Just a few things i need to ask (Germantown, Frederick: job market, moving)

[photo_keeper08]

I will be moving from Illinois to Maryland come January people probably ask this alot. i have been thinking of hagerstown. what is the work field like and the health care??? how are the winters there. if you could give me any tips or information i would greatly appreciate it

[cutgarden]

PK, if you're accustomed to the winters in Illinois (near Chicago?) you'll laugh at our winters here. However, the further west you go here the more snow you do get, and we have had winters where there was lots of snow on the ground for several months. But Md tends to take good care of their roads.

I believe overall the job market is still pretty good in Md, but I'm in Carroll County, and I know it can be different towards Hagerstown. However, that's fairly close to Frederick, Germantown/Rockville as far as commuting goes.

westsideboy will be able to give you much better info than myself though. Good Luck!

[SandpaperTongue]

I'm not sure about Hagerstown, but there a lot of biotech companies down the I-270 corridor, around Gaithersburg and Rockville. Commuting might be a PITA though. Good luck!

[PenguinSix]

This might sound odd, but when you look at a map of Illinois and Maryland you kind of think 'same latitude, more or less', simply because that's how it looks on a map. But really most of Maryland is south of say Champaign, IL, and even then, the mountains out in Virginia along with the warm air up from the Carolinas result in winters nothing like you are used to in Illinois. I grew up downstate and remember weeks with snow on the ground, sub-freezing temps and some bitter cold days in which you had near instant frostbite outside if you touched something metal. You won't have anything that consistently bad out here (though you might get a few days here or there that suck). People can't drive on snow out here, by and large, so when it does snow it gets pretty silly.

Exactly what kind of job are you looking for and why Hagerstown?