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Been in Greenville for close to 10 years after decades of living like a pack-rat in NYC. I loved Greenville instantaneously! The greenery, the cleanliness, the blue silhouette of mountain peaks. It was beautiful! I remember why I left NY and once had a profusely sweaty, freakish nightmare I had to go back. I think my nightmare has come true.
Greenville is up and coming. Great place to live and raise a family, but unfortunately for my line of work in designing for the tech field, Greenville just isn't there yet. I'm at a turning point in my career where I need to grow and I'm not finding that fulfillment in the companies I've worked for. They are too small or don't see value in design. That priority is at the bottom of the pile because there isn't a thriving design and development community here yet. I've seen colleagues recycled from the same local agencies, coming and going, then coming back again like a loop without escape because the number of places that hire here are only a handful while paying 1/3rd of what you can potentially earn elsewhere.
I could travel to neighboring cities, but personally did not like Charleston, Charlotte or Columbia, they're just...I can't even pinpoint their individual flaws right now, but they have them. I just like Greenville better. I like it because of its compactness. It is conservative, yet tries to be diverse. People are uber friendly and genuine, living cost is excellent. What's not to like?
Unfortunately for the career I have, people in my industry work in big cities where the tech industry drives a big chunk of the capita, places like NYC and San Francisco. I just hate the quality of life in big cities. What I want I understand is like wanting the cake and eating it too. You either take a plunge and trade quality of life for a better career or the other way around. Never both.
I have been in my industry for 15+ years and I'm good at it. I love what I do. I can't imagine doing anything else. It's a very fulfilling career. It's in high demand and the pay is great if you live and work in the right place. Upwards of $80k-100 for a mid-level experience. You just have to be in a city that recognizes the importance of technology and design.
While the landscape is changing, Greenville is still so much at its core in the traditional sector. Health/medical, engineering, manufacturing, distribution—its very much the driving force here. There's still a lack of variety in high tech, software, development and design. Even Charleston has that as a perk, being dubbed the Silicon Harbor due to the growing software industry.
As an individual, I just feel I'm not competing or innovating because of the limitations. I hope Greenville gets there one day. As for me, I can't wait for it to happen however long that'll take. I'm at the crossroads of leveraging my career and starting a family. Maybe sometime in the future I'll meet Greenville again, who knows. For now, I'll miss it terribly.
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I could travel to neighboring cities, but personally did not like Charleston, Charlotte or Columbia, they're just...I can't even pinpoint their individual flaws right now, but they have them. I just like Greenville better. I like it because of its compactness. It is conservative, yet tries to be diverse. People are uber friendly and genuine, living cost is excellent. What's not to like?
Unfortunately for the career I have, people in my industry work in big cities where the tech industry drives a big chunk of the capita, places like NYC and San Francisco. I just hate the quality of life in big cities. What I want I understand is like wanting the cake and eating it too. You either take a plunge and trade quality of life for a better career or the other way around. Never both.
I have been in my industry for 15+ years and I'm good at it. I love what I do. I can't imagine doing anything else. It's a very fulfilling career. It's in high demand and the pay is great if you live and work in the right place. Upwards of $80k-100 for a mid-level experience. You just have to be in a city that recognizes the importance of technology and design.
While the landscape is changing, Greenville is still so much at its core in the traditional sector. Health/medical, engineering, manufacturing, distribution—its very much the driving force here. There's still a lack of variety in high tech, software, development and design. Even Charleston has that as a perk, being dubbed the Silicon Harbor due to the growing software industry.
As an individual, I just feel I'm not competing or innovating because of the limitations. I hope Greenville gets there one day. As for me, I can't wait for it to happen however long that'll take. I'm at the crossroads of leveraging my career and starting a family. Maybe sometime in the future I'll meet Greenville again, who knows. For now, I'll miss it terribly.
I saw you post on the Columbia forum and you indicated in that post that you have already moved to Columbia. i never heard of Columbia having a big tech industry.
Maybe if you're not too far away, you can visit maybe once a month or once every couple of months.
