Moving from Massachusetts to Florida - Tech Job (Miami, Tampa: big home, job market)

[az2fla]

Why don't you look into a remote position?? Then you can live anywhere! I work remote for a company out of Atlanta and I know most IT jobs are becoming home-based.

[FloridaLuxury]

Originally Posted by newenglander2017

Hi all,

I've searched the Forum more, and we've chose to research more about these areas:

1.West Palm Beach
2.Boca Raton
3.Deerfield Beach
4.Delray Beach
5.Pompano Beach

and region...

We have close to $200K to put down, looking for a property selling for $400K or under.
Must have: 4 bedrooms min, 2 bath min, pool, under 50 years old.
Avoiding: Equity Membership areas
HOA: Depends on what's in included, we are fine with paying a price up to $500-600/month, but preferably something lower...

Can I find something with these specs in WPB?
Thanks again.

For you price range, I would definitely suggest Delray. You will get the biggest bang for the buck. Boca, of course, is very nice. However, you will get very little for your money, you will get an older home, and will pay greater taxes and HOA fees - in general. There are a number of new and new-ish developments in Delray which will allow for a nicer home at your price point, lower taxes, lower HOA dues, and still get Boca schools. It's hands down your best choice.

Feel free to direct message me if I can help you any further.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by newenglander2017

Hello all,

I've decided to move down from Massachusetts to Florida, for multiple reasons, specially the weather.

I have around 10+ yrs of experience with High-End Storage, working for EMC\Dell, and I'm looking for an area that has a good amount of "tech jobs", aka: Network Admin\Engineer, Systems Administrator, Engineering Technician, IT " Insert Title, Management, etc", and would like some suggestions. I have an Associates in Science w/ 3.7 GPA, CompTIA A+, getting CCNA now, and an incomplete Bachelor's degree in Business, plus the experience listed above.

According to my uncle that resides in Sarasota and works with HVAC, I should look at areas above Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, like Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Boca Raton, Plantation, Hollywood, Sunrise, Miramar, Aventura, Boynton Beach, Coral Springs, West Palm Springs, Lake Worth, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise, Palm Springs, Coconut Creek, etc...

I'm going to Miami for a week this Tuesday and will be staying in Pompano Beach to look at the places, get an idea of the areas etc, but the important things are:
- Location with Tech Jobs
- Not TOO expensive (We plan on buying a 4+ bedroom home, we have $200,000.00 in cash from our old home and are looking for something up to $400,000)
- Good/Ok Schools

I've searched google a lot, but every article points me to a different place (Tampa area, Orlando area, Miami/Ft. Lauderlade, etc).

I'm truly lost, I've been to Florida once (Kissimmee, which my wife does not want to leave due to being "empty and not having anything to do, other than Disney"), but other than that I have no experience other than google.

As of right now, what would you say I could:
1- Get a 4+bed house for around $400,000 tops w/ ok/good schools, "close to the beach"
2- Have a good Tech Job market.

Am I looking at the right places? ANY advice is appreciated.
Should I be looking at the Tampa area? Or somewhere else?

Thank you very much!

Don't let Pompano discourage you.

[ruski]

Originally Posted by katskill

Tampa sounds the best best for what you do.
Verizon (few years ago last I know) used to have a huge facility there with tons of network jobs.
I see artciles on CNN for high job growth areas in tech, and Orlando is frequently on that list.
I would check these 2 areas.
After IBM & Motorola moved out, not much I'm aware of in the Ft Laud/Boca area.

Miami/Fort Lauderdale area has Citrix (HQ in Fort Lauderdale), Ultimate Software (HQ in Weston), Carnival, Royal Caribbean, American Express, Magic Leap, Pediatric Associates, AutoNation, Telefonica, just to rattle off a few.

In Boca, you have ADT/Tyco, Office Depot...

[Devalight]

Look at Lake Clark Shores, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens. The "40 minute commute" could be 15 miles away in the winter. Get close to the job. My advice, get a place close to I-95 or the turnpike, as close as possible without hearing trains. Also house construction is extremely important due to hurricanes. Get concrete block construction and hurricane shutters on the windows, if possible. I have been here 25 years and can't emphasize this enough. No weird roofs with strange angles or skylights. You will have problems eventually. Close to the beach means be ready to leave your home when there is a hurricane warning. Also "close to the beach" is astronomically high home insurance.

To me, Lake Worth has quite a different atmosphere from Boca Raton. Its best if you visit and determine for yourself if you like one over the other. Lake Work is more of a small town atmosphere and it is "artsy." Boca is more upscale and I have personally experienced worse driving there. Don't know why.

