Job Market for the IT-at-heart (Portland, Eugene: home, to buy, wages)

[smallarmsdealer]

Hey everyone,

Currently living in Jackson, WY -- and though it's rugged and beautiful, it's also full of muggles (read: tourists) and 95% of Americans can't afford to buy a home here (which includes my young family!)...anyway...

I'm in love with Oregon -- the rain and lack of sunshine that so many people complain about was actually on my list of pros... The con I'm running into is the lackluster job market. Just look at craigslist for a few minutes; crawling with creeps and really unfair wages.

I'm a geek who needs a job -- looking for something in an IT role or doing what I'm currently doing which is working for an outdoor apparel company.

Anyone hiring? A snapshot of my somewhat modest but hungry technical side: I can compile programs from source in Linux, constantly have things like msconfig or regedit open in Windows, can dazzle you with my MS Office skills if need be, and know not only how to pronounce but actually use MySQL, PHP, XHTML, and CSS.

I'm super reliable -- have to be; got a wife and 4 month old son at home :-).

Just looking to expand my horizon and settle down in a place I love -- hopefully in one of these places: Corvallis, McMinville, Eugene, Astoria, or Portland.

Any help from the forums?

Thanks!

[MtnSurfer]

I am a software engineer who is also looking into IT oportunities within Oregon as well. I live in Colorado right now and there seems to be a lot more IT work out here in general. But that is not to say that they aren't IT jobs in Oregon.

I actually started a thread about this topic about a week ago. There are some good references there for Oregon IT employment. You can check it out here:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/orego...tech-jobs.html

BTW, I took our family on a vacation to your area just a few weeks ago. Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are truly beautiful places. But I don't think we could live in Jackson. It is a bit of a zoo with all the touristas. We drove thru much of Wyoming on the way home to Co. and didn't see many areas that looked too great to live in.

[smallarmsdealer]

Hey MtnSurfer,

Thanks for the reply, I checked out your thread. Some good info there. Thx!

Funny -- my hometown is Colorado Springs! Small world. I grew up on the northwest side of town in the mountain shadows area.

I should also add, if anyone in the outdoor industry reads this, please chime in! I'm happy to work just off center of IT if I can specialize and bring in those skills on the side.

[juljanssen]

I am also looking for a job in southern oregon. Here is a link to an IT job that was posted in April. I talking to HR and it is not filled

Coos County Human Resources - Job Opportunities