I Just wanna thanks FastFilm (sp) (Los Angeles, San Francisco: apartment, colleges, quality of life)

[Wisco_#1]

I come from a small town in central wisconsin and never new a whole lot about LA.....or Big Cities for that matter. Ive been to the outskirts of Chicago and Ive been to Milwaukee and the Twin Cities but they dont compare to LA. Ive always wnated to move away and possibly live in the LA area (being the naive 16 year old I am) thinking life would be grand. FastFilms posts have taught me (if you will) that living in LA isnt that nice unless you have cash which my future career in marketing (i hope) wouldnt give me unless I landed in the jackpot for a job. So thankyou FastFilm for giving me a great description on LA through your posts.

[fastfilm]

Bangofan, you do not sound naive in the slightest. Knowing what you want to do at age 16 makes you wise beyond your years.

There are many posts here that have a positive bent to them about L.A. They seem mainly to be from people who grew up here in the last 20 years who take many of our lesser quality of life aspects for granted as "normal." But, the more one sees of the rest of the country, this is not "normal" to have no safe quality of life possible for middle class people.

I can well imagine how a young person from "the tundra" would want to move to a warmer, more exciting urban center. There are many in this great land of ours. L.A. is no longer one of them. It's in decline as surely as the rust belt.

[CBaillo]

ya, im already out of state in my m ind.

[choyak]

Central Wisconsin? Where???? I come from a smaller town yet. Name is Brokaw!!!

[OCCASparky]

I've got 9 more days until I leave CA for NH. I saw a car license plate frame that pretty much summed up what I've seen as the "California mentality" of late. It said, "Courtesy my A**, You're in California".

Sadly it didn't used to be that way.

[Wisco_#1]

Originally Posted by choyak

Central Wisconsin? Where???? I come from a smaller town yet. Name is Brokaw!!!

Bout 45 minutes away from Brokaw

(south)

Im not to high on giving out my location so wel leave it at that.............

[parkinso]

Originally Posted by Bangofan13

I come from a small town in central wisconsin and never new a whole lot about LA.....or Big Cities for that matter. Ive been to the outskirts of Chicago and Ive been to Milwaukee and the Twin Cities but they dont compare to LA. Ive always wnated to move away and possibly live in the LA area (being the naive 16 year old I am) thinking life would be grand. FastFilms posts have taught me (if you will) that living in LA isnt that nice unless you have cash which my future career in marketing (i hope) wouldnt give me unless I landed in the jackpot for a job. So thankyou FastFilm for giving me a great description on LA through your posts.

There are marketing jobs galore that pay well in the midwest.... LA ain't all it is cracked up to be. And kudos to FastFilm, he's nailed LA in the right light.

[fairweathergolfer]

It is true. LA is a hard place for one to adjust to and to tolerate in the long term. But I am going to be the devil's advocate here (boy that is sure aptly phrased in this context .)

I used to produce media work for some of the largest corporations in the world. All without exception, no matter what their location (when located on the west coast), used LA marketing companies, even when they had in-house and local companies. The overall vision always came from LA. Even when they used local companies to do the media all the larger picture branding and serious marketing came to us via the some of the best marketing companies in the world--LA.

Having said that, there is a huge price to pay to live here that has nothing to do with money at all (others have already covered that beautifully). People are cruel, self obsessed and utter a--holes). Even in the colleges, many faculty barely notice that they have students (who are paying huge dollars for very little) they are so busy using anyone they can to put themselves ahead of everyone else or to stay on top. Use. Use. Use.

So if you can find a great college or firm somewhere else where people are really willing to share what they know in a somewhat kind way I'd say don't come here. But if you are willing to pay the price of living here you can get some first class experience in some of the world's greatest marketing companies. One thing I can say is it would be an experience you'll never forget and it will harden and prepare you for the business world. In your field it may be worth it, if just for 1 year. But yes, the money better be in your pocket for that year, cause they use people up for little to no money in this town.

So don't expect to get paid much of anything to learn here and be prepared to be sucked dry for everything you learn. But in the end you'll have some big names on your resume and truth be told, that in and of itself in marketing may be a big deal that may set you up for some amazing work in another city later on. But if that is what you do, come here with clearly defined goals of what you want-realistically--be willing to start at the bottom in an important area of marketing and company and limit how long you will stay here.

One could chase their tail here for years and be used up if they are not clear about exactly where they want to go and how being here will serve them. Keep your eye on the prize the whole time with the goal of knowing this is in service of working somewhere else eventually and bringing great knowledge an experience there. And then unless you own the firm get the heck OUT of this town!! It will do things to your brain one won't be aware of until they leave for awhile (like a weekend!!)

However start somewhere else first if you are going to come here or else you may become very cynical, very fast. Or start out as an undergrad at one of the areas fine colleges. I believe that would be the best way to come to LA and make your way. The undergrad faculty I believe aren't like the one's I experienced in the graduate creative departments, where everyone is always trying to stay connected and famous.

This town can do it to the best of 'em. Best of luck to you. Smart 16 year old you .

[fastfilm]

Thank you parkinso. Fairweathergolfer, that's not being devil's advocate when it's the truth, which your post nicely encapsulates. This is one of two major media centers for the entire country, with our famous entertainment industry stoking the jobs Golfer points out. He or she offers good advice to consider working here in those jobs to be a trade-off like an internship.

I do urge people to try to at least read between the lines in these forums about where to live and the fact that you must overspend more than you might have budgeted to live in a safer place in L.A. Even 30 years ago, when "times weren't as rough," and we were all young and bold, a college friend moved here from up Northern California to get a starter job in media. She ignored my advice about a cute Mission-style apartment in dreadful area near her work. Within two weeks she was assaulted in her own bedroom by someone who had obvsiously scoped out this single young woman. Followup: she stayed with me until she could move to a safer area, albeit much farther from her work. Hint: that's another reason for our traffic-snarled commutes.

[Des_Demona]

LA's not bad for marketing professions in the profession sense of things, but everything else about it sucks... The San Francisco area is nice for young people... I always enjoyed it. For me, I have 6 months left in this H*ll hole called Los Angeles then I'm on my way up to Oregon! Oh how they love us Californians invading them up there... haha not.