Wanting to move to Nashville...got questions. (Clarksville: house, find a job)

[curator08]

my wife is in the museum/historical clothing line of work, and I have an information tech. degree. my degree is pretty broad, but in my current job i am a data manager. we both are wanting to move to the nashville area, to hopefully find great jobs, buy a house (eventually), and start our family.

my question is...should we move up there, then find a job, or try to land a job from FL then move up?

i imagine/pray that it will be relatively easy for me to find an IT job (any thoughts on that?), but it'll probably be more difficult for my wife (thoughts?). my biggest fear is moving up there w/o finding a job first, and we never find the good jobs we were hoping to find.

I guess I have a lot questions...so any advice on the matter would be appreciated. Thanks for your time and advice.

[Diane Giam]

Originally Posted by curator08

my wife is in the museum/historical clothing line of work, and I have an information tech. degree. my degree is pretty broad, but in my current job i am a data manager. we both are wanting to move to the nashville area, to hopefully find great jobs, buy a house (eventually), and start our family.

my question is...should we move up there, then find a job, or try to land a job from FL then move up?

i imagine/pray that it will be relatively easy for me to find an IT job (any thoughts on that?), but it'll probably be more difficult for my wife (thoughts?). my biggest fear is moving up there w/o finding a job first, and we never find the good jobs we were hoping to find.

I guess I have a lot questions...so any advice on the matter would be appreciated. Thanks for your time and advice.

I would find the job first then move. I tend to be conservative but its usually the safest way. I would not move anywhere without a Job first.
My Husband worked for a company for 27 years, and was then recruited by another company that had their main office in Nashville. He told their NY office that he wouldn't take the job unless it involved a relocation to Nashville. The deal was work there for 1 year and then move here and that is what we did.
I went to college in Clarksville, so for me it was like coming home.
Diane

[denawilliams]

I would get connected with some IT recruiters. There usually are a fair number of IT related jobs around, but I have heard that many employers do look at locals first. However, I can't confirm that it is true. A recruiter in your industry can definitely guide you in that area and get past any location barriers if they exist, especially if you're planning to move here. Now I am not endorsing any of these in particular because I do not have enough information to recommend one to work with, but here are some of the ones in town that are likely to have clients with IT jobs: Vaco, LLC, KForce Professional Staffing, Sysgenix Resources, Volt Services, Apex Systems, and Robert Half. You might also try Ajilon Consulting. As for your wife, I am a little unclear on what her line of work is (working with museums or clothing?) so I don't have any advice there for her at this point.

[mostlysunny]

I work for the employment security (state employment office). People come in all the time wanting jobs that have moved here from someplace else. Better to get SOME kind of job first so you can pay the rent. Jobs are fairly easy to find, but a GOOD job takes longer. You'll need to familiarize yourself with the area.

[mxj1614]

And there would also be a good chance of obtaining a relocation package to help offset some of the moving expensive if you found a job here first. I work in IT and jobs do seem plentiful at the moment. For more specialized IT jobs, employers do look outside of the Tennessee market but for entry level type of work they do prefer the local market first. Healthcare IT is very big here so I would check into that. Contact me offline if you would like and maybe I can help point you in the right direction.