Here are my thoughts on Austin and why we might be leaving for SA (Houston: real estate, high school)

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by L210

Multiple people have interpreted your post the same way. When one makes a mistake in communicating an idea, it helps to restate it in a different way rather than buckle down on it. The OP did mention the jobs and degrees she and her boyfriend have. I doubt they went to school to take $13 an hour call center jobs in SA. I doubt either one of them will be seeing Spanish-speaking patients or getting their social work/counseling licenses with business and MIS degrees. As someone who has worked for law enforcement agencies, most of the employees can't even pass a proficiency test for extra bilingual pay or to get out of the continuing education course required by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

Most jobs in SA don't even bother to ask if you're bilingual. You're making a lot of assumptions based off the city's demographics. If people speak English as a second language, that means they know English.

So you're saying that being bilingual in a city with a high percentage of people who speak English as a SECOND language wouldn't probably be advantageous in the job market.

By the way, I worked for years in the staffing/hiring industry, and worked closely with the Austin and San Antonio markets since they were in my region. In fact, I trained the personnel in a new San Antonio office. I'm very familiar with what employers in a wide range of jobs in that market are looking for and what they prefer. One of the biggest selling points for a potential employee in MANY varied jobs in that market is being bilingual. I guess you can deny it all you want but that's the simple truth of the matter. It doesn't matter to me whether or not you believe it.

I've already stated numerous times that it's not a necessity in order to live there, but it's certainly a plus, and certainly increases one's marketability.

[L210]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

So you're saying that being bilingual in a city with a high percentage of people who speak English as a SECOND language wouldn't probably be advantageous in the job market.

By the way, I worked for years in the staffing/hiring industry, and worked closely with the Austin and San Antonio markets since they were in my region. In fact, I trained the personnel in a new San Antonio office. I'm very familiar with what employers in a wide range of jobs in that market are looking for and what they prefer. One of the biggest selling points for a potential employee in MANY varied jobs in that market is being bilingual. I guess you can deny it all you want but that's the simple truth of the matter. It doesn't matter to me whether or not you believe it.

I've already stated numerous times that it's not a necessity in order to live there, but it's certainly a plus, and certainly increases one's marketability.

I disagree with your logic. If the people are bilingual, that means they know English and won't need to speak to someone who knows Spanish. When bilingual employees are sought after, it's usually to communicate with customers who do not know English. As someone who lived in San Antonio for almost 30 years working in a variety of jobs up until two years ago, I've only seen bilingual preferences and requirements regularly pop up in certain fields. I did not need to know Spanish and neither did most of my coworkers when I worked for a blood bank, in security, as a telemarketer, a transit bus driver, a dispatcher, fast food worker, or a college instructor. The only field where I regularly skipped over applying for jobs due to a bilingual preference was social services. Even in my current job as a counselor where we regularly get inmates from San Antonio as well as all other parts of Texas, we rarely come across someone who does not speak English. We only have one counselor who speaks Spanish.

Ironically, most of my jobs required working with the general public. If you are not working with the general public, no one is going to care if you speak Spanish because you're never going to speak it. At tech companies where you're dealing with providing outsourcing services to American businesses (not call center services for a client's customers), you are not going to speak Spanish or any other foreign language. If you're the accountant for a company where your coworkers know English, which is almost always the case, no one is going to care if you know Spanish because you're never going to speak it.

[Gunion Powder]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

This. Very outdated info, unfortunately.

Both you and Horse Lady don't seem to understand that simply pointing out that my data could possibly be incorrect means nothing unless you can prove it is. So far the only problem I see is that it supports my point and not yours.

[The_Man74]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

Thanks for your input it has been invaluable, my bf really appreciates it. I asked him about those you list and he said those are his strengths, however he wants to focus more on being a field technician and maybe just doing the occasional database update, or etc, he just doesn't like to sit around all day, which is what that state position description is. He really is more of hands on person, he is able to fix about anything with his hands and he is extremely smart, however, he doesn't seem to fit in most of the time with people, and that makes it harder for him, he just mainly keeps to himself, or he is so ingrained into his work that he won't stop, and he tends to be a workaholic, he has excelled at most things he has tackled in his life and at high levels, he was even a professional in another field and traveled all over the nation (mostly the mid-west though), and he has always operated at a high level of competence. He decided that he couldn't do that kind of life the rest of his life and decided to go back to school and that is when he decided to get his MIS degree.

