Relocating from PA to Fort Myers, FL (Jacksonville, Sarasota: apartment complexes, condos)

[Hemidancer]

Sunbabe, it's not impossible. I moved down here last May without ever having set foot in the area and I could not be happier. HOWEVER, I have a job that allows me to work remotely from anywhere in the world where I have access to the Internet, and this was a huge advantage. As for the rest, I did a ton of online research, found a reputable realtor to work with and found a great house to rent. I would tend to agree with the rest on this thread that having employment lined up before you move should be paramount, but your dream is not an impossible one - don't give up on it.

[Florida Paradise]

I didn't mean to be a Debbie Downer... I LOVE Florida as much as the next and wish I could live there...

What is your budget for a place? Do you want to buy or lease? What does your husband do for a living (now in PA) How about your dream job?

I guess if you are going to do it... start looking at job possibilities for the 2 of you, then decide where you will live. When you do decide to move, you can probably bet on a decent rental in a nice area for about 800.00 to 1000.00.

Good luck!!!

[xoomer]

The problem is that no matter what your experience or willingness to take a job, there are very few possibilities here. One of my neighbors who is a college graduate with several years experience cannot even get a job at Publix or Lowes. You would think that anyone could get a minimum wage job but that isn't necessarily the case in this area.

What happens if you move here and are lucky enough to get a job, sell your house, and your husband quits his good job but can't get work here? I don't know your overall situation but I wouldn't even consider leaving everything to chance unless you are willing to accept the fact that this might end in total disaster.

I would spend a bit more time trying to land a job here before moving down; or find a way to make a living on your own, perhaps on the Internet, before even thinking about making the move.

Good luck...

[Billythepokerkid]

Originally Posted by xoomer

The problem is that no matter what your experience or willingness to take a job, there are very few possibilities here. One of my neighbors who is a college graduate with several years experience cannot even get a job at Publix or Lowes. You would think that anyone could get a minimum wage job but that isn't necessarily the case in this area.

What happens if you move here and are lucky enough to get a job, sell your house, and your husband quits his good job but can't get work here? I don't know your overall situation but I wouldn't even consider leaving everything to chance unless you are willing to accept the fact that this might end in total disaster.

I would spend a bit more time trying to land a job here before moving down; or find a way to make a living on your own, perhaps on the Internet, before even thinking about making the move.

Good luck...

The reason your neighbor can't get a minimum wage job is precisely because they are a college grad and have experience. Publix and Lowes aren't going to hire someone that is severely overqualified. They aren't billion dollar conglomerates by accident. They hire 20 year olds that will learn it their way, who may be looking for a potential career in the company, not someone who has tons of experience doing it their own way and is looking to make 9 bucks an hour until they find something they really should be doing.

With that said, there are not many jobs, but the ones here are at places like Home Depot, Lowes, Publix, Walmart, some restaurants. It is a service related economy and you should expect to make minimum wage, perhaps a couple cents more or tips unless you are in healthcare or retail/service management.

[xoomer]

Originally Posted by Billythepokerkid

The reason your neighbor can't get a minimum wage job is precisely because they are a college grad and have experience. Publix and Lowes aren't going to hire someone that is severely overqualified. They aren't billion dollar conglomerates by accident. They hire 20 year olds that will learn it their way, who may be looking for a potential career in the company, not someone who has tons of experience doing it their own way and is looking to make 9 bucks an hour until they find something they really should be doing.

With that said, there are not many jobs, but the ones here are at places like Home Depot, Lowes, Publix, Walmart, some restaurants. It is a service related economy and you should expect to make minimum wage, perhaps a couple cents more or tips unless you are in healthcare or retail/service management.

I don't know what the official policy of Lowes or Publix is but when I worked in the financial industry we always tried to hire more qualified people even for the minimum wage jobs. Most people are always looking for a better job but we tried to train and keep them in our system. However, there were two problems with hiring older, more experienced people--they often were harder to train since they had an attitude that they knew everything, and the medical insurance we provided for them cost us a lot more than for an "18 year old". In any case, if you are right about these types of jobs then the OP will definitely have a problem since she is apparently an engineer.