Or if not, then maybe you can plan to visit when you get time off in the summer or December. Not the same as living in Greenville but still preferable to never coming back.
I'm in IT as well and live somewhere much smaller than Greenville. I go to Greenville about once a month and would like to move, but like any small-ish metro, tech opportunities are going to be fairly limited.
Been in Greenville for close to 10 years after decades of living like a pack-rat in NYC. I loved Greenville instantaneously! The greenery, the cleanliness, the blue silhouette of mountain peaks. It was beautiful! I remember why I left NY and once had a profusely sweaty, freakish nightmare I had to go back. I think my nightmare has come true.
Greenville is up and coming. Great place to live and raise a family, but unfortunately for my line of work in designing for the tech field, Greenville just isn't there yet. I'm at a turning point in my career where I need to grow and I'm not finding that fulfillment in the companies I've worked for. They are too small or don't see value in design. That priority is at the bottom of the pile because there isn't a thriving design and development community here yet. I've seen colleagues recycled from the same local agencies, coming and going, then coming back again like a loop without escape because the number of places that hire here are only a handful while paying 1/3rd of what you can potentially earn elsewhere.
I could travel to neighboring cities, but personally did not like Charleston, Charlotte or Columbia, they're just...I can't even pinpoint their individual flaws right now, but they have them. I just like Greenville better. I like it because of its compactness. It is conservative, yet tries to be diverse. People are uber friendly and genuine, living cost is excellent. What's not to like?
Unfortunately for the career I have, people in my industry work in big cities where the tech industry drives a big chunk of the capita, places like NYC and San Francisco. I just hate the quality of life in big cities. What I want I understand is like wanting the cake and eating it too. You either take a plunge and trade quality of life for a better career or the other way around. Never both.
I have been in my industry for 15+ years and I'm good at it. I love what I do. I can't imagine doing anything else. It's a very fulfilling career. It's in high demand and the pay is great if you live and work in the right place. Upwards of $80k-100 for a mid-level experience. You just have to be in a city that recognizes the importance of technology and design.
While the landscape is changing, Greenville is still so much at its core in the traditional sector. Health/medical, engineering, manufacturing, distribution—its very much the driving force here. There's still a lack of variety in high tech, software, development and design. Even Charleston has that as a perk, being dubbed the Silicon Harbor due to the growing software industry.
As an individual, I just feel I'm not competing or innovating because of the limitations. I hope Greenville gets there one day. As for me, I can't wait for it to happen however long that'll take. I'm at the crossroads of leveraging my career and starting a family. Maybe sometime in the future I'll meet Greenville again, who knows. For now, I'll miss it terribly.
Why are you, with all that experience, not starting your own design consulting business and getting clients all over the country by now?
Wanting to just have a 'job' and expecting others and other jobs to 'challenge' you, etc. rather than take on some of the challenge, competition, innovation yourself seems to be a chronic issue in the young these days. You may be severely limiting yourself .. it seems your 'ambition' is only to continue being someone else's lackey forever. Seems such a waste to me.
My thoughts exactly! Why not look into industry groups for your line of work that have a Research Triangle chapter? There are plenty of technology jobs in the 80-100K range in the area, and the area has a lot more in common with Upstate South Carolina than New York or San Francisco in terms of lifestyle, but not so much in terms of its economic structure. The metropolitan area is polycentric, so if Raleigh isn't exactly what you're looking for, Durham could be a better fit, for example. I wouldn't extrapolate from Columbia or even Charlotte, as Raleigh/Durham is very distinct from other places regionally.
My thoughts exactly! Why not look into industry groups for your line of work that have a Research Triangle chapter? There are plenty of technology jobs in the 80-100K range in the area, and the area has a lot more in common with Upstate South Carolina than New York or San Francisco in terms of lifestyle, but not so much in terms of its economic structure. The metropolitan area is polycentric, so if Raleigh isn't exactly what you're looking for, Durham could be a better fit, for example. I wouldn't extrapolate from Columbia or even Charlotte, as Raleigh/Durham is very distinct from other places regionally.
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