How is the IT Job Market in Tampa?

[cunparis]

Originally Posted by Keeper

Unless you find a job in Bradenton or Sarasota it is over an hour drive to Tampa everyday depending on the time of day and where you work could be 2 hours. I would stick to Brandon, New Tampa, Wesley Chapel or even other areas of Tampa if you work in Tampa.
HOI if you buy depending on the cost of the house and where it is located could be $4,000.00 a year mol.

That was my original plan but people were saying the commute from new tampa to town was 1 hour. SO I thought I'd rather do 1 hour from bradenton, it's almost all freeway. And if I can work odd hours, then I could probably decrease the time a bit.

Ok I just did mapquest:

Tampa -> Wesley Chapel = 28 minutes (obviously these are without traffic)
Tampa -> Bradenton = 50 minutes

So it seems Wesley Chapel would be better. 40 minutes to the nearest beach (Beacon Square, not even sure it's a beach I just saw it on the map).

Home prices around $300k for 4br 2500 sqf. That's our budget in fact, $300k.

This area sounds pretty nice. How are the beaches up there? I've seen the beaches in Sarasota only and they were incredible.

Thanks for the tip on Wesley Chapel.

[cunparis]

Originally Posted by Keeper

Unless you find a job in Bradenton or Sarasota it is over an hour drive to Tampa everyday depending on the time of day and where you work could be 2 hours. I would stick to Brandon, New Tampa, Wesley Chapel or even other areas of Tampa if you work in Tampa.
HOI if you buy depending on the cost of the house and where it is located could be $4,000.00 a year mol.

Is this HOI including the hurricane stuff? (For the price it sounds like it). Could someone give me a rough idea of HOI for a city outside of florida (Charlotte is our other choice). I'll update my comparison and some day post it here.

[jessiesma]

Originally Posted by cunparis

These are both very good points. I wouldn't mind a perm job, I would just like to start out contracting because if I take a perm job I'd like to make sure it's a good company, in a good area (good for the commute), etc. When we arrive, I'll need to find work ASAP. So I was thinking of contracting for starting out.

I haven't though about the hurricane insurance. How much is it? Is tampa high risk? I figured it'd be less risk than Miami. Would living in Branden or "New Tampa" reduce the risk? I need to figure this into my costs spreadsheet.

Thanks

New Tampa should be ok for water but is vulnerable to the tornadoes that are spawned from hurricanes. Do a google search for hurricane evacuation zones in Tampa Bay. Hillsborough County Emergency Management would be a good place to start. You can also check out Pinellas Co. but we are more vulnerable, being a peninsula. Some predictions are that in a Cat. 4 or 5 we'd be cut off from the "mainland' and be 2 islands with the rest fo the county underwater.

Brandon is funny because it's not so far from the bay in a straight line. Parts of it, are zones 1 or 2. Also, I live in an Apt. in St. Pete and it's technically just outside any evac. zone but State Farm denied us renter's ins because we're within 2 miles of water (Boca Ciega Bay). They wanted to refer us to Citizens which is the insurer of last resort. Since we don't have priceless antiques or a house full of electronics, we decided to pass.

[jessiesma]

Check out my answeres

Originally Posted by cunparis

That was my original plan but people were saying the commute from new tampa to town was 1 hour. SO I thought I'd rather do 1 hour from bradenton, it's almost all freeway. And if I can work odd hours, then I could probably decrease the time a bit.

Ok I just did mapquest:

Tampa -> Wesley Chapel = 28 minutes (obviously these are without traffic) NO way! there's always traffic and construction.
Tampa -> Bradenton = 50 minutes Probably not unrealistic on average. If you're going to work "downtown. I'd actually take the Sunshine Skyway thru St. Pete. and over the Howard Frankland Bridge. It's all I-275 but not a lot of construction on this end. It's a bit longer in miles but you can do it in an hour. If you go up I-75, you'll be far East of downtown and have to deal with either I-4 or The LeRoy Selmon Crosstown Expy. something you want to avoid if at all possible.

So it seems Wesley Chapel would be better. 40 minutes to the nearest beach (Beacon Square, not even sure it's a beach I just saw it on the map).
Where???? NO way again. "Closest" beach to Wesley chapel is Clearwater and it's all local streets. an hour at least but it is a nice beach if you ignore the "gangsta' element. Don't know what Beacon Sq. is. A strip mall in all likelihood.

Home prices around $300k for 4br 2500 sqf. That's our budget in fact, $300k. Doable

This area sounds pretty nice. How are the beaches up there? I've seen the beaches in Sarasota only and they were incredible. Ours are better, not in Tampa, you have to come over to Pinellas county. Both Fort De Soto Park and Madeira were Blue Wave beaches several years in a row and "Dr. Beach" voted them the best beaches in the US a couple of times. Fort De Soto is just over the Sunshine Skyway so if you choose Bradenton, you can get there easily. YOu can also boat it easily. Boats can be anchored just off the beach and you can swim in. There are gang issues in the Bradenton area beaches. Where there aren't, like Anna Maria, the beaches are narrow, crowded and lacking amenities. The residents don't care for day trippers and make life difficult.

Thanks for the tip on Wesley Chapel.

