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Old 01-06-2017, 11:36 PM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,790,268 times
Reputation: 4707

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I've been hearing mix things about Tampa's job market. Some say it is utterly awful for software people there and others say it is emerging as a new big tech city. I was wondering what people thought, in general, about the market for .Net software developers in the Tampa area? As far as me, I am having trouble finding employment, although I just starting looking after 15 years of working for same company. I am a seasoned .Net application developer, but not very experienced in the web, although I am quickly getting up to speed with web technologies. I understand am at a serious disadvantage not claiming myself as a web guru and I want to spend time learning web technologies which I think will lead to a much better job, especially with my level of experience and many years developing medical and dental practice management software in a very competitive and challenging industry. I also know its easier to find work if you are located in the area rather than being long distance.

Tampa is another area I am considering moving and have researched a bit about the area for years. I was looking at Nashville and North Carolina, as well. Nashville looked like an ideal place to live for me, culturally and the scenery and weather looked appealing, but I can see the cost of living is much more than Tampa and according to Indeed.com there seems to be more software job listings in Tampa than Nashville. I'm starting to think I may not be able to find any work in Nashville as a non-web .Net developer.

Considering how inexpensive the Tampa Bay area is , the lack of state income tax and the proximity to beaches and good weather, it is a place I am considering. I've also heard it has some type of emergign IT market. However, I've also heard that there is an over-saturation of software developers and very few jobs and the only jobs pay half of what you get in more IT oriented cities. Then again, considering the lack of state tax and cheaper living costs I am seeing in Tampa, I'm wondering how much lower the salaries really are and if it is balanced by living costs and lower taxes.

I'm willing to work a crappier job for less pay while and live cheaply for a year or two while I build the web skills. Once my web skills are up to speed, I either plan to launch my own business, which I have planned for some years, or I will be able to get a much higher paying job as a .Net web developer. I am very fast in picking up technologies and have built some ASP.Net and JS front ends before.

I'd really appreciate to hear the input of some software people in the area. I hear a lot of great things about the Tampa area and I think the weather, scenery and proximity to beaches would be appealing. But, obviously, I need to find some work, as sunshine is great, but doesn't pay the bills.
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Old 01-07-2017, 11:08 PM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,790,268 times
Reputation: 4707
Oh well, I guess the lack of responses speak for themselves

I am also wondering why a post that is specific to the Tampa forum was moved to general Florida, as Tampa is the only area I am interested in moving and learning about.. I originally posted this in the Tampa sub-forum and it was moved..
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Old 01-07-2017, 11:13 PM
 
80 posts, read 80,723 times
Reputation: 80
Go on dice and indeed and look for yourself you know what your qualified for and what you expect for salary.
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Old 01-08-2017, 03:08 AM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,790,268 times
Reputation: 4707
Quote:
Originally Posted by rvais View Post
Go on dice and indeed and look for yourself you know what your qualified for and what you expect for salary.
Well, I have been checking Indeed.com (reputably the best software job source) and it appears there is quite a few software jobs in Tampa. I look up software engineer and Tampa and there is over 1,700 job listings in Tampa and 1,500 in Orlando. However, everywhere I read around the internet people say how horrible Tampa's job market is and how few and low paying the jobs are. Then, out of no where I read a post from people who say the IT industry in Tampa is booming and things are looking good.

So, that is why I have posted here, because I am hoping to hear responses from people in the software industry who actually live in the area who can share their unbiased, honest and educated view points with me of the software industry of where they live.

As far as my skills, well I think others in the software field would at least be able to point me the right way based on what I wrote. I have 16 + years of software experience, 14 in C#/.Net, but I do not have a strong background in web or cloud development. I will be spending next year studying and learning web technology, especially ASP.Net Core and Angular framework. For now though, I need some work and would like to know what Tampa's software scene is for .Net developers. I do have a little bit of a handicap with lacking the web skills, but also have some strong points too with my many years of application development.
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Old 01-08-2017, 09:33 AM
 
Location: Ormond Beach, FL
1,615 posts, read 2,117,880 times
Reputation: 1685
You skill set is tied to Microsoft technologies/platform and that is pretty limiting. Recruiters hit me up for Java or web development positions and a few are in Tampa, more in Orlando or Miami. Most recruiters hit me up with positions outside of Florida

