Need your honest advice: Relocate to CA or NY? (rent, job market)

[MeloMelo66]

Hi Everyone,

My husband and I are relocating to the US with permanent visas next year and we are wondering what the job market is like for JAVA developers. We have narrowed down our preferences to CA or NY but we dont know where will be better for us to live. He is a french Java developer with 4 years experience working in international (US) companies. He speaks good english --but with quite a noticeable french accent While I am a native english speaker with a Masters in Marketing and almost a year's internship experience in a multinational smart card company( I changed my career and am almost 30 yrs old now, he is 28.) We are actually living in France now.

1. Will he have problems finding work as a JAVA developer being french even though he speaks, reads and interacted/ presented in English in his prior jobs?

2. What is the market like for developers now? Do you think it will turn around in 2010?

3. Where in CA can we find reasonable rent,some mass transit(no car) ….and where we can both find work?

4. If you were in our shoes, which city would you honestly choose? CA or NY?

Really looking forward to ur answers, thanks alot!!!

[faithfulFrank]

I could not comment on the job thing......but you have picked two of the highest taxed states.
Climate is the big difference. Do you like snow? Huge change of seasons? If so, you have that with NY.

Do you like the west coast lifestyle? Moderate to beautiful weather? Then Ca may be more to your liking.

Both are big states, with big differences in regions within the states. For instance, there is a big difference between NYC area and western or northern NY.

Good luck! Frank D.

I'm going to move this to the General US forum.......

[TANaples]

The job situation is very, very critical being in the tech field. My husband is in IT. So many jobs have been offshored going back at least 10 years. If you really want to move to the states, find the JOB first, anywhere. As I said, this is especially critical in IT. You can always move someplace else later when the economy, and hopefully the tech field, improves.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by MeloMelo66

Hi Everyone,

My husband and I are relocating to the US with permanent visas next year and we are wondering what the job market is like for JAVA developers. We have narrowed down our preferences to CA or NY but we dont know where will be better for us to live. He is a french Java developer with 4 years experience working in international (US) companies. He speaks good english --but with quite a noticeable french accent While I am a native english speaker with a Masters in Marketing and almost a year's internship experience in a multinational smart card company( I changed my career and am almost 30 yrs old now, he is 28.) We are actually living in France now.

1. Will he have problems finding work as a JAVA developer being french even though he speaks, reads and interacted/ presented in English in his prior jobs?

2. What is the market like for developers now? Do you think it will turn around in 2010?

3. Where in CA can we find reasonable rent,some mass transit(no car) ….and where we can both find work?

4. If you were in our shoes, which city would you honestly choose? CA or NY?

Really looking forward to ur answers, thanks alot!!!

This sort of reminds me of that scene in "Coming to America" where they look at the map of the USA and say "so many choices: should we go to NYC or LA?" You may well have very good reasons for those two states, but they're very different and you will get better feedback if you explain a little more about what it is that you want out of a location. I'm guessing you're thinking NYC (you refer to two "cities," but don't specify the CA city), and I'm guessing are thinking either LA or San Francisco/Bay Area, or maybe San Diego for California?

As for your questions:
1. Yes, probably he will have a tough time finding a job, because right now almost everyone is having a slower time finding a job. I doubt that the language/accent itself would be an issue.
2. Don't know about your specific industry, but the job market in general in California is bad right now, I think worse than in NY. With luck it will change soon, but it's going to take some time for everything to adjust and I wouldn't count on it being easy to find work.
3. San Francisco has decent public transportation but very high rent; I don't think other nearby areas like the Silicon Valley are particularly good for public transportation, but they do have some options. Rent will not be affordable by most people's standards, although it's a little cheaper than NYC. Los Angeles gets a bad rap for mass transit, but it's actually pretty good depending on where you live and where you work. It's cheaper there than in NYC or SF.
4. As to where to live - realistically right now, wherever you can find a job.