[mikekim]

Is it true that it is hard to find employment in Las Vegas? I am thinking to move to Las Vegas from Florida and whole my life I have worked in service industry and have majors and years of experience on this field as well.Is it true that if I dont have connections I barely be able to find a job?
Thank you for your time

[Sorcerer68]

Originally Posted by parking

Hello,

I bought my home here in Vegas 4 years ago. Never lived in it because I was making terrific money as a IT/Parking Manager. As a matter of fact, I was making $80,000 per year. On June 2, 2007 I was laid off due to a building owner change. I worked there for 12.5 years. I have excellent computer, managerial skills. To get to my point, I decided to relocate my family to Las Vegas on June 3, 2007. It has been close to 4 months now and NO LUCK finding employment in Las Vegas!! I have applied at every casino from IT tech support down to cashier. Still No calls. I used the RJ (LV's Newspaper, Indeed.com, and Craigslist.

One of the reasons why I moved here in the first place was all the talk about finding employment here quickly. This is not true. I have learned that if you don't have any connections here, finding employment will be tough. I'm scard at this point since I have 2 months remaining on my unemployment. I must admit, I'm considering moving back to San Francisco if nothing happens in the next month.

Good Luck to all of you who decide to move here.

I'm sorry to hear of your difficulties. When I moved to Vegas, I transferred a fairly menial job. I quit for a casino job at a nasty casino downtown. Shortly after that, I was hired to open the Bellagio. They interviewed 100,000 people (or more) and hired 10,000. I got hired over every person in my casino...I was the only one from this place that went to Bellagio and I got a GOOD job. After than I opened Paris doing fine dining. I worked both places. I had no connections when I moved to Vegas...not a soul. I moved back to L.A. because Vegas and I are mismatched...but employment wise it was good to me. I now enjoy periodic visits there. I think it was almost 4 months from the time I applied at Bellagio to the time they called me. Paris wasn't as long. I realise my experience isn't exactly last week but my friends keep me current and it seems Vegas isn't different, only larger.

You won't find a huge "good 'ol boy" network in Vegas as most everyone is a transplant. If people have been there a while and work in casinos, everybody knows everybody within their department. BTW...everyone I've met who moved to Vegas from San Francisco ends up going back. Everyone I've met who moved from Vegas to San Francisco (who isn't from San Francisco) ended up not staying. I don't quote these as accurate statistics, just observations within my circle.

Good luck.

[parking]

Thanks for the info. It seems when you where here, at that time, LV hadn't really experience the boom in population as it did the last 4 years.
Just my thoughts.

Originally Posted by Sorcerer68

I'm sorry to hear of your difficulties. When I moved to Vegas, I transferred a fairly menial job. I quit for a casino job at a nasty casino downtown. Shortly after that, I was hired to open the Bellagio. They interviewed 100,000 people (or more) and hired 10,000. I got hired over every person in my casino...I was the only one from this place that went to Bellagio and I got a GOOD job. After than I opened Paris doing fine dining. I worked both places. I had no connections when I moved to Vegas...not a soul. I moved back to L.A. because Vegas and I are mismatched...but employment wise it was good to me. I now enjoy periodic visits there. I think it was almost 4 months from the time I applied at Bellagio to the time they called me. Paris wasn't as long. I realise my experience isn't exactly last week but my friends keep me current and it seems Vegas isn't different, only larger.

You won't find a huge "good 'ol boy" network in Vegas as most everyone is a transplant. If people have been there a while and work in casinos, everybody knows everybody within their department. BTW...everyone I've met who moved to Vegas from San Francisco ends up going back. Everyone I've met who moved from Vegas to San Francisco (who isn't from San Francisco) ended up not staying. I don't quote these as accurate statistics, just observations within my circle.

Good luck.

[parking]

This is so cool of you.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by ParkTwain

You should also consider talking to a few local headhunters, maybe also to the Godfather of Vegas IT.
The Godfather of Las Vegas: Mark Wayman (broken link)

I think he is (or was) involved in the Systems Research and Development company (non-obvious relationship querying technology, used by the casino corporations to find data-item relationships among suspected casino cheats), bought by IBM:
reviewjournal.com -- Business: Las Vegas company acquired by IBM


This is also a pretty good way to start winnowing the jobs pages:
All it jobs in Las Vegas, NV | Indeed.com

I also use Careerbuilder.com, DICE.com, monster.com (post your resume there for sure). You should already know all of these by coming from SF.

Also, watch the job postings at SNWA and LVVWD:
LVVWD: Current Job Openings

Parsons Corp. (Pasadena, Calif.) has the big employee contract for SNWA Engineering. Check Parsons Corporation, click on Employment at left, then "View Openings" then "My Searches" then query for jobs in Nevada, United States.

