IT jobs? (Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth: job market, salaries, living)

[CAtransplant]

Hello,
I was recently laid off in Houston and it has been incredibly difficult to even land an interview. Is Dallas as badly affected by recession like Houston or has it always being better for IT jobs?
I am MS certified with over 13 years of networking experience and cannot believe how bad the Houston IT sector has become. Nobody is hiring and the ones who are, offer "pathetic" salaries that I have not seen for decades.

I am seriously considering moving to Dallas if it's any better or even entertaining the crazier idea moving all the way to D.C. area which has/or had a strong IT job market.
Thanks for your opinions!

[bluescreen73]

Dallas/Fort Worth has long been known as the Silicon Prairie because of an abundance of IT jobs. We haven't been spared by the recession, though. I'd make sure you have a job before moving here unless the change in cost-of-living justifies moving beforehand.

[Arcane]

What do you consider pathetic?

[pablote]

Originally Posted by CAtransplant

I am MS certified with over 13 years of networking experience

As a fellow IT person, I assume you know that Microsoft stuff (Exchange, etc) and networking (routers, switches, etc) are not even in the same zip code. Given that, I guess it depends what specific section of IT job you're trying to land. Not knowing what your specialty is, I'll look at it from the point of view of my specialty.

Dallas does have it's share of IT jobs in the networking field, but I've personally found that the really top end jobs don't tend to be here, and never really have been (both pre and post dot-com crash). I don't know why; you'd think with the Richardson telecom corridor there would be more, but I've always seen the really big top jobs in networking, like ISP network design with large scale ISIS/BGP/MPLS deployments, much more heavily advertised in other cities, probably because most of the large ISPs are headquartered elsewhere (AT&T notwithstanding, but they just recently moved HQ here less than a year ago).

Not to say Dallas doesn't have anything, but the economy isn't the greatest now, and I never thought we really had that many great jobs to begin with (compared to places like Silicon Valley, the VA/DC metro area, Chicago etc anyway).

[loves2read]

if you are willing to relocate--do just that--find a job and go there...

[lh_newbie]

Originally Posted by pablote

...but I've always seen the really big top jobs in networking, like ISP network design with large scale ISIS/BGP/MPLS deployments...

This is unfortunately true. I have been fortunate that I have one of the few and far between ISIS/BGP/MPLS large scale deployments. Most IT jobs in the DFW area are corporate networks, and the overall job market here isn't great either. In tody's job market, I don't think anywhere is going to be hot for getting a new job.

I have to ask myself why you're asking here? We're all going to have subjective answers. There are two ways to get a job: job sites + who you know. Look at hotjobs and monster if you want a more absolute number. If you're willing to move to Dallas or DC- in today's job market, you might just want to go after a good job - regardless of where it is.

And on a personal front...how can you put MS and networking in the same sentence? Hehe.

Brian