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Old 05-27-2007, 07:21 PM
 
2 posts, read 9,376 times
Reputation: 10

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Hi,
I'm interested in relocating to San Diego and I currently live in Washington, DC. I work as a web manager and my skills include writing and editing for websites, project management for redesigns, creating web page layouts using Dreamweaver, CSS and Photoshop, and doing web traffic analysis. I've applied for several web jobs in San Diego that I've seen posted on the major job boards (Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder). I wanted to post some questions on this board regarding the San Diego job market and job hunting. Which are the best companies to work for, or how would someone research the best companies? What's the best way to job hunt for a west coast job while you're on the east coast? What do you think of recruiters? I've heard good and bad things about recruiters. Can anyone offer any tips for someone who's eager to get a good job in San Diego but lives on the other side of the country! Does it help to join the San Diego chapter of professional groups? I appreciate any tips or suggestions you could send my way.
Gina
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Old 05-28-2007, 10:07 AM
 
9,525 posts, read 30,465,926 times
Reputation: 6435
Quote:
Originally Posted by caliDreamin View Post
Which are the best companies to work for, or how would someone research the best companies?
In your field you have a couple options:

- company with a large media-focused web presence (local newspaper, radio station, TV station, etc.

- Web shop (there are many small web shops in SD)

- IT department of a larger corp.

To be completely honest San Diego is not a big media town. There area a lot of opportunities for you in small companies that offer fairly low pay and not much opportunity. That said, with your skillset you should be able to find something, if only just to get you established.

In San Diego, opportunities are better for web applications engineers and UI specialists. I made the shift several years back from front-end web design to web apps and software engineering and my pay and opportunities have gone up considerably.

There is a lot of competition in the front-end web designer job market. Be prepared with a top-notch web presence and an extensive portfolio. Bona fide management roles are limited. Pay tends to hover around 50-65k. As is typical of SD you will come across a lot of mom-n-pop shops doing web sites for hair salons who want to pay 35-45k.

Quote:
Originally Posted by caliDreamin View Post
What's the best way to job hunt for a west coast job while you're on the east coast? What do you think of recruiters? I've heard good and bad things about recruiters.
Personally I would just go with the recruiter. Get a 6-month contract and look for something permanent once you get here. Recruiter quality varies widely, just make sure to get one of the good ones.

Quote:
Originally Posted by caliDreamin View Post
Does it help to join the San Diego chapter of professional groups?
There are a couple of web-focused user groups, the biggest is probably the San Diego Macromedia user's group. They sponsor a large networking event every year, the March Mingle.
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Old 05-28-2007, 12:13 PM
 
840 posts, read 6,514,145 times
Reputation: 338
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sassberto View Post

To be completely honest San Diego is not a big media town.
Can you be more specific?
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Old 05-28-2007, 12:53 PM
 
2 posts, read 9,376 times
Reputation: 10
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Sassberto,
Thanks for sending me info and advise on San Diego's job market and job hunting for web positions! It gives me ideas on how to proceed with my job search. I have to improve my portfolio and get more programming experience.
Gina
P.S. I enjoyed looking at your photos on Flickr!
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Old 05-28-2007, 01:07 PM
 
9,525 posts, read 30,465,926 times
Reputation: 6435
Quote:
Originally Posted by Imperial1904 View Post
Can you be more specific?
LA, NYC are the big media towns. There are no music, television, or movie industry HQ's in San Diego. The production facilities are in LA. The corporate headquarters, advertising, and promotion is in NYC and LA. Publishing is in Chicago and NYC. If you want to work for a 'name brand', you have to go where the names are.

Think about it this way - every movie, band, and TV show has a web site. Those sites are churned out by huge marketing departments and small shops near the corporate HQ's. As a web developer in San Diego you are looking at a handful of small shops who do public web sites - PINT, Silicon Space, Red Door, Sitelab, Digitaria etc. None of these companies have more than about 25 people. There are hundreds of these companies in LA and NYC compared to maybe 15 in San Diego.

Not to mention large corporations which might employ full-time web staff. Here in SD we have few corporate HQ's of companies large enough to do their marketing in-house.

That said there is still opportunity here, it is just more competitive and there is less diversity in the job market. The best opportunities for web developers in SD is more on the engineering side with the variety of startups, biotechs, and defense industries here in SD. An example is working on the web-based interface to an infusion pump, or the inteface to a web-2.0 social networking startup.
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Old 01-19-2010, 10:10 PM
 
Location: San Diego, CA
18 posts, read 35,467 times
Reputation: 21
Have you tried going with the government sector? Northrop and Grumman? they are always looking for people. Also try to Union Tribune they are always looking for GD's. Also check out San Diego News, Local, California and National News - SignOnSanDiego.com and go to the job classified area. I cannot think of many off the top of my head at the moment but if I do I will post them to you. Hope this helps a bit. Take care and good luck Gina!
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Old 01-19-2010, 11:43 PM
 
Location: Wherever I want to be... ;)
2,536 posts, read 9,927,572 times
Reputation: 1995
Quote:
Originally Posted by treyna1980 View Post
Have you tried going with the government sector? Northrop and Grumman? they are always looking for people. Also try to Union Tribune they are always looking for GD's. Also check out San Diego News, Local, California and National News - SignOnSanDiego.com and go to the job classified area. I cannot think of many off the top of my head at the moment but if I do I will post them to you. Hope this helps a bit. Take care and good luck Gina!
I think the OP has probably found a job by now, as the thread is almost 3 years old.

Good info regardless, though.
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Old 01-01-2015, 05:14 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,624 times
Reputation: 10
Hi,
I'm interested in relocating to San Diego and I currently live in Chicago, IL. I work as Office manager and my skills multitasking - providing sales support to medical sales reps, problem solving, analytical thinking, working in complex Excel spreadsheets, payroll reporting along with other day to day routine work. I've looking for jobs in San Diego that I've seen posted on the major job boards (Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder). I wanted to post some questions on this board regarding the San Diego job market and job hunting. Which are the best companies to work for, or how would someone research the best companies? What's the best way to job hunt for a west coast job while you're in mid-west? What do you think of recruiters? Can anyone offer any tips for someone who's eager to get a good job in San Diego but lives on the other side of the country! I would appreciate any tips or suggestions you could send my way. Thanks a lot in advance!

Best regards,

AS
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