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I'm sifting through some good dialog here and will say that the job market here is good if you have Experience and Credentials. What you WILL NOT find here is quality benefits. When we lived in the North East our health insurance cost $1500/year for our whole family through my wife's employer. Over here, $685/month!. Salaries here are dismal compared to other locations - including Florida too. The state income tax is double than most states too. Property taxes are offset by your income tax so don't be fooled into hearing people tell you that it costs less to live here. The last time I logged on to Amazon.com they didn't ask me if I lived in NC so they could charge me less. Nothing here is cheap. Our handyman is more expensive than up north too. The job growth here is in retail and restaurants. Don't be fooled by the "quality" schools either. The Wake county school system has a good core curriculum, but there are no electives as the system is too poor and had 5800 more students this September than they knew what to do with.
Bottom line: Move here if you have marketable skills. Move here to be close to family. Move here for the mild winter (because the summer is hotter than heck). Don't move here to be close to the Outer Banks (5 hours away) or the Mountains (3-5 hours away) as they are not close. Employers pay less here and offer fewer benefits. My family does very well - as my wife is in medicine and I own my own business. At the end of the day, DISPOSABLE INCOME (what's left after you pay your bills) is what matters.
I've been pretty frustrated with my job search from 700 miles away. But then again, I've been frustrated with my job search here where I live! I'm working FT but I'd like to get back into my field of expertise which would pay me lots more $$$$.
I'm sifting through some good dialog here and will say that the job market here is good if you have Experience and Credentials. What you WILL NOT find here is quality benefits. When we lived in the North East our health insurance cost $1500/year for our whole family through my wife's employer. Over here, $685/month!. Salaries here are dismal compared to other locations - including Florida too. The state income tax is double than most states too. Property taxes are offset by your income tax so don't be fooled into hearing people tell you that it costs less to live here. The last time I logged on to Amazon.com they didn't ask me if I lived in NC so they could charge me less. Nothing here is cheap. Our handyman is more expensive than up north too. The job growth here is in retail and restaurants. Don't be fooled by the "quality" schools either. The Wake county school system has a good core curriculum, but there are no electives as the system is too poor and had 5800 more students this September than they knew what to do with.
Bottom line: Move here if you have marketable skills. Move here to be close to family. Move here for the mild winter (because the summer is hotter than heck). Don't move here to be close to the Outer Banks (5 hours away) or the Mountains (3-5 hours away) as they are not close. Employers pay less here and offer fewer benefits. My family does very well - as my wife is in medicine and I own my own business. At the end of the day, DISPOSABLE INCOME (what's left after you pay your bills) is what matters.
Good Luck. Great Posts!
Not all employers here pay less.......in your situation maybe yes but not in all.....same goes with the benefits....my company is 100% employer paid benefits for myself and I pay a moderate cost for my wife...we have BCBSNC and its a great plan as well. I also work for a global company so that could have something to do with it also but my previous company I worked for here (I found the job before I came down) paid me MORE than when I was in MD so obviously not all employers pay less. Now that being said, locally owned and operated companies most likely will pay less because they know nothing but this market and this salary field (not all but a good amount do this) and what happens is a large company comes in paying less than they would in LA or NY or wherever they came from, but it's more than the locals are paying.....and when someone from LA or NY sees those salaries they either a) don't move, b) move and take the decrease until they find better or c) move without a job (not a smart thing to do). I don't care if you are the top in your field if you move somewhere without a job then you are setting yourself up. Once you are here you lose your leverage and are in a dire situation as you are here, have no job but your bills do not wait for you to start working. A company WILL take that into consideration and use it to hire you at a lower salary....not always but it's done. Move once you have a job, hone your interviewing skills and your resume and stop complaining about not having a job. If you spent as much time on your resume as you do on this website (no offense to those who are trying but this is aimed at those who EXPECT a job) and put as much effort into being witty and charming you would have a great resume. Trust me, as many people as there are out there trying to get jobs unless you make your resume say 'HIRE ME" you may as well throw away each one you hand out.
