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Yea I have an opportunity to be a contractor for a full year before they hire me, I'm like I'm half tempted to start my own business if that is the case.
Btw I love SA but I'm worried about their economy. I really don't want to move back to Ohio, but I really don't want to struggle financially. I hate struggling financially, I know I can't even afford to pay my student loans back bc wages here are so low.
I have a friend in Salt Lake City who's in the IT field and he chose that city over going back to the Pacific NW. I believe he makes pretty good money and as far as I know the cost of living isn't bad there. Some weird laws and Mormons (if that bothers you) though.
What's SA? San Antonio?
I hear you on the loans. I've basically given up six years of my life to get to the point that I might get them completely paid off this year. Then again I did travel around and have a good time in my 20's so I really can't complain.
The cost of living here is ridiculous, the min ave rent is around $1000.00, I currently pay $1100.00 a month. Food is higher, Pizza on average costs $20.00 where back in Ohio, I could get the same pizza for less than $10.00. Everything here is so spread out and the traffic is horrendous, that it takes a long time just to go do basic things, like grocery shopping and etc.
Ohio native who lives in San Antonio here.
OP, you picked one of the most expensive cities in Texas, with the worst traffic. But it is a mecca for 20-something folks, so perhaps that was the appeal.
Check out opportunities in San Antonio, just 90 miles to the south. Pay won't be better, but it's cheaper to live here and there's less traffic.
OP, you picked one of the most expensive cities in Texas, with the worst traffic. But it is a mecca for 20-something folks, so perhaps that was the appeal.
Check out opportunities in San Antonio, just 90 miles to the south. Pay won't be better, but it's cheaper to live here and there's less traffic.
Austin is still one of the only places I'd live in Texas. San Antonio is hot as hell. As a seminarian I sold bibles there - door to door.
It seems that Texas is for Texans. Everyone who I know who moved there, returned.
Fall under the "nice place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there" place clusters. If you are not FROM Texas - or another similar state - you are screwed.
Fall under the "nice place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there" place clusters.
I would of said the opposite. "Nice place to live but not really a vacation spot."
I wouldn't even think of Austin as a vacation spot if I still lived in Ohio. I had no idea that Austin was 'hip' until I moved down here. It's a great place to visit if you live in Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would guess most non-Texans feel the same way
Austin is still one of the only places I'd live in Texas. San Antonio is hot as hell. As a seminarian I sold bibles there - door to door.
It seems that Texas is for Texans. Everyone who I know who moved there, returned.
Fall under the "nice place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there" place clusters. If you are not FROM Texas - or another similar state - you are screwed.
I actually don't mind the heat at all. I've worked in many hot factories most of my life. (All year round) So the heat doesn't bother me, actually this year I was outside almost every single day even when it was over 100°. In fact I would argue that the humidity here is way less than in Ohio, I think that when it was 90° here it really felt like 75° back home on most days. But that just my two cents. What I really don't like so far is the people in general (ie attitudes, and more), the high cost of living without having wages to support the high cost of living. I myself don't see the big attraction for people to live here, they don't seem to take care of stuff compared to other large metros, city hall doesn't see the need for real public transportation and or an infrastructure (I think this would have to include the state), and it seems (from my limited knowledge) that every time a new road is built they are trying to gouge people to pay for it using toll as a means of a tax. There are some very questionable things that I see happen in gov here and things I have seen the law enforcement do too. I don't mean to say this to be offensive, but I really don't have much faith in the law enforcement here. Another thing that I have learned is that the healthcare here is lower, and education seems to be put on the back burner on most things. So overall I'm more disappointed in the gov here more than anything and I'm disappointed that people have (at least I feel like they have) chosen not to do very much about it. That in itself is what is more disappointing to me than anything else.
So I put in some applications for Columbus and I've already gotten an interview lined up via Skype. Plus if I get this job I will be making way more than I ever have here and I would be saving more money thanks to the cost of living difference.
But I would still like to move to Charlotte, I think the weather is better there than it is in Ohio. But idk, I gotta go where the jobs takes me I guess.
I recently graduated from college back in May of this year for Management of Information Systems. I decided to move out of state and go where I thought there would be plenty of IT jobs and good money to be made. I honestly lived in Marion, Ohio for most of my life and moved to Bowling Green to finish my degree, I then moved to Toledo, Ohio (Maumee, Ohio to be exact) it was nice but job growth was very limited, I felt and job growth in Marion, Ohio was very limited, I felt to get the most bang for my buck for my degree that I had to move out of state.
So I decided to move to Austin, Texas. At first jobs were very promising, and many promises were made to me, I was doing a job that I loved, the bad part I was only a contractor which means they can end your contract at any moment. I was hired on for a project, the staffing agency and Dell made it sound like that if we did a good job and did what we were suppose to do then we would get extensions (all of us that were hired) and we could stay there for quite a long time , 4-5 weeks later after our current project was almost done they let every single one of the contractors they hired go. I was very disappointed in both Dell and the staffing agency especially after they had promised us so much. The pay wasn't that great for IT in fact it is quite low for IT only $14.00/hr. So this was only the beginning, it seemed like every where I turned no one would no one would tell the truth or stick to their word, I mean I honestly never had this happen to this degree in Ohio. Anyhow what they call IT technical support down here really means call center jobs, I started to work these jobs as this is what I needed to do to survive. They don't seem to pay very well here for entry to mid-level IT people, I even have 2-3 years of experience in IT, down here, they act like this is no experience. The only way people make decent money down here is if they have a niche in what they are very good at or they have tons of experience and they are making 6 figures, however the rest of the IT people here are not making it. I currently have a co-worker of mine who is from Idaho and he has 10 years of experience and he isn't making any decent money here either, we are both talking about moving out of Austin very soon. I just wish I knew how it really was down here before I moved here, career wise. Any IT jobs here are HIGHLY competitive to get into and the market is saturated with IT people.