[Keeper]

The closest beach from Wesley Chapel is Fred Howard Park (Tarpon Springs) or Dunedin which are less than an hour from WC. Neither are big tourist attractions which is a hugh plus. No high rise condos on these beaches. Dunedin/Honeymoon island is where you can take a ferry or your own boat to Caladesi island (see pic forum). Better beach is Honeymoon or Caladesi.

As far as HOI the closer you are to the beach the more expensive it is going to be for you. It can add up to $1,000 a month to your house payment depending on the cost of the house and how close it is to water.
If you decide on Bradenton you have to consider the Sunshine Bridge is a toll road so figure that into your calcs. Traffic will be heavy during the 'snowbird' season even during off peak hours.

Tornado activity is always a possibility during hurricanes no matter where you live. Tornadoes can happen even during a severe thunderstorm and anywhere in the Tpa region but that is true in many areas of the US. WC is no more susceptible than Brandon.

I am sure the ppl who live in Bradenton will be able to give you some sound advice on living there

[ManFromMissouri]

"Hey ManFromMissouri I take you're in Tampa now? I'm from St. Louis too and would looove to move to Tampa if I knew I would be able to find a job in my field. I'm currently in Computer Networking doing field work but hopefully I would like to work for one employer instead of supporting many. Was it hard for you to land your first IT job while you were down there? I could use any help or advice you may have!"

Hey stlsmoore, No, haven't moved, still in lou. I'm seriously thinking about it though. I'm a developer so i think it might be easier for me to find work there but, with the number of companies in Tampa, i know you could find work. From the looks of Dice.com, i don't think you'll find as many opportunities in Tampa that you will in the Lou but, then again, you don't have to deal with the cold either... Just curious, what makes you want to move from St Louis to Tampa? I always tell my wife, it's cheap to live in the lou because there's really nothing here (no beaches, no mountains, just the fact that you have to deal with the winter and the unbelievably hot and humid summers). Between you and me, I may just go. I'm going down to Tampa on a golfing trip this Wed, but, i may have a look around to see what the city has to offer for me living there.

I don't know how old you are but all i can say is this, if you want to go, then go. You can always come back if things don't work out for you. Don't have the regret of not following your dreams. Life is too too short my friend.

Take care.

[stlsmoore]

Yea there are a few reasons I would like to move with the first being that I grew up in St. Louis all my life. But like you said there's really nothing here it's just a city plotted in the middle of the USA with farmland on either side of it which you don't have to go to far out to encounter. Really it would be a nice change of pace to start fresh and what better way than to move to a beautiful looking city. With beaches, oceans, and palm trees (heck the first time I've truly laid eyes on a real palm tree was 3 months ago in Dallas). I became hooked on Tampa because a friend of mine mentioned moving down there so I did a lot of research about a year ago and even created a few pen pals down there. I'm actually a youngin but I love a challenge and an adventure so once I finish up my MCSE certification this year I might give it a try!

[ManFromMissouri]

stlsmoore,

i'm in the SAME boat as you... i hate the cold, god i really do. No golf for 3-4 months, gray skies a lot of the days, spring is very short so before you know it, it's 85 and humid as hell. Not saying it's not humid in Florida, probably even worse, but at least they have 6 months of beautiful weather. Here, it's like 6 weeks.

I'd like to get on some of those mailing lists that you're on with your penpals. Still trying to get a guage for the area and what it truly has to offer a 31 year old male. Going down there tomorrow for 5 days of golf and sun, STOKED.

[stlsmoore]

By pen pals I mean Myspace lol and people I met in St. Louis that moved down there. But yea I'll probably finish up my certification and see how my part-time business goes. I do like STL especially since the city as a whole is finally getting it's act together and rebuilding St. Louis. It would be neat to see what STL is like 5-10 years from now.

[ITMAN]

Originally Posted by stlsmoore

Yea there are a few reasons I would like to move with the first being that I grew up in St. Louis all my life. But like you said there's really nothing here it's just a city plotted in the middle of the USA with farmland on either side of it which you don't have to go to far out to encounter. Really it would be a nice change of pace to start fresh and what better way than to move to a beautiful looking city. With beaches, oceans, and palm trees (heck the first time I've truly laid eyes on a real palm tree was 3 months ago in Dallas). I became hooked on Tampa because a friend of mine mentioned moving down there so I did a lot of research about a year ago and even created a few pen pals down there. I'm actually a youngin but I love a challenge and an adventure so once I finish up my MCSE certification this year I might give it a try!

I have my MCSE as well as CNE and 20 years of experience and I can tell you this is a terrible place for an IT career in networking. These employers expect every skill under the sun and want to pay $25/hour at best and have way too many "qualified candidates to choose from".

Most IT network jobs down here pay $12-$22/hour and are short term temp positions. There is no opportunity for career advacement. If that isn't bad enough most of these so called network support jobs are not hands on, it's telephone support.

The employers I've interviewed with act like their doing me a favor to pay me what I made when I had no certifications and only 5 years experience.

You can have this place, as a career IT network professional I can tell you it's the pits (downright bushleague), 2nd rate opportunity and 3rd rate pay, on top of that these pathetic "opportunities" are hard to come by as there are very, very few corporate companies employing even 200-300 computer users.

After hearing this, if you insist on still moving here you can have the $15/hour for a total of 12 hours a week "job" that a recruiter thought I might be interested in.