I'm sifting through some good dialog here and will say that the job market here is good if you have Experience and Credentials. What you WILL NOT find here is quality benefits. When we lived in the North East our health insurance cost $1500/year for our whole family through my wife's employer. Over here, $685/month!. Salaries here are dismal compared to other locations - including Florida too. The state income tax is double than most states too. Property taxes are offset by your income tax so don't be fooled into hearing people tell you that it costs less to live here. The last time I logged on to Amazon.com they didn't ask me if I lived in NC so they could charge me less. Nothing here is cheap. Our handyman is more expensive than up north too. The job growth here is in retail and restaurants. Don't be fooled by the "quality" schools either. The Wake county school system has a good core curriculum, but there are no electives as the system is too poor and had 5800 more students this September than they knew what to do with.
Bottom line: Move here if you have marketable skills. Move here to be close to family. Move here for the mild winter (because the summer is hotter than heck). Don't move here to be close to the Outer Banks (5 hours away) or the Mountains (3-5 hours away) as they are not close. Employers pay less here and offer fewer benefits. My family does very well - as my wife is in medicine and I own my own business. At the end of the day, DISPOSABLE INCOME (what's left after you pay your bills) is what matters.
Good Luck. Great Posts!
I'm curious if the others in the audience share your views. I know I don't.
Let me step through some of your points:
Benefits - I was paying over $500 per month for my benefits while living in New York. After moving to North Carolina the very same benefits were adjusted to $75 less per month; a 15% reduction.
State income tax - It's .15% higher in North Carolina then New York. Not much of an increase in the grand scheme of my finances.
Handyman - It's pretty much equal. In the two instances where I used someone I did think the cost of materials was very low compared to what I was accustomed to paying in New York. Granted that's just an opinion but I'm cheap and in both related transactions I was pleasantly surprised with the total cost.
Utilities - My combined balance billing amount each month was $440 in New York. My unbalanced billing in North Carolina during a very hot summer is averaging $330 per month.
Auto insurance - For the same policy I had in New York I'm paying $1300 less per year in North Carolina.
Wake County Schools - Definitely some issues keeping up with the explosive growth and we've been impacted by it. However my oldest is flourishing in his new school getting high grades across the boards. We spent time with his friends from back on Long Island this past weekend and one friend is struggling and the parents are very concerned. Another friend is being home-schooled because his parents don't feel the curriculum challenges him enough. We were the only parents who felt positive about their child's school experience thus far. My youngest is also doing well though he still complains that his old school in New York was better because that's where all is friends go. But the level of parental involvement is awesome and the administration in both schools (middle and elementary) has impressed the heck out of both my wife and myself.
Access to the ocean - This was a big problem in deciding to move inland. My wife has always had easy access to beaches and was concerned that we'd be too far away. However we've spent two weekends over the summer at the shore with both locations less than 3 hours away. My wife joked about the relative inconvenience of the drive pointing out that at least we could afford to stay in a hotel during our visits. Back on Long Island we could get to the beach for a day trip but could never afford to stay in the hotels. She likes the multi-night visits and manageable drive quite a bit.
All in all I'm satisfied that North Carolina has at least lived up to my expectations in terms of quality of life and cost of living categories.
Ultimately I'm not sure how any of this dialog advances the conversation focusing on the job market. However for anyone who either has a job offer, can transfer a current job or has truly marketable skills with an ability to present yourself and is currently living in an area that is ridiculously expensive this could very well be the place for you.
I moved here from Florida and my salary is about 12% higher for the same work. My house is nicer, larger, with 4x the land for about the same price. My property tax is about 1/3 as much as it was. Homeowner's insurance is about 1/3 of Fl. Auto insurance is 1/2.
NC is much more affordable for us than it was in Florida.
