[mike jones]

Originally Posted by Rohan

The problem is, a lot of people can't follow to the boom states, which often turn out to bust in a few years. Florida is bust, the Carolinas are busting, Seattle will likely bust under the crush of people heading there for jobs.

My wife is gainfully employed in Michigan via Healthcare industry. I am just the one that can't find any work. If we went to the huge trouble of moving, only to find me average paying work, it would totally not be worth it. I am not close to my family, but she is.

Final option we are considering for me is to buy some dirt cheap homes to fix up and rent out as my work. Because the housing market is so busted here, you can find reasonable homes for $50K range that used to cost $150k.

That is not what the business magazines say.
I have not gotten squat here after I finished grad school. Last year
As soon as I sent resumes down south I got phone calls
Do you really want to work or just get by??

[kenyabenya]

Originally Posted by Woof

My God are you in luck, especially if you move to Dearbornistan. You'll have no trouble at all finding a high-paying job as an English/Arabic translator.

I'll pass on being a translator, thats the probably the most boring job on the face of this earth. Dearbornistan? I thought most of the people who lived there were Iraqi and Lebanese Arabs not Pakistani or Afghani south asians ( 2 different groups of people).

[Woof]

Translator work pays better than those two mall jobs your were considering put together, Kenyabenya, although I suppose there are lots of bilingual people there.

"Dearbornistan" is just redneck humor, some people call it that because of the extremely high percentage of Muslims compared to the rest of the country.

[dianeeileen]

I would try The Salvation Army if you have a degree in human services they are always looking for people with degrees. Also the major hospitals and there is a big social service agency in Dearborn for Arabic people so if you speak Arabic you stand a good chance on finding a desent job there. Good luck Diane

[Alfonzo_LaMar]

Have you considered the federal government security agencies? With your arabic background the feds (CIA, NSA, FBI) are looking for people who can translate arabic to english for radio intercepts. (do consider it).

[kenyabenya]

Originally Posted by Alfonzo_LaMar

Have you considered the federal government security agencies? With your arabic background the feds (CIA, NSA, FBI) are looking for people who can translate arabic to english for radio intercepts. (do consider it).

u know that would pay me alot of money but i dont wana get involved with terrorists what if they kidnap me cause they find out im infilterating them and then i get screwed ...

working at a hospital sounds good

[Siberia]

Originally Posted by mike jones

The weather stinks. It is mostly gray and dreary. If you can take average winter temps in the 20s than this is for you. However those -5 below days are a real treat.

LOL...got that right. Also, don't forget about those lovely 20-30mph gusty wind days that result in -15 to -30 degree wind chills, like this past week!

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Siberia

LOL...got that right. Also, don't forget about those lovely 20-30mph gusty wind days that result in -15 to -30 degree wind chills, like this past week!

Moderator cut: personal - off topicThe weather we had the past week included many record lows, and lows we haven't experienced in 9 or 10 years. It's hardly the norm to have -10 wind chills. Try living in Chicago. It's much colder there on average in the winter than West Michigan.

[Siberia]

Originally Posted by magellan

You pulled a quote for two months ago to highlight?

Wow it is March 3rd already...thanks for the update...

[JeffGray1978]

I just found this forum this evening. I would like to share a little bit here. I was a life long born and raised resident of Northern Kent County, Michigan (Grand Rapids region). After a horrid childhood ending in emancipation and leaving high school, I managed to return to HS and finish up going on to GRCC for some college education. In 1999 my oldest son was born and in 2002 my second son was born. Anyway, I worked in Greenville Michigan for five years (3 as a computer tech and 2 as a service dept. manager at that computer company). In August of 2005 I recieved word that in two weeks I would be laid off. Sure enough I did. I attempted to gain emploment over my period of unemployment but there was nothing. Six months of unemployment and then I find out that there are no extensions! I really started panicing at that time. I had a friend that had moved to Tulsa Oklahoma offer me a place to crash on his couch in his one bedroom apartment. I had a choice to make. I moved in with a Friend in Rockford temporarily after selling my house for $810. 30 y.o. 3 bedroom partially remodeled in Cedar Springs sold for $810!. I was lucky to get that. I was pretty devistated at that point. Anyway, I decided to try to atleast get a job at McDonalds or somewhere to pad my pockets a little before trying this journey to Oklahoma. Nothing. Not a job in sight. So in the mean time I am dwindling at my $810 and on April 27th of 2006 it all came to a head and I packed my beat up rusting 94 olds(what I was able to get for $500 after loosing my Cadillac in December) with my most personal items and my three cats and started the 17+ hour journey to Oklahoma. I got into Tulsa around midnight central time, scared to death, and with only hopes and dreams ahead of me. Within a week and a half I had a job as a store manager of a computer company. I worked there for four months and then departed after an argument with the owner over his business techniques (scaming customers). I dropped of a resume at the largest and leading computer company in the Tulsa region on my way home that day and had a job there within two days with better benifits and higher pay then I had ever seen. In November of 2006 I went on to buy a four bedroom house and got engaged to a Tulsa woman in January of 2007. Since then things have only gotten better. This spring I replaced that olds with a fully loaded 3/4 ton 4x4 silverado Suburban, got a health club membership, and am almost complete on rebuilding my computer network.

I try to make it back home 3-4 times a year but it still is not enough. The hardest has been the seperation...My kids...My mother...etc. My mother came down with breast cancer a month after I moved down here and has had to go through the chemo, masectomy, and now radiation without me being there. My boys are now a year older then when I left.

How I dream of the day that I can return.