Call Centers? Relocate? (San Jose, Fresno, Vallejo: apartment, university dorms, school)

[cinderous]

I currently live in the Phoenix, AZ area where there are many call centers which provide enough salary for me to live in my own apartment or very well with a roommate. All my long term friends have moved off to different states and I am not satisfied with this 115+ degree summer days of roasting.

My best friend is currently going through college in the Santa Cruz University dorms. I'm really interested in being closer to her again. I have come to realize that there is really hardly any jobs in California which I'd be able to get by on with only 3 years of call center experience. I know there is 0% chance of a job in SC so San Jose is the only likely option.

Does anybody have any opinion on the volume of call center or customer service jobs for an eager individual who plans to slowly crawl through college? I know i'd definitely have to find a roommate to even get by to afford the crazy living expenses. Is there anybody that currently does this?

My worries are there won't be any chance of me ever living anywhere around the San Jose area and afford a commute to Santa Cruz frequently.

Thanks,
Matt

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by cinderous

I currently live in the Phoenix, AZ area where there are many call centers which provide enough salary for me to live in my own apartment or very well with a roommate. All my long term friends have moved off to different states and I am not satisfied with this 115+ degree summer days of roasting.

My best friend is currently going through college in the Santa Cruz University dorms. I'm really interested in being closer to her again. I have come to realize that there is really hardly any jobs in California which I'd be able to get by on with only 3 years of call center experience. I know there is 0% chance of a job in SC so San Jose is the only likely option.

Does anybody have any opinion on the volume of call center or customer service jobs for an eager individual who plans to slowly crawl through college? I know i'd definitely have to find a roommate to even get by to afford the crazy living expenses. Is there anybody that currently does this?

My worries are there won't be any chance of me ever living anywhere around the San Jose area and afford a commute to Santa Cruz frequently.

Thanks,
Matt

Matt....honestly, there is very little, if any, call center type work here. They've moved it all to low cost areas of the US (like yours) or they've moved it overseas completely.

If you want to have your own apartment here and have a decent lifestyle, you're going to need to earn at least 40K per year (as a single person). You're just not going to get that from a call center job. The cost of living in San Jose is a bit higher than Santa Cruz County. There are high paying jobs here, but most are in engineering, computer science, etc.

There are fewer run-of-the-mill kinds of jobs here and the ones that exist do pay more, but the higher pay will definitely not make up for the higher cost of living here.

You'd be much better off finishing your college education in AZ and then moving here afterward.

[sonarrat]

The only call center I'm actually aware of in the area is the 911 facility in Vallejo. That's about it. There used to be local telemarketing jobs, but now they're mostly outsourced.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Almost none here.

A few remain in other parts of the state, away from the SF and LA megacities (for example, places like Atwater and Visalia).

[Ceece]

It's unfortunate that they have all left CA. I had high hopes of getting a job at the call center right down the road from me, for a company I used to work for before I got married and had kids. It would have been the perfect job for me as an older, re-entry employee. But by the time I was ready to go back to work they moved the whole shebang out of state.

[cinderous]

So even with a roommate I most likely won't be able to live anywhere in the Santa Clara County or Santa Cruz County because there appears to not be any decent call center jobs. I guess I am pretty much screwed even with three years of call center experience.

It really saddens me that even if I work full time now and go to school full time it is going to take many many years before I can get out of Arizona.

Since the way I see it even if I /had/ a bachelors degree I wouldn't have any relevant experience to really get a job in the specific fields there, right?

Do I have any hope w/ an associates degree in some type of field? What if I had a decent amount of computer certifications? I guess I'm asking so much because computer related fields look more on experience than education if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you for all your help anyways. I just really was hoping that there was a chance I could live okay w/ a roomate there, but it seems like I have no options. It seems there are some positions I've looked at through many months of scanning monster.com which would be around 29K a year.

[sonarrat]

My day job pays about that. I grew up in the Bay Area, and I went to SJSU as a music major. Even as a native of the region, I honestly had no clue how difficult it would be to survive here on my own. It is very, very easy to get absolutely destroyed here. Getting a good job if you don't have specialized skills and experience is all down to pure dumb luck.

[FresnoFacts]

There are several call centers still around Fresno also, one large one I can think of belongs to Bank of America. But I understand many of the positions at the call centers around here are part-time.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by cinderous

So even with a roommate I most likely won't be able to live anywhere in the Santa Clara County or Santa Cruz County because there appears to not be any decent call center jobs. I guess I am pretty much screwed even with three years of call center experience.

It really saddens me that even if I work full time now and go to school full time it is going to take many many years before I can get out of Arizona.

Since the way I see it even if I /had/ a bachelors degree I wouldn't have any relevant experience to really get a job in the specific fields there, right?

Do I have any hope w/ an associates degree in some type of field? What if I had a decent amount of computer certifications? I guess I'm asking so much because computer related fields look more on experience than education if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you for all your help anyways. I just really was hoping that there was a chance I could live okay w/ a roomate there, but it seems like I have no options. It seems there are some positions I've looked at through many months of scanning monster.com which would be around 29K a year.

As mentioned there just are not many in the area and they do not pay enough to afford living in California. Yes, other states this isn't the case.
Not only that, but remember how many people are looking for work in California so the few centers anywhere in the state are probably not hiring many right now.

If you really think you can get a job at a call center in the area that pays 29K why not send your resume, see what happens but don't be surprised if noting materializes.

Nita

[reealnebgirl]

That makes sense. So no hope in really relocating until you have a college degree? Well that seems like quite a bummer. Is there any thing I can do?