Am I crazy for moving to Portland with no job???? (hotel, attorney)

[Smiled]

Teaching jobs will be tough to get for the next couple of years. A friend is a special ed teacher who was laid off last year; he's looking all over the state for a teaching job. It's a tough call for him because he wants to stay in teaching / not have his license expire, but needs to eat as well.

Oregon historically has well more clerical folks than it needs, so you need to be inventive and persistent. It would also help to have savings to live on.

Oregon also historically has more people who want to live here than available jobs, and it has low job turnover. This makes salaries generally lower than other cities on the West Coast. Lower housing costs used to offset this, and probably will, going forward.

All this said, it will be much easier to find a job from here rather than where you are currently.

[Minervah]

One more thing to take into consideration although it may not apply to your situation. Are you a healthy person or do you have a private medical insurance policy? Because no work, no health insurance. This is something young people don't think about too much when they relocate without a job but it is something that could be a problem. One medical bill can wipe out a good chunk of your savings.

After all is said and done, you will have a better chance landing a job while living here although ideally it would be the best thing to have one waiting for you.

[aroseinrain]

Originally Posted by khyron

How can you not know how many jobs you applied to, by a margin of several hundred? I've seen this kind of claim on this forum before and it always confuses me.

I totally "get" the Portland employment situation, believe me, it took us almost four years to work out our moving plans. I can even see with some realism how someone could actually apply to 400 openings in a 4 month timespan (though of course, this would imply a sort of "shotgun" approach to totally random unskilled positions since there aren't 400 of any one specific role in a city Portland's size for hire within 120 days, not even waitresses).

I don't understand why ranged numbers like this need to be thrown around. It feels like hyperbole or extremely vague estimation, in which case why not just say "hundreds?" Why detract from your own argument?

I wasn't keeping track, but I know that I applied to a range of between 1-10 jobs per day (usually about 3-5 per day though), every day, 7 days a week for 4 months. I figure that's probably at least 250, but it could have been as many as 400.

And, yeah, most of it unskilled (or barely skilled) labor requiring little more than a high school diploma. I never said I applied for "positions of employment".... I just said "jobs". The only ones I didn't apply for were barista jobs/fast food jobs/retail jobs -- because I don't want to do it any more if I don't have to. But I applied for medical assistant, dental assistant, personal assistant, receptionist, lab assistant, any office job that didn't require fast typing skills... I even applied for packing plant and warehouse jobs as long as heavy lifting wasn't required. I applied for everything and anything -- but I ended up getting the job that I wanted anyway.

[ffffffaaaaa1]

Originally Posted by aroseinrain

I wasn't keeping track, but I know that I applied to a range of between 1-10 jobs per day (usually about 3-5 per day though), every day, 7 days a week for 4 months. I figure that's probably at least 250, but it could have been as many as 400.

And, yeah, most of it unskilled (or barely skilled) labor requiring little more than a high school diploma. I never said I applied for "positions of employment".... I just said "jobs". The only ones I didn't apply for were barista jobs/fast food jobs/retail jobs -- because I don't want to do it any more if I don't have to. But I applied for medical assistant, dental assistant, personal assistant, receptionist, lab assistant, any office job that didn't require fast typing skills... I even applied for packing plant and warehouse jobs as long as heavy lifting wasn't required. I applied for everything and anything -- but I ended up getting the job that I wanted anyway.

good for you--persistence paid off.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by aroseinrain

I wasn't keeping track, but I know that I applied to a range of between 1-10 jobs per day (usually about 3-5 per day though), every day, 7 days a week for 4 months. I figure that's probably at least 250, but it could have been as many as 400.

And, yeah, most of it unskilled (or barely skilled) labor requiring little more than a high school diploma. I never said I applied for "positions of employment".... I just said "jobs". The only ones I didn't apply for were barista jobs/fast food jobs/retail jobs -- because I don't want to do it any more if I don't have to. But I applied for medical assistant, dental assistant, personal assistant, receptionist, lab assistant, any office job that didn't require fast typing skills... I even applied for packing plant and warehouse jobs as long as heavy lifting wasn't required. I applied for everything and anything -- but I ended up getting the job that I wanted anyway.

Good for you! Finding a job takes work and you really put yourself into it.

[carissamessina]

I have actually lived without health insurance for over five years now so it will not be anything new to me. I would consider myself a very healthy person.

[ffffffaaaaa1]

Health insurance? What's that? lol, with 50+ uninsured, you're hardly alone! But that's a whole other discussion.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Am I crazy for moving to Portland with no job????

Well,
You are not the first one to do this.
Good Luck, and keep us informed on how it turns out if you do end up here.

When you've got health, youth, enthusiasm, energy, intelligence, and no real responsibilities, you've got the world by the tail.

Everybody needs an adventure, sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

Paint your wagon and carve out the life you want, not what everybody else tells you to do.

(Just take the wise advice about the nest egg.)

[carissamessina]

That is exactly what I am doing! I am going to create the type of life I want and I refuse to let anything get in the way. I really want to get more in touch with the basics of life. I want to grow my own food and live in a house I built. I want to live in a responsible and sustainable life. I think I will find like minded people in Portland???

But unfortunately, the world still revolves around money so having a job will be a requirement

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by carissamessina

the way. I really want to get more in touch with the basics of life. I want to grow my own food and live in a house I built. I want to live in a responsible and sustainable life. I think I will find like minded people in Portland???

Yep you will find people like that here...but...building your own house in Portland, that's a pain in the pattootty, unless you've got bucks and the knowhow to put up with the city codes, permits, inspections, fees, and contractors.

You are not going to find a "homestead" around here where you can just build whatever you want. You are about 150 years too late for that.

But check this out:
http://www.shannonquimby.com/rex/

The rest you'll find.