[luv80s]

Hi!
We (me, husband, and our 16 month old son) are looking to relocate somewhere up North/Northeast. We live in Houston and want to get out of this awful city. (i have lived here my whole life and hubby has lived here 20 years, time to move on!)

My husband is a software engineer and I am a stay at home mom and student. What is the demand for software/computer jobs up there? What cities are good places to raise a family?

We are just now beginning our search, so if anyone can help us out I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

[vter]

Burlington is the largest city in Vermont. Including it's surrounding suburbs, we're hovering somewhere between 150-200K people. There is not a strong high tech economy here, but there are quite a few small firms along with a couple big ones.
My DH is a software engineer for GE Healthcare (formerly IDX) in South Burlington. Try www.idx.com and it should direct you to the new GE site for the South Burlington facility. He's been there 15 years and is happy. IBM has a plant in Essex Junction. Not sure how many SE jobs there are, as I believe it is mostly a chip manufacturing facility. The State of Vermont and the University of Vermont are also big employers as is Fletcher Allen Health Care.
The Burlington area is fairly cosmopolitan for "Vermont" and for an area it's size. We have pretty decent shopping, good arts & music, restaurants etc. Schools for the most part are very good. Montreal is 1.5 hrs away. We have Lake Champlain for boating/fishing, etc and the mountains for skiing practically at our doorstep. www.burlingtonfreepress.com and www.sevendays.com would be good places to look for jobs.
Another are to consider would be the Upper Valley which is the area around White River Junction, VT and Lebanon,NH. Dartmouth College and the Dartmouth/Hitchcock Medical Center are the area's biggest employers. There is also a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software company in the area. The name escapes me at the moment unfortunately.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
PS...coming from Houston...are you prepared for winter?

[luv80s]

Thanks so much for your help. We will look into the companies you have mentioned. Is it hard to get a job with GE? My husband has great qualifications (BS Mechanical Eng. & MS Computer Science) but I know employers can still be picky. Burlington sounds nice. Not too big but not too small. Oh, and I love Montreal! One of my favorite cities to visit!
As for the cold winters, well I hope I can handle it, lol. Right now in Houston its 80F outside...and its NOVEMBER!!! We don't get snow and our summers are horrible. Houston has its good points: culture, tons of restaurants, and things to do, etc. Bad side: Horrible summers (that seem to last year round), high crime, horrendous traffic, neverending construction, ugly landscape....the list goes on.
Time for a change of scenery.

[Nomoresubways]

I hate to keep going back to Brattleboro on things but believe it or not it's not a terrible area to be a software engineer. I'm a network engineer myself but there was a pretty good selection of companies if you knew where to look. There's Vermont Yankee, which has a good sized Software team. You also have C&S which has a huge software team, but I believe is mainly centered in Keene NH, which is about 15-20 mins from Brattleboro I think (depending on how fast you drive!). Holstein usually has an opening or two every once in awhile and is based right in Brattleboro. You also have a couple of smaller companies that sometimes have openings. Then you have UMASS in Amherst MA, which is maybe 30-40 mins away on I-91, not a terrible commute. There's also Yankee Candle in Deerfield MA, which is about the same commute. All told, there's quite a breadth of options if you look in the right spots...

[luv80s]

Thanks for the info Normoesubways. We will look into that also.
How is the traffic there? When you say the commute is 30-40 minutes, is that during rush hour, or probably longer during rush hour? I find it funny that yall can drive to another city or state for a job. We can't really do that here. Driving around houston is a big pain in the butt. I swear, the other day I dropped my son off at my mom's, and on returning home it took me 1hour and 10minutes! And my mom only lives 15 miles away! I left her place about 5:45pm and didn't get home til almost 7:00pm. There weren't any accidents or major construction, thats just the way Houston is. It sucks!!!
So commuting around a smaller city or state sounds like Heaven to me, lol.
Can you tell how much I love my city? haha

[vter]

