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I am new to this forum and I have a few questions about relocating to Dallas.
I am a recent college grad from Detroit, MI and I am very interested in the Dallas, TX area. I have heard great things about the economy and job stability. I would like to either get into the media, communications or HR field.
My questions are what is a good safe neighborhood in Dallas for a young girl living on her own?
Also what are the average starting salaries for Bachelor's degree in Communications?
ABout how much would money would i need to relocate?
Are there any companies that hire young grads and pay for them to relocate?
If anybody can answer some or all of my questions that would be great and help me out a lot. I am looking to relocate within the next 6 months.
Dallas isn't a good city for media, really. Belo, which owns the Dallas Morning News and our ABC affiliate, is on life-support and has had God-knows-how-many Mayotte over the last 10 years. There are smaller papers but they don't pay squat. (You'd be lucky to break $20k IF you could get a job). D Magazine is our city rag, but they've had layoffs too. I can't think of any digital media groups that would be hiring much either.
"Communications" is really vague, but AT&T is headquartered in downtown Dallas. What exactly in communications interests you?
HR jobs are plentiful for someone with the right experience and background. Robert Half/ Accounttemps is a big HR recruiting company with many offices in Dallas area. A starting job there would probably put you in a job placing accounting temps with companies. Grueling, but a start. Additionally, pretty much any medium to large company has a HR department. I'd get focused and start peppering them with resumes & follow-up calls for entry level positions. But you're going to need a point of view-> do you want to be an external recruiter? Focused on internal recruiting & succession planning? Focused on benefits & compensation? Again, HR is a really broad area.
There are lots of safe & fun neighborhoods for young professionals but you're going to want to nail down a job before picking a neighborhood or else you might end up with an unwanted 90 minute commute each way! Dallas is really big and rush hour traffic can be awful!
I would think $3-5k would be plenty to relocate with IF you have a job lined up. That would pay to get you & your belongings to Dallas and for your apartment deposit, utilities hook-ups and to tide you 1-5 weeks until your first paycheck deposits. If you move without a job, I'd come with $10k minimum as it could be months before you find something.
Lastly, some career advice:
1. What relevant experience do you have in these fields? Internships? Jobs? Classes taken? Case studies? Make sure you have 3 resumes, one for each field that highlights your HR experience or your media experience. Don't send the same resume to all fields because you will come across as unfocused or not experienced enough.
2. Reach out to your college's alumni living in the DFW area or working for companies with offices in DFW. Your career center or alumni office should be able to provide you with a list. Start networking with those people ASAP. Most jobs are gotten by a candidate who has an "in". Email or call these people saying "I'm a recent u of xyz grad who is interested in working for ABC company in Dallas. I saw on the alumni site that you work for them in LA/Atlanta/etc and wondered if I could pick your brain. What do you like about the company? Would you recommend it for a recent grad interested in....? What job titles would be best for entry level? Do you know if any are open in Dallas? Do you know who the HR manager is in Dallas? Would you mind passing on my resume or if I used your name?" be polite & respectful of their time.
3. If you were in a sorority or other national organizations with an alumni listing, repeat the same networking exercises.
4. Get on LinkedIn and network with Dallas recruiters or people who work for your targeted companies in Dallas.
I think it's HIGHLY unlikely that any company will pay to relo an entry level position. Some companies may have college grad training programs where they bring a "class" of 10-30 recent grads into the organization. AT&T may have one; check their website. Those typically do pay for tell, but they're very hard positions to get.
Lastly, come down to Dallas to make sure you want to move here. Just because you "heard" some good things doesn't mean it's a great fit for YOU. It's worth the $500 investment to fly down & stay for a weekend to check the city out instead of moving here & hating it.
Thanks so much for all the tips! I have a year of experience in external recruiting but I would want to branch out into the other are of HR. And media communication would be my interest. I will use your career advice and reach out to some people via LinkedIN. I also plan to visit for a weekend and see if its really the right fit for me!
