I known the situation with the roads and the infrastructure, I never would have moved here. Please take heed and learn from my mistake!!
I've been around Charlotte and that sucks too, but at least one doesn't feel so "trapped" like I feel here in Wilmington.
PS - If they got hit with a Cat 3, 4, or 5, hurricane, they would still be trying to get relief help IN. They were so fortunate that it was a Cat 1.
I've lived here going on 13 years and always had an outside source of income. Finding decent income as someone's employee in Wilmington is very hard, but that depends on your skill set. I'm in IT and I have never been able to find a job in Wilmington that pays even half of what I make working remotely.
If you are going to be employed in Wilmington expect to make 'beach dollars' because as others have said its a competition to live and thrive here. 60K a year is considered high income around here.
Also the cost of housing is being jacked up by the Baby Boomer Yankees who s*it all over their home states for decades and are coming down to retire here. Like billy said the traffic is bad, but I'd say it's plain dangerous to drive around Wilmington. Traffic will be compounded with the continuing destruction of the rest of the woodlands in New Hanover county to build more McMansions for the Boomers, there really is no way to increase the traffic flow without destroying current commercial or residential buildings.
The place is becoming another Florida, where I lived for 15 years. Only the traffic is much worse.
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