I had a feeling this was going to happen. I'm an Engineer, so I like things all lined up so I can sift through it and optimize the best result. Unfortunately, after reading these posts and clicking some of the links, here's what I get out of it:
1. Don't move down here unless you have a job 1st. But some companies only hire state residents. But sometimes thats only so they can pay them less by assuming you're a jobless desperate transplant. Damn, now what do we do?
2. The pretty designs, fancier format, & watermarks actually do make a difference on a resume to help you get a job. Maybe its just me, but I always hated those overly busy, crammed with small print to get it all on 2 pages, but fancy format resumes people have. I prefer basic, simple, right to the point, large font, and loaded with all the right buzz words.
3. My suspicions have grown stronger about the job mecca not being as mecca as the housing market. That's why these forums seem to have more Real Estate agents on them than Job recruiters. Or more links to home listings than listings of jobs with the salary ranges posted. This will never happen, but wouldn't life be better if you knew how much a job was going to pay before the 3rd interview? When's the last time a home seller placed a range of acceptable prices next to his home listing?
4. You must be needed. Examples: Restaurants, IT, or Biotech. But the companies only hire about 50 of those. The rest of you are still stuck in the NE wishing you bought that Dunkin Donuts franchise instead of your useless college degree.
5. Monster.com, and CareerBuilder.com isn't as good as the list of awesome real job recruiters at ????? who specialize in ????
6. There's no such thing as a simple list that has the lowest taxes, best schools, cross referenced against the cost of homes. You must dig this all out from various places. Then put your own secret list together, but don't share it.
7. If you need help replacing a gutter. The guy who just replaced his gutters, who went thru hell finding the right contractor, silently laughs while the one who does answer your post suggests you Google it.
8. The best place for jobs web site shows FL as being a major job growth state. I must have seen as many FL job growth towns on that site as people leaving there to come to RTP.
I had a feeling this was going to happen. I'm an Engineer, so I like things all lined up so I can sift through it and optimize the best result. Unfortunately, after reading these posts and clicking some of the links, here's what I get out of it:
1. Don't move down here unless you have a job 1st. But some companies only hire state residents. But sometimes thats only so they can pay them less by assuming you're a jobless desperate transplant. Damn, now what do we do?
2. The pretty designs, fancier format, & watermarks actually do make a difference on a resume to help you get a job. Maybe its just me, but I always hated those overly busy, crammed with small print to get it all on 2 pages, but fancy format resumes people have. I prefer basic, simple, right to the point, large font, and loaded with all the right buzz words.
3. My suspicions have grown stronger about the job mecca not being as mecca as the housing market. That's why these forums seem to have more Real Estate agents on them than Job recruiters. Or more links to home listings than listings of jobs with the salary ranges posted. This will never happen, but wouldn't life be better if you knew how much a job was going to pay before the 3rd interview? When's the last time a home seller placed a range of acceptable prices next to his home listing?
4. You must be needed. Examples: Restaurants, IT, or Biotech. But the companies only hire about 50 of those. The rest of you are still stuck in the NE wishing you bought that Dunkin Donuts franchise instead of your useless college degree.
5. Monster.com, and CareerBuilder.com isn't as good as the list of awesome real job recruiters at ????? who specialize in ????
6. There's no such thing as a simple list that has the lowest taxes, best schools, cross referenced against the cost of homes. You must dig this all out from various places. Then put your own secret list together, but don't share it.
7. If you need help replacing a gutter. The guy who just replaced his gutters, who went thru hell finding the right contractor, silently laughs while the one who does answer your post suggests you Google it.
8. The best place for jobs web site shows FL as being a major job growth state. I must have seen as many FL job growth towns on that site as people leaving there to come to RTP.
Not sure where you got the idea for watermarks, fancy designs or strange formats BUT there are ways to word, structure and design your resume so it does not look like it came straight from word. It's about catching someones eye without turning them off. The main point of the argument I am making though is centered around content. A well formatted resume means nothing if your words are drivel and irrelevant. I had three resumes when I went looking for my job here, for for the most recent one and each one looked different, had different objectives, successes and bullet points under each previous job. Again, it's about knowing the company, knowing their initiatives and showing how you are important and relevant to both. That is setting yousrelf apart from the standard "I beat quota, I was top 10%, I sold to 10 companies......SO DID EVERYONE ELSE!! Use numbers, GM, GP, NOI, Show an adverse situation and how you turned it around for the positive.