Hey there -
There is no "rush hour" in Vermont. Well, maybe getting from downtown Burlington to the interstate in the afternoon.
Commutes of 30ish minutes are VERY common here, as most folks live 20-30 miles away from where they work. I live 17.5 miles away from where I work and it takes 25 minutes. It's a smooth ride...my only "traffic jam" is getting by a school that probably tacks on a whole 3 extra minutes LOL.
The only pain with longer mileage commutes is winter weather...that'll add on time depending on road conditions (when it snows here, life goes on!).
Regarding GE Healthcare...not sure if they are hiring right now. I'll find out. The best thing to do would be to go to the company's webpage and search for openings at South Burlington.
Keep in mind also that you'll probably experience some culture shock! Vermont's largest city (Burlington) has only around 40,000 people. Count the surrounding suburbs/exurbs, and you've got 150kish. Brattleboro, mentioned above, has a population of around 15,000. Rutland, which was Vermont's second largest city (I think a Burlington suburb -Essex maybe- surpassed it) has only 18,000 or so folks.

[Dragondog]

Just my 2 cents worth luv80s

I live down in more urban southern New England, in Hartford CT's eastern suburbs- on the border of the states rural 'quiet corner'.

Burlington has about a 20 -25 minute commute time even during rush hour- barring accidents, construction or winter weather. That commute time is based on about a 15-20 mile drive. Driving on I 89 would be the main and only Interstate through the Burlington area.

If you are attracted to a rural area- but with access to a larger metro area 20-30 miles in either direction west or to the east(Hartford and Providence RI look into eastern CT- looks like Vermont, without the frigid winters. There may be more in the way of demand here for your husbands skills. The commute time will be more, but nothing like Houston.

I am sure you will enjoy New England- there are strong cultural differences between here and SE Texas.

[Nomoresubways]

luv80s-

There is no traffic to deal with with any of the commutes I mentioned. I used to drive from Brattleboro to Keene for college classes and it was a breeze (except in extreme winter weather -- there is a serious hill on route 9!). So when I say 30-40 minutes, that is usually worst case scenario. And what is unique about Brattleboro is that it is really in the corner of 3 states, VT, NH and MA. So that's why you can get to either NH or MA in a relatively short amount of time.

I have a friend who works at C&S in the software dept, I can find out for you if they have any openings. I also have a friend who works at Newsbank, in Chester Vermont. They occasionally have SE openings.

[luv80s]

Awesome! I appreciate all of yalls help and input. I'm pretty sure it will be a cultural shock but I am very open minded to other peoples views and ways of life and so is my husband. But like any move to a new city or state, there is always a period of adjustment. So what is life like up there anyway? How are the people there?

Anyhoo, we will look up more info on Brattleboro also. If we don't move up there, I'd least like to visit Vermont one of these days. Looks like a beautiful place to be.

[Nomoresubways]

I'll see if I can describe it in the right light. I know the Houston area somewhat. My parents spent about 6 years living in the Bay City area. My dad still has property in Galveston.

Yes, you would be looking at a period of adjustment, just as you would if you moved to any other area. People in Brattleboro (and Vermont in general I think) are generally friendly and easy to get along with. There is definitely a sense of community. Things definitely are a little slower up there. I'd say some of the things people enjoy doing up there include skiing, snowmobiling, snowboarding, ice fishing, cross country skiing, snowshoeing and sugaring (more towards the end of winter - getting maple syrup from the trees) in the winter time. There's also "corny" things like "Sugar on snow" dinners, dance nights at the VFW and lodge, winter carnivals, etc. In the summer, you've got all the local water holes (i have many many secret spots!), fishing, boating on the Ct River, hiking (lots of good spots also), sidewalk sales on main street, 4th of july parade, fireworks at Memorial Park, Creamies (soft serve ice cream), Frappes (excellent thick shakes), the Guilford Fair (very unique Vermont experience!), etc in the summer.

You just need to check it out and see if it works for you guys. If you do go, drive out Route 30 towards Newfane/Townshend area (where they filmed Funny Farm w/Chevy Chase). Beautiful drive up that way.