Is North Dakota a good place to advance ones career? (Fargo: house, job openings)

[Highpointer]

I am looking for a place, anywhere, where I can relocate to pursue a good job, and I am considering North Dakota. I currently live in the Phoenix metropolitan area but I am unable to find a good job even though I have a B.S. degree and two master's degrees, and I am currently working on an MBA. I am finding that the Phoenix metropolitan area is getting too crowded and the competition for jobs is very intense.

Therefore, I am considering moving to an area where the rate of job growth is a lot faster than the rate of population growth. I would like to move to an area where the businesses would really hire an educated person willingly, and there is less competition for available job openings. I am determined to gain more job experience and earn money, and I am willing to relocate anywhere.

Therefore, what do people think about getting a job in North Dakota?

Ken Akerman
Tempe, AZ

[Old Surrender]

Hello Ken,

I'm an Arizonan in the process of moving to Fargo, N.D. I accepted a job there in my field that pays a lot more than I was making in Yuma. I would say go for it ... the pay scale seems to be higher than Arizona's (keep in mind, though, I'm from rural Arizona) and Fargo is a college town, so all of the cosmopalitan aspects of a big city are available (there's also a mall, if you prefer the homogenous). You can also get more house for your buck and rents are far cheaper.

I don't know much about the rest of the state, though.

Goog luck.

[jwmn]

I don't know much about Phoenix, but I would be surprised if you had more luck finding a good job in North Dakota. You can always get lucky, but there's usually more job opportunities and more higher paying jobs in the big cities. You'd probably want to move to Fargo, or maybe Bismarck or Grand Forks, if you came to North Dakota, but even in Fargo there is competition for jobs, and you might not make as much as you would in, say, Minneapolis or some big city.

The unemployment rate in Fargo is really low, but the underemployment rate is still fairly high, so if a good job opens up, there can still be a lot of competition for it, and it can be tough to get a good job without having much experience. Having an MBA, though, will certainly help. Also, the cost of living is lower in North Dakota, so you don't need to make as much money to live here. Housing costs, especially, are lower here. I got lucky after grad school and found a good job in Fargo, but if this job wasn't available, I would have most likely moved to Minneapolis or some other bigger city because that's where I was finding the most opportunities. But I think this is a nice place to live if you can find decent employment.

I don't know if you know where to look for job opportunities in North Dakota, but I could give you a few websites if you wanted.