Even in the medical profession it can be hard to get a full time job here. We recently had a physical therapist and an RN come to the house for outpatient treatment and both of them had lost their full time jobs due to the downturn and were now working as independent contractors on a part time basis.

This definitely isn't the place to be looking for work...if you want a job and the beach go to Houston and get a job the same day and visit Galveston beach on the weekends.

[equalrightsforeveryone]

The upside of hiring older workers is that they are a lot more reliable when it comes to showing up for work and in most cases are more motivated to do a good job.
As far as "knowing everything" I'm sure there are some smart asses out there, on the other hand you could learn something from their expierience.
A very easy way to find good workers of any age is by checking how long they have had previous jobs. Some one that changes jobs every six months is probably not as good a candidate as somebody that had only three jobs in the last twenty years. and simply got laid off because they are old now (this is actually illegal but very hard to prove)]and the cost the company more.

I think many companies make a big mistake when they have those policies, and are Penny wise and Dollar foolish.

[xoomer]

Originally Posted by equalrightsforeveryone

The upside of hiring older workers is that they are a lot more reliable when it comes to showing up for work and in most cases are more motivated to do a good job.
As far as "knowing everything" I'm sure there are some smart asses out there, on the other hand you could learn something from their expierience.
A very easy way to find good workers of any age is by checking how long they have had previous jobs. Some one that changes jobs every six months is probably not as good a candidate as somebody that had only three jobs in the last twenty years. and simply got laid off because they are old now (this is actually illegal but very hard to prove)]and the cost the company more.

I think many companies make a big mistake when they have those policies, and are Penny wise and Dollar foolish.

You are right about older employees generally being more reliable. One problem with hiring younger, single women, was that they often got married in a year or two and had a baby so they needed time off when the baby was born. Also, every time the kid got sick they had to be off work. Then, if the husband got a better job somewhere else they moved away. (I'm not trying to start a war, I'm just stating the facts as I saw them). Overall, though, younger employees were generally more willing to be taught "our way" of doing things.

There are several considerations and tradeoffs when hiring anyone, young or old.

[equalrightsforeveryone]

I agree there are many problems.
The biggest is that there no longer exists any Employer-employee or Employee-employer Loyalty.
And I don't think it will change soon.

[sunbabe73]

Oh my... what did I start here? I'm not sure what to say now that this has turned into a war about the economy. All the issues with job security are very real and definitely stink, but that conversation wasn't really what I was trying to achieve. I was simply looking for advice on the local area that were things maybe I couldn't find on the internet with my research pertaining to housing places to target for a job search. I'm sorry this went in such a direction of the bad economy. I mentioned all my various background (engineering, medical, etc.) to allow people to think of more than one area of employment to give me clues. Times constantly change and I have been fortunate enough to change careers and have some great long lasting jobs over the years. I'm afraid to see where this comment will lead the conversation now, so I will close for now.

I would like to thank Hemidancer and Florida Paradise for some positive info. And also to xoomer- never been to Texas, might have to plan a vacation and check it out.

Thank you to everyone for their comments, all are appreciated because it does help give insight (even if it isn't what I want to hear.) My love of Florida may be the ruin of me- haha!

[nhkev]

I know we say a lot of times whatever job you get probably won't pay as much as you would make elsewhere. Well here is a perfect example. I was thinking about changing the floor tile in the kitchen and entryway and ripping up carpet in the great room and putting carpet there as well. So I was in a home depot this evening in Massachusetts to get a rough idea of the price. The cost per labor they were advertising was $5.37 per sq ft. That seemed a little high so I called the home depot in Cape Coral, expecting it would be around $4.00 per sq ft. I am shocked it was only $1.97 per sq ft. Not even half the labor cost as up here. For $5.37 I would've done it myself but at $1.97 I'd be stupid not to pay someone to do it. But that is a low labor wage for a tough physical job.