Dallas or Houston? (Fort Worth, McKinney, Howe: insurance, job market, college)

[nubianprincess]

Soon after I finish college I plan on moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth or Houston area and I will have a degree in both video production and graphic design. I heard that the job market in these two fields in the Dallas area is VERY competitive is that true? Does Houston have a big job market in these fields as well? If so, is the job market competitive there too? Which city would be best for jobs in my fields, Dallas or Houston?

[NYC2BGI]

With the type of degree that you will have and line of work that you will be doing New York City sounds like the perfect place for you. There are several places in Manhattan(especially from 14th to 23rd Streets that specialize in that type of work).

[socketz]

New York or LA. Not sure Texas or anywhere in the South is a hotspot for this type of work.

Unless this is just another name for a web programming degree, then you can do that kind of work at any company greater than 50 people.

As for Dallas....

Telecommunications, Military (i.e.Raytheon in McKinney is huge), builders, Finance/Banking, some Blue Chips (Frito Lay, EDS, etc.)...that's Dallas.

Houston is oil, oilfield services, energy consulting/services and industrial engineering firms in vertical markets of these areas.

Again, if this is an 'IT' type degree, IT is everywhere. However, even within IT, you need to pick the type of business you want to specialize in as that will be the path to higher salaries when your older. For instance, if you build systems for insurance companies for 15 years, it's unlikely that say a component distributor could use your full expertise designing/maintaining their own systems, so they wont pay you as much as someone that knows their industry. Your secret sauce in IT is NOT your technical aptitude (modular tech competencies can be farmed out to India/Asia), but your business specific systems knowledge. That's why 'Systems Analyst' is always one of the most in-demand fields in IT, because it is a body of knowledge acquirred over time and typically reflects a specialty of some kind.