Great Places to live in California for Computer Engineer

[zitsky]

I lived in the San Jose area (Mountain View) for about 10 years. I'm now just a few miles away from you in Raleigh. I'd recommend San Jose, or some town in the area. Most towns between San Francisco and San Jose aka "the peninsula" aka Silicon Valley would be reasonably close to a beach. When I lived there, I could get to the beach and go surfing in 30-45 minutes, even with traffic. As you know, to go from Cary to Wilmington takes at least 2-2.5 hours. Winter temps are higher than what you mentioned. It ranges somewhere from 50-65 degrees. It can even get into the 70's.

[bhcompy]

Originally Posted by sfboy90

Recent College Graduate with 2.5 years as a Network Engineer/Administrator
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Could possibly get into Project management or Aerospace field

So not really an "engineer" in a CE or CS sense, more like a (possibly) high level enterprise IT type position, a technical business analyst, etc. Project management sounds like a potential path, but without a PMP you're going to be locked out of that market and the PMP is fairly easy to get which has created a very diluted market(I have friends and family with 15-20 years of experience at companies like IBM, TRW/Northrop, etc, CE/CS/Business degrees, and certs including a PMP that cannot find project management work).

With that level of experience you aren't going to be getting a senior type position most likely, and that would keep me from coming to California. The pay just isn't enough to justify the cost. If you wanted to move out west and score a technical job with that kind of experience I'd look to places like Spokane, Salt Lake City, or Denver/Colorado Springs as a stepping stone first.

My friends with MIS degrees(not high level developers or CE/EE that are in demand in places like aerospace) and non-senior level experience have all moved out of state moving to places like I mentioned and others like Idaho and Nevada mainly taking public/education sector work and making more than enough money to buy a house and put down roots where the wages earned here were barely enough to rent a decent apartment and have a decent car.