I miss Home. (San Diego, San Jose, Oakland: apartment, tech jobs, transfer to)

[winfred Lee]

Hello my name is Lee and i moved from Sanjose ca, in 1987. I now live in Orlando Florida. This place is not like california at all. I miss living in california, because there are so many opprutunities there as far as employment, life style and quality of life. I want to move back to california because of that. I have live in vallejo,berkley,oakland,fresno and last, Sanjose.I wish that i could talk to a few people in sanjose to get an idea what it's like after living there in 1987. If you read this post,please feel free to write back,even if you live in other serounding cities.Hope to here from yopu soon, God Bless!

[Sandy]

Hi,

I am Sandy from France (Paris).
I am considering moving in Florida (Tampa) or California (Irvine) for job purposes.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what life is like in california currently but maybe you can give me some advises for my transfer to Tampa or Irvine...
I have never been in these places and I would need to know what the life is like there to make my choice

Thanks in advance for your help

I hope to here from u soon...

Sandy

[unkosan]

Hey Sandy,

I cannot say anything about Tampa, as I have never been there. But I do currently live in souther california, about 40 miles away from Irvine. I do visit irvine often to see friends, and in general find it a nice place to live. There is a major university there, so a good number of the people in the city are young. It's quite clean, and lots of shops and restaurants around. It's a relatively healthy city, in terms of the people living there. It can be quite expensive though, so you might want to check if it's financially feasible for you to move there.

But on the job front, there are quite a few high tech companies in the area, and it's probably growing.

Good luck,
Arash

[karma]

Just to let you know it is very expensive to live in California any more. It's one of the reasons I'm moving away.

[winfred Lee]

Hello Sandy.

Florida is sunny all the time and it can get really hot.Orlando is trying to be like california as far as resturants,night life Downtown Disney is whats happing
around here.depends on what kind of work your looking for, electronics is not big in orlando,have to go towards cape canaveral. alot of people here who speak french,so you will feel right at home.Nationalities,purtaricans,hations,jemacans,me xicans,brazilians,Chinese,
Viatnemies.Orlando and Miami are the big cities to go in florida.Let me know what kind of work and i could email you some sites to go to.

[lany]

Hello Lee,... I live in Fremont, just a few miles north of San Jose. I moved here in 1985. I'm sorry to hear that you moved away in '87 but I'm not sure you'd recognize the bay area anymore. So much has changed. It's not like it used to be when I first came here. And the opportunities for employment aren't as great as they once were either. So many have lost their electronic-related jobs and have left or have resorted to lesser paying jobs that put them on a shoestring budget or worse. Prices started going up in the late 80s and haven't stopped, despite the job shortages.

It's just not the same place anymore.


Lany

[winfred Lee]

Thanks Laney for giving the low down on the bay area.Thats a shame.When i left i was working electronics.My uncle that lives in Sanjose told me that there wern't many job's down there now.Alot of people have move here from California and i couldn't understand why,but i guess that they were trying to strech there dollars.I still love the bay area and if i could have came back 10yrs ago, maybe things might have been different for me, but iam encourage. I will still come and visit and enjoy the people there. You all are a differnt kind of people in california, your not so stressed out,just laid back,just like me.
Again,thanks for the memories.

[lany]

My pleasure Lee. Florida does have its good points... no earthquakes.
They say it's getting better here but I have my doubts. Oracle cut 2000 jobs today, most of which are being outsourced overseas. The story of Silicon Valley I'm afraid.

Take care!

Lany

[richkat]

Hi Winfred - Hi Lany!

Here's my story - I grew up near Irvine but lived in Silicon Valley for 20 years. But by the end of the '90s we were so burned out in the San Jose area that we took a transfer to Portland, OR. Then the big bust came and we were laid off. The economy was dead in the water. We got a fantastic, unheard of relocation package to Columbus, Ohio, of all places. After one year of Ohio hell, we moved on to Orlando, FL - thinking it would feel like California. But no decent jobs. So then we ended up moving to Tampa because that's where the high tech jobs were. But we've discovered that Florida is not California and we are fish out of water here. We want to leave. We may have 3 options: transfer to Seattle (although from my Portland experience I know I can't handle the grey skies), transfer to Dallas (sunny and lowest cost of living) or accept a great job offer in Irvine (but with over-the-top housing prices.)

California, for me, started to go downhill in the mid-90s and it hasn't been the same. It's tough, I think, for Californians to adjust to other places because there's no other place quite like it. Those who do adjust are looking for a totally different lifestyle. Some love the Pacific Northwest, some go on to North Carolina and love it. Some go to Orlando. We're still looking for our spot.

Wish you the best in your search.

Kathy

[teeandgee]

I lived in Alameda from 92 till 94 and I LOVED it... althought it was scary at first moving from a small town that i did. Oakland was especially scary to me until i got to know it better. I loved the area and miss many things about it. I moved to San Diego from there and I own a home here now (but moving soon!). The thing I remember is how terribly expensive it was. We had a tiny apt of 675sqft, but it was adorable, but NO amenities not even an elevator! and it was 1 doller per square foot haha! We thought at that time, that 675 was expensive...come to find out that you couldnt touch that same apartment for 1000 bucks now. The same condition goes for ANYWHERE in southern california too, especially San Diego. We bought our home for 135 8 years ago, its now worth 475. Its nuts down here and Ive heard that Bay area is just as bad and much worse in some areas. So yes, Cali living is GREAT-- if you can afford it. Oh .... i do NOT miss the quakes though... although we have had our fair share of them down here lately too!