The cost of living here is ridiculous, the min ave rent is around $1000.00, I currently pay $1100.00 a month. Food is higher, Pizza on average costs $20.00 where back in Ohio, I could get the same pizza for less than $10.00. Everything here is so spread out and the traffic is horrendous, that it takes a long time just to go do basic things, like grocery shopping and etc.
I honestly thought that with the cost of living being higher that the market would support that cost of living, that just isn't the case at all here.
I tried to do as much research as I possibly could before I moved to Texas and filled out tons of applications too before I moved too. I read many relocation guides and fortune, wsj, usa today, none of what I read about IT jobs seems to be true at all or the predictions, what I should of done is see how many national or international companies were here before I moved here and it might have given me a better indication before I moved of how good the job market honestly would have been. I even believed all of the low unemployment numbers they have here too, but those numbers are skewed, because after talking to locals they try to kick anyone on unemployment off as soon as they can and thus in doing so they can keep their unemployment rates very low that way and make it seem like there are tons of jobs here, when that is anything furthest from the truth. There are tons of homeless people here, which should raise some eyebrows.
What I should have done is look very heavily into the Columbus market for IT jobs, in fact I know I had better jobs even before I graduated college, I had better job offers in Ohio than what I did here in Austin, Texas. I will admit, that I particularity didn't enjoy living in Toledo. Although Columbus is a very nice area and I should have tried way harder getting into good jobs there in Columbus than here in Austin.
So where do I go from here? Do I move back to Ohio? Do I try to get jobs in Houston, where I here locally that there are way more jobs there than there is here. Do I move to San Antonio? Which I actually do like a lot, I mean a huge amount, but the problem there is jobs are very low wages and the economy isn't that great, but what I do love about San Antonio is the amount of trails they have where I can get out in nature and through enjoy nature, the RiverWalk (not just downtown) is amazing and very well done, their Greenway trails are extremely nice too, Austin has none of this, most of the trails around Austin are dirt trails and heavily over grown.
I will have to say another thing I noticed is how dirty the streets and roads seem to be here in Texas in General, Ohio seems to take care of their roadways (as a whole) way better than Texas does, and I don't remember tons of trash on the road, like they have here.
The overall education here is very low, which if anyone does a search you will find that Texas is one of the worst in the Union as far as education goes, it is very disappointing, to be honest I really feel like I went back in time moving here, like everything here is so far behind compared to anything in Columbus.
I will have to say that in my opinion the people in Ohio seem to be way nicer than the people here in Texas. Plus I think the people in Ohio in general is waaaaaaaaay more honest than the people in Austin are. The people here are very shifty, it's literally like one moment they are trying to be your friend then the next minute their completely gone, literally. Everything here feels very superficial when it comes to the people here in Austin, like there is no real friendships. I've had deeper friendships in Ohio than I've had here.
Sorry for the really long post, but I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar situation. I also want to say that certain parts of Ohio are not that bad at all. I honestly miss people actually being honest and trustworthy compared to here.
Come on HOME! Austin is a nice place to visit - for a week. It's expensive as all get out.
Ohio is a great, moderate to inexpensive place to live filled with nice people, beautiful scenery, Four beautiful season - and - with the exception of the Snowbelt, a fairly pleasant and moderate four season climate.
I am a transplant from NY State. My only regret? That we did not "discover Ohio" earlier so our kids could have grown up here!
Come on HOME! Austin is a nice place to visit - for a week. It's expensive as all get out.
Ohio is a great, moderate to inexpensive place to live filled with nice people, beautiful scenery, Four beautiful season - and - with the exception of the Snowbelt, a fairly pleasant and moderate four season climate.
I am a transplant from NY State. My only regret? That we did not "discover Ohio" earlier so our kids could have grown up here!
I am researching Ohio as a possible place to move to, and came upon this thread. Can you tell me what Ohio areas/cities are considered to be in the snowbelt?
We are originally from the Chicago area, and we really REALLY dislike the cold/snow/ice we have here. For anyone who has lived in Cincy or Columbus, and also lived in Chicago, would you say the winter weather is a good bit better in Cincy or Columbus, than in Chicago??
Also, to the original poster...you sound like you're fairly young, and I say good for you to have moved somewhere new, and TRIED something. If it didn't/doesn't work out like you had hoped, that's okay, especially since you ARE so young. Don't think of it as any type of failure or mistake. Think of it as a learning experience.
Also, you mentioned you met a girl... If you are still involved with her, and you move away, it can really give you both a good idea of whether it is the real deal or not.
Good luck in everything. You sound like a smart person, so I think you'll end up in a great spot for yourself, even if it takes a little while...and a LOT of thinking and second-guessing...to get there.
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