West Central MN (Alexandria, Sauk Centre: homes, job market, construction)

[jbantau]

I am a native Minnesotan. I've been in Texas for the last ten years and want to move back home. The job market or lack thereof scares me, though. My husband and I would like to live in the Sauk Centre area.

He has extensive knowledge of computer repair, installation, and networking. He used to work for the Geek Squad, but took a job with a financial consulting company that works with hospitals. He is basically office manager/IT, although, his official title is Controller.

I'm a companion caregiver for the elderly in the evenings. I do not have a CNA. Neither one of us has a college degree.

Are we gonna have a tough time finding jobs. I would prefer to have a part time job since I homeschool the kids. We are willing to commute maybe 30 minutes.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Jill

[Kebinminn]

Follow the want ads here Denied:1up! Software () That might give you a sense of what's available.

If you're willing to commute to - or live closer to - St Cloud or Alexandria that may expand your options quite a bit. I'd watch the want ads in those cities too.

Good luck!

[tired-of-mn]

There are NO jobs in MN right now.If there is then you have to compete with 100s people going after the same job.Even fast food is slim pickings.I have called and applied at over 50 fast food joints and only 2 were hiring, part time.

[Clifford63]

Originally Posted by tired-of-mn

There are NO jobs in MN right now.If there is then you have to compete with 100s people going after the same job.Even fast food is slim pickings.I have called and applied at over 50 fast food joints and only 2 were hiring, part time.

It is tough everywhere. Best of luck finding something.

[Slig]

Jobs are available in the Twin Cities metro area. On the Star Tribune website in the business section you can get a list of the 100 largest companies in the Twin Cities. If you go down the list and go to each corporate website and look at job listings you will typically see between 20-150 jobs available at each one. Right there you have probably 5000-7000 available jobs.

[slamont61]

Any Software Development experience there? If so, I can help. We would be interested in COBOL for the most part.

[Bub]

Hey, don't forget about your UNCLE! There are today 41 jobs posted for hiring on USAJOBS.opm.gov
for federal positions.

There is a lot of speculation about government programs expanding to start folks working again (construction) and the current federal workforce is expecting many turnovers in personnel.

Good Luck!

[Bub]

OOPs...those 41 Jobs are within 100 miles of Alexandria

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Slig

Jobs are available in the Twin Cities metro area. On the Star Tribune website in the business section you can get a list of the 100 largest companies in the Twin Cities. If you go down the list and go to each corporate website and look at job listings you will typically see between 20-150 jobs available at each one. Right there you have probably 5000-7000 available jobs.

I'm sorry, but it's been my experience that posted job listings do not necessarily represent actual job positions.

Some corporate positions might be posted externally even though internal candidates already exist for the position (certain companies are required to do this even though the job has already been filled).

Some positions may represent positions which were posted but are currently frozen due to very recent budget adjustments. When I was looking for work up there after 9/11, I ran into this quite often. "Yes, we have the position, and we still have it posted, but we can't fill it at this point in time."

Some positions might simply be posted in order to fish the current market and see what types of job seekers are available.

It's certainly true that many of them, perhaps most, might represent real jobs, but it's hard to say. Don't believe everything you read on corporate web sites.

[Slig]

A company would be silly to do something like that. Why would you want to limit the supply of talent? I know for a fact the company I work doesn't do that and any company which does is putting itself at a disadvantage.