There are also some occasional IT jobs with the Feds at DOE, DoD, etc. (NNSA and NTS and Yucca Mtn Project). For federal jobs look at GOVJOBS, find government jobs in federal, defense, state and local agencies and Federal Jobs Digest.

[parking]

Everyone on this website is great. They have given me links and works of advise. I am thankful to them. The fact remains, even with my skills which are impressive, NO EMPLOYERS have called. THe only reason why I'm making it is because I'm on unemployment. But that is running out and I am preparing to relocate back to Cali. I love it here. This place is so cool. But I need a job. So my advise to you my friend, move here if you have a job, don't move here without a job.

Originally Posted by mikekim

Is it true that it is hard to find employment in Las Vegas? I am thinking to move to Las Vegas from Florida and whole my life I have worked in service industry and have majors and years of experience on this field as well.Is it true that if I dont have connections I barely be able to find a job?
Thank you for your time

[jfkIII]

Originally Posted by PinkString

I wish people wouldn't just up and move somewhere without having a job there first. It's totally crazy.

It never ceases to amaze me. LV attracts this type of thinking where people just pick up and move there. Almost sight unseen (except for The Strip).

The inscription at the base of The Statue of Liberty over at NYNY reads:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed,
to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Never is this more true, but in Las Vegas.

[jfkIII]

If they just walked around to the back of the statue, they'd read the other inscription, that says:

"And I'll turn them right around, exhausted, bankrupt, and all alone
yearning to just breathe, The wretched refuse of our light-blinking
facade, Send them back, the homeless, tempest-tossed:
It's lights-out for you and don't let the door hit you in the ass!"

[PhotogRyan]

Parking,

I graduated a couple years ago with an IS degree from UNLV, and during my senior year, I heard all the horror stories of the grads in my major landing $13/hr jobs at the casinos, which turned out to be true.

The IT job market (or from what I recall of it, mid-2005) was pretty rough. I couldn't even find a decent job in tech support of all things, with 3-4 years of experience I accumulated during school. Up until my graduation, I threw out so many apps in every industry, and nothing ever materialized. Even the school I graduated from (UNLV) wouldn't take me in for an interview.. what a kicker.

I left for SD without a job and found something in two months in the hotel industry. I worked for a year, and now work as a data analyst making $20k more than my friend back home who does the exact (and maybe even more complex) same thing.

If you do find a job, I'd say that you won't be offered anything impressive.. it's just how the market is over there unfortunately.

Have you tried using an agency to find you some leads (sorry, didn't read all the responses)? I know it's not ideal, but it has worked favorably in my situation (my current job). Good luck!

[ackackack]

parking,

I know that most companies operate like large corporations and aren't too quick at getting that position filled. So if you recently applied for posted positions, expect to wait at least a week, maybe as many as three weeks. If you applied for unposted positions, good luck, most companies don't entertain unsolicited resumes. I can't emphasize enough about hounding the utilities (water, power, gas, phone, cable) and the local governments here. This valley doesn't have many opportunities for people of your caliber, but the utilities and governments usually offer a fair starting wage and will entertain someone with a resume that indicates a proven ability to take on new challenges, as well as an education beyond high school. It sounds like you may have both. In the past I have retooled my resume to demonstrate the key points that the particular employer was looking for. It is a pain, but it has worked like a charm. Large corporations also use a matrix to identify candidates, if you don't have those key words or skills in your resume, it goes in the trash.

I understand why you don't want to except just any job for the sake of working. I would do the same. The reason I would, and have, is that I have a very strong resume and I don't want to screw it up with a job that I took to pay the bills. I don't want to explain that I took a job at McDonalds or Best Buy because I needed to pay the rent. Why wouldn't they think you weren't taking their job offer for the same reason? Did you tell the interviewer at Best Buy that you were taking their job until you found another one? I don't buy that logic that is offered. Above all, you are learning the hard way about what kind of town this truly is. That said, I don't buy the "this town only takes care of those with connnections" crap. It is still the case with good service industry jobs like bellmen for example, but 90% of the people here are from somewhere else and they don't care for this place anymore than you do. The important thing is to find a good person, regardless of where they are from. I still wish you all the luck in the world with your search, but if you decide to get out of here, and can with your shirt on your back, you may look back someday and realize that this town did you a favor.

[nebulous1]

Why would you relocate before you had a job?
I would have a start date in writing first.
Also, I have interviewed in tourist type towns, and I agree...if you lose a job in your field, you will have to cashier to stay off the streets.