Leaving Phoenix for somewhere with Jobs (Chandler: appointed, car insurance, loans)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Originally Posted by zox

Phoenix still has an excellent semiconductor, chips and hardware industry in general.

The semiconductor industry is folding. One company closed out their HR department because they don't need it anymore. They also let 1/3 of their people go.

[las vegas drunk]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

The semiconductor industry is folding. One company closed out their HR department because they don't need it anymore. They also let 1/3 of their people go.

I assume that is probably because of outsourcing?

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Outsourcing is one reason. Most of them are made in Taiwan. New technology is another factor. It means that fewer units are needed to produce the same result. 1 semi-conductor can do the work of 4 now.

Less people are needed to produce them making companies more profitable and having less of a need for the human component.

[wsamon]

If you have a decent degree, the DC area still has a lot of good jobs available. Don't expect to be buying a house around here on less than a 6-figure income, but if you're willing to take some roommates, etc. you could possible re-start your career and save some money to use somewhere else. It does depend somewhat on the degree you have though, which I don't think was stated anywhere in this thread.

[las vegas drunk]

Originally Posted by wsamon

If you have a decent degree, the DC area still has a lot of good jobs available. Don't expect to be buying a house around here on less than a 6-figure income, but if you're willing to take some roommates, etc. you could possible re-start your career and save some money to use somewhere else. It does depend somewhat on the degree you have though, which I don't think was stated anywhere in this thread.

Washington DC is the murder capital of the USA, has absolutely horrible weather, crime, quality of life etc. Not only that, you even said you need to make over $100,000 a year to buy a house? Give me a break. I am not a Phoenix lover, but I would rather live in Phoenix 100 times over before I would choose the hellhole you are talking about.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

The semiconductor industry is folding. One company closed out their HR department because they don't need it anymore. They also let 1/3 of their people go.

Intel has 2 huge locations in Chandler, and just recently invested millions expanding and upgrading it's Ocotillo location to produce some of their new product. I've often thought how horrible it would be if one of our major employers like Intel decided to leave the state entirely. They are one of the best employers here as far as compensation. Hopefully they'll stick around a while, and I know they have attracted other (smaller) semiconductor operations to the Price Road corridor as well. We just need to get more diversity in the type of employment.

[asufan]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

Washington DC is the murder capital of the USA, has absolutely horrible weather, crime, quality of life etc. Not only that, you even said you need to make over $100,000 a year to buy a house? Give me a break. I am not a Phoenix lover, but I would rather live in Phoenix 100 times over before I would choose the hellhole you are talking about.

Washington DC itself is very nice and pricey, as are many of the suburbs in Virginia. DC is of course very urban, and has all of the big city shopping and dining, mass transit, cool brownstones, as well as tons of history. The DC area (including Virgina) has some of the highest income ZIP codes in America. It's definitely too cold for me, but I could live there if I had to.

[wsamon]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

Washington DC is the murder capital of the USA, has absolutely horrible weather, crime, quality of life etc. Not only that, you even said you need to make over $100,000 a year to buy a house? Give me a break. I am not a Phoenix lover, but I would rather live in Phoenix 100 times over before I would choose the hellhole you are talking about.

lol I'm no huge booster of DC - I actually plan on leaving the area soon because I'm sick of the traffic, cost of living, and don't like anything under about 65 degrees, but the majority of your statements are not very accurate.

Like anywhere else, the DC area has its ups and downs. My point was that if you really need to make money, have a reasonably marketable college degree, and are willing to make some sacrifices like long commutes, living with roommates, and/or working long hours, then there are probably jobs here for you. Heck, I know my company is currently hiring, as is the ever-expanding government. You can do worse that splitting a $1400 / month 2-bed apartment with a roommate or two, having a 45 min commute each way, but getting paid $60k+ (sometimes very +) to do it.

---Specific responses to the quote below, feel free to ignore as it's long and a little off-topic---

Murder capital of the US: one small section - SE DC and connected parts of PG county MD - is very dangerous. It's very obvious where these places are though. When the majority of the area inside the beltway charges $1200+ to rent a 1-bedroom apartment and you find 2-beds going for $600 you know you're looking at an unsafe area. NW DC, Capital Hill, Bethesda MD, and nearly all of Northern VA are extremely safe. Places outside of the beltway to the north or west of the city are almost all very safe, and none are "murder capitals." Even the majority of the NE, straight E, and straight S aren't too bad and are nowhere near what you're saying.