You can post to Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com if you want. So is everyone else here so you already see you have a lot of other people submitting resumes through those same methods. Companies prowl those sites looking for "suckers" who need jobs badly and are REALLY desperate for jobs...avoid the title "athletic minded company" because most likely you will be toting around a bag of "As seen on TV" products and selling them at cost for a 2% commission, companies also use "spiders" to seek out resumes and mass email you for a job that no one wants but they make it seem like the dream position and it almost never is. At least a recruiter is flesh and blood and is another advocate for you and can be of assistance...if it's the right one. As in any field the right person is honest, credible, has a good relationship with clients and candidates and will be up front with you about everything. If you are interested in a recruiter search for job forums about the companies reputation in that area you are looking. Some are good and some are bad but it's better than sitting at home not working watching bills pile up or not being able to move to an area because you a) don't know the area and b) don't have someone local fighting for you.
The hard fact about the job market is that there is NO one, correct answer or method or style for every single job out there. Some industries and companies will happily hire people from out of state, some won't. Some advertise heavily for their open positions, some don't advertise at all. Some hate working through recruiters, some don't mind. Some care only about hiring people with long, predictable track records, and some are willing to hire people with less experience but plenty of drive. It varies WIDELY. There is no one, single, perfect way to conduct a job hunt.
If you have experience, you should already know the desires of your particular industry. If not, you're better off going to a message board that is focused on your industry & profession. The people there will probably be far more helpful than we can be. Afterall, we're just a random bunch of strangers who know nothing about your field and its expectations.
Well actually I know everything so you can take my word to the bank Just kidding and you make a very good point. If you have experience in the industry you should know your best selling points and no there is not one specific way to go about finding a job but there are keys to every time you present yourself to a company that you should follow every time and those can and usually are the deciding factors when people look the same on paper.
This is kind of disturbing. I was thinking of moving from Florida to Raleigh - in hopes of finishing my BA at NCSU... also I'm wary of all this talk about the amount of people from the north. I'm not against people from above the MDL but I work with a south florida client base and most of my clients down there are relocated from the north and I have to tell you I'm not really in love with the attitude and just all around general treatment I get and see given on a regular basis. Do they not teach you people a simple thank you goes a long way and the proper response to have "have a nice evening" is "same to you"
sheesh... maybe I won't be moving to Raleigh...
Good luck w/ your job search....
It is stereotypical responses like this that bring out the NY in me. I am a good man with a good wife and family and and ex Long Islander. I love living in NC, I love everything about it...except the redneck, idiot response of people like this. I will not be the first to insult a southerners "twang", the stereotype that all southerners are stupid and all they do is drink and have sex with their sisters...but you sir are a step below the attitude of a KKK member. Don't throw your half witted comments out like this "Do they not teach you people a simple thank you goes a long way and the proper response to have "have a nice evening" is "same to you".
We came from an area that was non socialable, due to high crime rate and fear. We were not social because of this, this is not our own faults, but society as a whole. When we move to a new state and encounter southerners and mid westerners that see we are not outwardly social like "yall" then we are immediately looked at like an outsider and you throw first stone. We are actually very nice people "WHEN" you get to know us, but until then we are guarded from our environment. It is not every day that an airplane smacks into your office building next door. So please don't come here with your hater attitude until you actually have half a clue about NY or the NE in general. I would rather you tell me to f**k off and have a nice day .
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Need to increase the sample size.
More Confused
Just kidding and you make a very good point. If you have experience in the industry you should know your best selling points and no there is not one specific way to go about finding a job but there are keys to every time you present yourself to a company that you should follow every time and those can and usually are the deciding factors when people look the same on paper.