Btw on the people here they really are like that they don't understand how difficult it is to find a decent paying job here, and be able to afford to live here, it is extremely difficult, and they like to give off this pretentious attitude, I don't know where they get it from, but it is definitely here for certain.

oh ok

Field Engineer... would be a better bet in Houston honestly

I don't believe it will typically pay as well as a software engineer/developer, just a heads up! But I think I have an old college buddy do that, but he was basically checking PSI's, atm(pressures), chemicals, etc going from house to house but stayed on his feet

Yea the big downside for software engineering is sitting your arse all day LOL I can vouche for that... but that's why you learn to get a 24/7 gym(Lifetime) to where you can do cardio at any time basically lol.



Yea it's tougher in Austin and it would help tremendously with a family connect or even an alum connect(and i have some high school buddies that did that to get to Austin) but i think a couple of them even had to take a slight pay cut lol

[The_Man74]

Originally Posted by L210

. If you are not working with the general public, no one is going to care if you speak Spanish because you're never going to speak it. At tech companies where you're dealing with providing outsourcing services to American businesses (not call center services for a client's customers), you are not going to speak Spanish or any other foreign language. If you're the accountant for a company where your coworkers know English, which is almost always the case, no one is going to care if you know Spanish because you're never going to speak it.

this.

the company will just see it as something "cool/unique" about you if you can speak Spanish lol

They won't care so much as your ability to do the job

[TXEX06]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

We plan on going to SA tomorrow, do you have any suggestions on places to eat (away from the riverwalk) and maybe some nice trails to walk (other than the riverwalk)?

.

Government Canyon is great but the trails are not paved. Eisenhower Park has a paved trail to the top of a hill with nice views. Southtown is full of great restaurants and if you're not wanting to spend a lot I would check out Il Forno or Titos. Hot Joy also has a happy hour on Saturday from 5-7 with some great deals. Stop by Blue Star and get awesome gelato at South Alamode Gelato or The House for boozy ice cream. Sancho's Icehouse just north of downtown has awesome nachos/street tacos, live music, and inexpensive margaritas and beer with a roof top deck looking at downtown.

[The_Man74]

Riverwalk has a lot to do which makes it a great "date place"

I would not forget to stop by the mall as i think the Pan Flute bands play around this time of year... great show lol

First Friday(this upcoming Friday) will be great for art shows

The Quarry has gotten better and better as time as progressed

** As San Antonio is my hometown I have to give a shout out to Cowboys Dancehall too lol

[daisyschic]

Originally Posted by The_Man74

oh ok

Field Engineer... would be a better bet in Houston honestly

I don't believe it will typically pay as well as a software engineer/developer, just a heads up! But I think I have an old college buddy do that, but he was basically checking PSI's, atm(pressures), chemicals, etc going from house to house but stayed on his feet

Yea the big downside for software engineering is sitting your arse all day LOL I can vouche for that... but that's why you learn to get a 24/7 gym(Lifetime) to where you can do cardio at any time basically lol.



Yea it's tougher in Austin and it would help tremendously with a family connect or even an alum connect(and i have some high school buddies that did that to get to Austin) but i think a couple of them even had to take a slight pay cut lol

He did tell me however that if he was given the opportunity to do something with websites or databases, and it was a really good opportunity, I don't think he would pass it up tbh. He does do website and database stuff at home in his spare time just to mess around.

[daisyschic]

Btw we will update more on our trip when we get back home, so far we are loving SA. The north side is really, really nice. Way nicer than Austin tbh.

[daisyschic]

So we went to SA and had a blast, we did it on the cheap though we decided not to go out to eat (we decided to just take some food with us), but more so just go scouting. We really liked Cibolo, Tx, Cibolo, Tx was extremely nice, they had some really nice parks and nice housing too. Then we went to Bamberger Nature Park, that trail was extremely nice, I would have to say that trail is probably better than 90% of the trails in Austin and the people seemed really friendly, we felt really safe too, we seen two cops out on bikes and that was really nice. What both of us really liked is it wasn't that crowded at all and it was very pleasant, very clean and very refreshing. I think it depends on where he gets a job (if he doesn't get the job with the State) on where we live but the north side is very, very nice, however it does depend on how much the rent is there, but I think we could find something in our budget. We need to find permanent jobs and if we find permanent jobs we may decide to buy a house instead of renting, however my bf is against buying houses, but I think I could talk him into it,