Horrible weather - this depends entirely on your perspective. Most people (though I'm actually not one) tend to like seasons. DC has this, as well as very mild winters. The worst part is that it has hot, muggy summers that are comparable to the SE region of the US. Given that the OP is considering moving back to WI, I'm sure that he wouldn't have any problems with the winters here. I recently spent the majority of about 18 months in Oshkosh WI for work and I can tell you that the middle of winter here is about on par with mid-April weather in WI. Precipitation, cloudy days, etc. are all pretty average here. In fact, if you take a look at city data's info for Alexandria, VA (where I currently live) you'll see that it's nearly an exact match in all areas for the average weather in the US. Unless you seriously dislike the majority of the US's climate, you can't call average horrible. It is, well... average.

Crime - see the majority of what I said for murder. Stay in the nice areas, of which there are many, and you'll be fine. I've lived in the NoVA area for 6 years now and the worst "crime" that I can remember happening to me is a parking lot hit-and-run paint scratch incident when I wasn't around. I also went to school at UMD College Park and lived around there (straight E) for a couple months after I graduated. My one big crime incident occurred there - I had my car stolen out of a parking lot while I was working at Target.

Quality of life - like weather, this depends on what you want. For me, I'm not that huge on it any more. If you work in the city and live outside of it then your commute time is likely to be pretty bad. There is lots of traffic, especially during rush hours (which last a total of about 6 hours / weekday here). There are lots of people that work very hard and very long hours. This is a place that people go to make their careers, and it shows. There's lots of politics, and money, fame, and power chasers which I don't like. The cost of living is quite high. Housing is ridiculous if you want to live somewhere safe and with a reasonable commute into the city (if you can work outside the city you're in way better shape). Even things like happy hours suck around here. A $3 bottle of Bud is a standard decent happy hour special. However, all that said, there's lots to do without it being a super-bustling in-your-face 24/7 city like NY or LA. The Smithsonians are awesome and free. There's lots of history, monuments, etc. There's always something cultural, and usually international, going on with the various concert halls, colleges, theaters, etc. Nearly every nationally touring music act swings by the DC area at least once or twice per tour (Baltimore is easy to get to as well). The city has lots of parks, and the building height restriction lets in the sunlight and the sky. There's plenty of biking and jogging trails in the nicer areas, and there's also a ton of sports leagues to get involved with. That's one thing that I expect I'll miss when I leave. I currently play in 3 - 5 sports teams at any given time (baseball, 2 flag-football, 2 softball). Oh, and there's lots of great restaurants as long as you can pay for them and are willing to try different ethnic foods.

$100k salary to buy a house - as I said, housing is expensive. Think $420k for an old, small, single family home near a metro. Don't expect to move to DC and make a good living with a blue-collar job. The housing in nice areas is high because there's so many well-educated people with well-paying white-collar jobs. There's major representation from the government, research contractors, Boeing, Lockheed, Accenture, Northrup-Grummon, Booze-Allen, many accounting firms, law firms, politics, software companies, etc. As an example, I make about $80k doing IT consulting (for a software company - not independent), and I have a friend that works as a low-level stat-compiling economist for the IRS who's now making $87k. Most of my friends are in similar boats, making anywhere from about $70k to $120k and we're all under 30 (though getting awfully close!).

[ArizonaBear]

Wash DC native here: left that nasty place 32 years courtesy of its skanky winters. The summers were annoying but the thunderstorms were neat. There were other reasons why I hated DC but; I could have avoided those by living in Fredericksburg, Va.

[wsamon]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Wash DC native here: left that nasty place 32 years courtesy of its skanky winters. The summers were annoying but the thunderstorms were neat. There were other reasons why I hated DC but; I could have avoided those by living in Fredericksburg, Va.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of them either, but they're actually pretty mild compared to many places in the US. And for the OP who's apparently originally from WI (or at least considering moving back there) then the winters here won't be anything to him.