[WellingtonFloridaGal]

I had a family that just relocated to the Royal Palm Beach/Wellington area from Dover Nh..he got an IT job in the greater WPB area...

[davephan]

Before you spend time and money visiting Florida, check the IT job market on line. Several years ago, I looked on line at the Florida IT jobs, and the pay was VERY LOW! I saw IT jobs that paid 1/3 to 1/2 what I get paid in Minnesota doing Windows server support. I can't afford to work that cheap. Make sure it's a job with benefits, including a 401K. Maybe you can find six figure IT jobs in Florida, but I didn't see them several years ago in Florida. You probably won't find a job with a pension. My wife retired a year ago from a high income IT job with a 401K and a pension. I plan to retire next February, also from a six figure IT job with benefits, including a retirement account and a pension.

From my research and experience, you can make a lot of money working in IT in the snowbelt areas of the US. Making high incomes, we were able to live on part of one high income job, and invest the rest, living well below our means. Now, we can afford to retire sooner, rather than later, and move to a lower cost area, with a better climate.

I lived my whole life in Minnesota, so I feel your pain about the snowbelt winters. Hunkering down from the cold and snow, inside half of the year. Make sure that you can make enough money, working in Florida to be able to save enough money to retire comfortably. You shouldn't work too cheap, so you can save enough money, and not destroy your future financial freedom retirement years. Be careful of Florida's "Sunshine Tax", low wages!

[davephan]

Originally Posted by az2fla

Why don't you look into a remote position?? Then you can live anywhere! I work remote for a company out of Atlanta and I know most IT jobs are becoming home-based.

A remote job might be a possibility. But there is some risk that the management might decide that the IT workers need to be in the office, even though there's no technical reason that an IT worker needs to be in the office. I used to telecommute most of the time. I was thinking I might be able to telecommute from Florida all winter, until, at a whim, an upper level, old school manager made a policy change that people could only telecommute 1 day a week.

It might work out in the long term, where you could work for a company that's located where the IT pay is high, and live in a lower cost of living location, like Florida. But the ability to work remotely could suddenly end at any time with no warning, because of stupid management decisions that are out of your control. You then have to suddenly move back, or be immediately unemployed, looking for another remote IT job.

So, working remotely is an option, but there are risks that go along with working remotely.

[frisco19542]

Florida is a not a great place for tech jobs from what I can tell. Used to be a lot hardware jobs in Boca back in day because of IBM but it seems like those jobs left a long time ago.

If your in Tech these are the best places to move to for warmer weather and be in tech look at Texas much better place for jobs you will make double what they pay in florida.

Try looking at indeed and take a look at DFW and Austin for jobs. You other alternative is really North Carolina for tech jobs.

[CarawayDJ]

Universally across the CD forums the most questionable advice people give concerns jobs. The #1 mistake people make is assuming that because an area is primarily X there are no jobs for Y. There are tons of tech jobs in nearly every major city in America. FL is no exception. Heck, Orlando and the Space Coast area are chock full of tech jobs. I worked in military simulations in the Orlando area. I wonder how many people even know that both the Army and Navy's simulation commands are there? Lockheed has a campus the size of a small town chock full of sw engineers and other tech staff. Add SAIC, Northrop, Raytheon, and a slew of other companies to the mix. And that's just one little corner of Orlando.

As for the OP's desired area, of course there are tech jobs. They just aren't visible to the average person not working in tech. Every single hospital and large medical facility has a tech staff. Insurance companies usually employee software engineers. Banks employ techies. Heck, just about any large company must have an IT staff. Any company that maintains user/customer data is going to have an IT staff and if they are smart, info security staff.

Sure, some parts of the country have more than others but rest assured tech jobs are everywhere people and businesses are. They have to be. These places couldn't operate today if there weren't. It would be like saying there are no auto repair shops in the area. If you are good at what you do you will find a tech job. They are everywhere hiding in plain sight. Like I said, no large company can exist without them nowadays. I guess most people just assume that these jobs only exist in tech companies. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the same manner that large companies have HR, financial, and other support staff they also have tech staff. Some of them might surprise you. For example, I know a senior IT manager for Merck Pharmaceuticals (not in FL though). Merck has an IT department that would rival some major tech companies. They employee an army of software engineers, big data analysts, and the IT staff to maintain thousands and thousands of servers. To the average person driving by they simply see Merck and assume there are only pharmaceutical jobs there.