You are wise to try and see what your target area needs. And you can get an idea of what is needed in Tampa by using multiple job search sites like indeed, monster, beyond, glass door... putting in a generic term like software development and filter on the Tampa area. Don't be surprised if you have a tight search based on a Microsoft stack and the hits are pretty thin. My (ongoing) search for software development in Hawaii has few matching hits.
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Old 01-12-2017, 08:48 AM
 
Location: Sarasota, FL
733 posts, read 746,757 times
Reputation: 1119
First off, you need to really think about weather and type of city you'd like. Do a lot of research on the Tampa area as far as long, hot, humid summers, amount of traffic, actual time/distance to beaches, etc. There's a huge difference between Tampa and Nashville or NC. I'm not as familiar with Nashville or NC, but I feel they may be similar comparisons with each other weather-wise.

Secondly, I would not say Tampa is cheap, and usually the lack of state income tax is already reflected in lower overall wages compared to other parts of the country. They call it the "sunshine tax" - you accept lower pay to live in the sunshine state. Housing costs are a little higher here, but all other expenses should be fairly average. There's plenty Cost-of-Living calculators out there, and they really vary between each other so check several.

IT-career wise, there are plenty of jobs in the Tampa Bay area. I recently changed jobs in the Java-web application skill set, and there were many opportunities. In that search, I did come across some .net jobs, so I know they are out there.

You don't need to be a "web guru" if you have solid .net skills. But you if you bash yourself like your posts here and say you have zero web skills, you will not get a job. You need to learn enough so you can at least speak well to the web concepts in an interview, so you can imply you understand web technologies at least, even if your actual experience doesn't reflect it. HTML/CSS basics are needed for sure, some Javascript basics may be good. I wouldn't focus too much specifically on Angular or any other specific framework, because every company will have it's own technologies so you may be wasting your time learning Angular specifically.

It's ok to admit this is a growth area for you, as long as you demonstrate you understand the concepts and show good potential, combined with strong skills elsewhere (like your .net, general software development, maybe db/sql skills, and other soft skills).
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Old 01-17-2017, 02:37 AM
 
Location: Nashville
3,533 posts, read 5,790,268 times
Reputation: 4707
Thanks for your advice Matt... I am currently making some adjustments to my resume and trying to promote myself as a bit more webbish, even though I don't have a deep background in it. I am going to be spending a lot of time studying web technologies in depth and trying to quickly come up to speed. I seem to pick up frameworks quickly and understand most concepts. For example, I already have constructed a very nice rich Jquery/Bootstrap frontend with very little background in JS/JQuery.. I've been learning JS language and JQuery framework quickly. I'm planning on studying ASP.Net Core framework.. I definitely need to refresh and improve my knowledge on SQL Server and DBA skills.. The job I was in required certain technologies and I got a bit rusty in others, like SQL Server, which now I need to re-learn again.

I am aware of Florida's insane weather. I was in Africa for half a year and didn't mind at all the 90F+ 90% humidity days, even without A/C and electricity at times. Right now it is 0F outside here in Idaho and I would prefer heat and humidity to this bone/soul shattering cold weather. And, it has been this cold for over 2 months now and we are expecting a blizzard tomorrow. Now, if Tampa Bay is lacking in A/C, I would say that would be a bit more of a challenge, although even then I still can probably adapt, as I did living in Africa.
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Old 01-17-2017, 07:42 AM
 
Location: Sarasota, FL
733 posts, read 746,757 times
Reputation: 1119
Re: the weather, sounds like you're fully aware, so good news there.

And sounds like you're well on your way tech-skill-wise. Taking the initiative to setup at Bootstrap website is fabulous. You just need to list all those key skills on your resume, so the auto-scanners pick them up. Then you can always talk about them, and use your example as a great interview answer. Goood luck!
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Old 01-18-2017, 10:04 PM
 
174 posts, read 205,254 times
Reputation: 115
Florida is bad because no one wants to work when they are at their job. Hate to tell you this but most employees here are super lazy.
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