I am new to this forum and I have a few questions about relocating to Dallas.
I am a recent college grad from Detroit, MI and I am very interested in the Dallas, TX area. I have heard great things about the economy and job stability. I would like to either get into the media, communications or HR field.
My questions are what is a good safe neighborhood in Dallas for a young girl living on her own?
Also what are the average starting salaries for Bachelor's degree in Communications?
ABout how much would money would i need to relocate?
Are there any companies that hire young grads and pay for them to relocate?
If anybody can answer some or all of my questions that would be great and help me out a lot. I am looking to relocate within the next 6 months.
Good move getting out of Detroit (Grosse Pointe c/o'92). But you need to get a job lined up first. Not fun, but it's easier to live with the parents and fly out to interviews rather than go 'all in'- unless you've got the financial backing to support the move.
COL won't be as cheap as you're used to in Michigan but it's doable, easily.
First, visit Dallas, see if you like it- you may not.
Try alumni associations for connections, prospects...
There's also a good chance the first job you take won't be in your field. Would you be ok with that?
I am a recent college grad from Detroit, MI and I am very interested in the Dallas, TX area. I have heard great things about the economy and job stability. I would like to either get into the media, communications or HR field.
I have no idea what the job market is like for college-education-requiring white collar work down there. It's probably just as highly competitive as it is anyplace else since a great many people who aren't working white collar jobs flood into the colleges and aspire to work white collar jobs. You may wish to note that a good part of the state's relatively low unemployment rate is numerous jobs that pay low wages ("The Texas Model"). As I understand it, Texas isn't as big of an economic success as it appears when you consider the percentage of jobs that are poverty-wage jobs.
FACT CHECK: Perry, Romney Twist Records In Debate : NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140275268 - broken link)
Of course, when your alternative is to stay in Michigan, going to Texas might not be a bad move. Have you considered investigating Fargo or Bismarck, North Dakota? (Of course, they also have plenty of college students and college grads there, too.)
I have no idea what the job market is like for college-education-requiring white collar work down there. It's probably just as highly competitive as it is anyplace else since a great many people who aren't working white collar jobs flood into the colleges and aspire to work white collar jobs. You may wish to note that a good part of the state's relatively low unemployment rate is numerous jobs that pay low wages ("The Texas Model"). As I understand it, Texas isn't as big of an economic success as it appears when you consider the percentage of jobs that are poverty-wage jobs.
FACT CHECK: Perry, Romney Twist Records In Debate : NPR (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140275268 - broken link)
Of course, when your alternative is to stay in Michigan, going to Texas might not be a bad move. Have you considered investigating Fargo or Bismarck, North Dakota? (Of course, they also have plenty of college students and college grads there, too.)
Yeah, gotta watch out for those poverty wages jobs... especially in the north 'burbs where all the growth is. Companies moving their executives to the DFW so they can live in poverty. There's dozens of posts here at C-D about people being forced out of NY and Cal and on to Texas for poverty those wages. And here they're looking for 2 - 3k sq ft homes, mostly over $250k, and private schools. What's up with that?
Yeah, gotta watch out for those poverty wages jobs... especially in the north 'burbs where all the growth is. Companies moving their executives to the DFW so they can live in poverty. There's dozens of posts here at C-D about people being forced out of NY and Cal and on to Texas for poverty those wages. And here they're looking for 2 - 3k sq ft homes, mostly over $250k, and private schools. What's up with that?
Looks like NPR has it twisted alright.
Well, what percentage of the jobs in the state are poverty-wage jobs? Here's what the NPR article said:
Quote:
But those figures represent all workers, not just the new jobs, for which data are unavailable. And that does not account for low-wage jobs that may be barely above the minimum wage. According to the Texas Workforce Commission, 51 percent of all Texas workers make less than $33,000 a year. Only 30 percent make more than $50,000 a year. Nationally, Texas ranked 34th in median household income from 2007 to 2009. About 9.5 percent of Texas hourly workers, excluding those who are paid salaries, earn the minimum wage or less, tying Mississippi for the highest percentage in the nation.
This is the radio show I was thinking of when I made my post. Listen from 8:15-11:30 to hear the discussion I was thinking about:
Can just anyone apply to those high-fallutin' executive jobs? Are they available for new college graduates? Is there a shortage of applicants for those jobs? Is it significantly easier to get one of those high paying white collar jobs in Texas than it is anywhere else? Is there a shortage of college graduates in Texas? Is the ratio of college graduates to college-education-requiring jobs smaller in Texas than it is in other states. (Maybe it is, I don't know.)
Consider the big picture instead of merely looking at a small slice of the population. If I drove through West Bloomfield or Bloomfield Hills (upper middle class areas) in the Detroit suburbs I could very well conclude that the Michigan economy is booming.
Your post reminds me a little bit of what an idiot caller (later in the show) said on today's On Point episode:
A moronic holier-than-thou computer science major who found a career job in his field suggested that the solution for other young people was to major in STEM fields instead of feel good fields and that they'd also find good jobs--as though the number of jobs in that field at currently prevailing wage rates would magically increase to accommodate millions of new entrants.
Maybe white collar job openings are abundant in Texas and going unfilled, but such a claim needs to be regarded with great skepticism considering the huge oversupply of desperate college graduates that we have in this country, see:
Lookingfordallas, my (now) husband and I moved down here over a year now. We are both from MI. The advice about reaching out via LinkedIn is smart. We were both recent grads (grad school for me, husband finished an internship after graduation from college) and he was hired pretty quickly. It took a year for me to be hired full-time but I'm in an over-saturated field (college professor). I agree with the advice of not moving down until you've received a job offer and you know you like it down here. He also was given money to relocate and his job was an entry-level. I think a lot of what you get has to do with how well known your school is and how good your cover letter and resume are. You want to follow-up after applying to places and make it apparent in your CL that you plan on moving, otherwise they might think you are just sending out applications to everywhere since you live in Michigan and it's quite far.
If you went to Michigan State or University of Michigan, the alumni groups are pretty big down here. We went to MSU and there are a ridiculous amount of us down here, and always willing to help each other.
Feel free to PM me if you need any help!
I agree with tracenat. The Big 10 schools have substantial sized alumni groups down here -- heck, Michigan State is about to get its own Texas license plate. I've found that people are happy to help out with networking. I know I am. I'm from here but went to school in MI and came back to town.
Can just anyone apply to those high-fallutin' executive jobs? Are they available for new college graduates? Is there a shortage of applicants for those jobs? Is it significantly easier to get one of those high paying white collar jobs in Texas than it is anywhere else? Is there a shortage of college graduates in Texas? Is the ratio of college graduates to college-education-requiring jobs smaller in Texas than it is in other states. (Maybe it is, I don't know.)
Consider the big picture instead of merely looking at a small slice of the population. If I drove through West Bloomfield or Bloomfield Hills (upper middle class areas) in the Detroit suburbs I could very well conclude that the Michigan economy is booming.
Your post reminds me a little bit of what an idiot caller (later in the show) said on today's On Point episode:
A moronic holier-than-thou computer science major who found a career job in his field suggested that the solution for other young people was to major in STEM fields instead of feel good fields and that they'd also find good jobs--as though the number of jobs in that field at currently prevailing wage rates would magically increase to accommodate millions of new entrants.
Maybe white collar job openings are abundant in Texas and going unfilled, but such a claim needs to be regarded with great skepticism considering the huge oversupply of desperate college graduates that we have in this country, see:
I get a kick out of these kinds of posts. One can stat-pick horrifying tidbits about every state especially the biggest in terms of population.
The unemployment rate for those with a college degree in DFW is a little less than 4%. Recently, some other large states have seen legions of working age people leave (NY, Ohio, Illinois, California and others) Texas has seen a massive increase.
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