Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was raised in the Chicago suburbs and am now finishing my Bachelor's at a private school in the Quad Cities (IL/IA border). Although there is nothing inherently wrong with the midwest, I'm tired of the long,harsh winters that limit outdoor activities, along with hot, sometimes humid summers.
I love being outdoors and active. I'm a serious runner and a biker.
My degree is in Business Marketing and Finance, plus a bunch of Communications courses.
My previous job experience includes a year at John Deere in the communications department at one of their factories, an internship in the marketing / PR department at a local hospital, design editor for our school's newspaper, along with some IT intern work while in high school.
Although I do have a network here, both at home in Chicago and here in the Quad Cities, I want a change. One of my concerns of staying here in the Quad Cities was the limited twenty-somethings that stay here. It seems like most of the college educated people leave the area and go either to Chicago or Des Moines, so theres a pretty large gap of educated people between 22 and 30.
Basically, I'm looking for an area that is going to have a decent amount of people my age, have decent job opportunities, availability of outdoorsy activities, and mild weather conditions.
Anyways places I've ruled out of moving to mainly due to the extreme weather or super high cost of living:
Florida
California
Mississippi
Louisiana
Northeast (NJ/NY etc)
Places I've thought of:
Boulder, CO
Madison, WI (yes, I know its similar weather, but I hear its niceish?)
Portland, OR
Seattle,WA
Salt Lake City
North Carolina???
As a new grad with some experience, how would you go about finding jobs? Move first then look, or look then move based on a offer? Is there anywhere else besides Indeed and Monster.com to look for jobs?
I was raised in the Chicago suburbs and am now finishing my Bachelor's at a private school in the Quad Cities (IL/IA border). Although there is nothing inherently wrong with the midwest, I'm tired of the long,harsh winters that limit outdoor activities, along with hot, sometimes humid summers.
I love being outdoors and active. I'm a serious runner and a biker.
My degree is in Business Marketing and Finance, plus a bunch of Communications courses.
My previous job experience includes a year at John Deere in the communications department at one of their factories, an internship in the marketing / PR department at a local hospital, design editor for our school's newspaper, along with some IT intern work while in high school.
Although I do have a network here, both at home in Chicago and here in the Quad Cities, I want a change. One of my concerns of staying here in the Quad Cities was the limited twenty-somethings that stay here. It seems like most of the college educated people leave the area and go either to Chicago or Des Moines, so theres a pretty large gap of educated people between 22 and 30.
Basically, I'm looking for an area that is going to have a decent amount of people my age, have decent job opportunities, availability of outdoorsy activities, and mild weather conditions.
Anyways places I've ruled out of moving to mainly due to the extreme weather or super high cost of living:
Florida
California
Mississippi
Louisiana
Northeast (NJ/NY etc)
Places I've thought of:
Boulder, CO
Madison, WI (yes, I know its similar weather, but I hear its niceish?)
Portland, OR
Seattle,WA
Salt Lake City
North Carolina???
As a new grad with some experience, how would you go about finding jobs? Move first then look, or look then move based on a offer? Is there anywhere else besides Indeed and Monster.com to look for jobs?
Seattle is pretty freaking expensive if you're concerned about cost of living.
Seattle is pretty freaking expensive if you're concerned about cost of living.
Boulder, too. Pretty much anywhere with mild weather, outdoor activities, stuff to do and jobs is going to have a higher COL - hence your list of cities with high COL
You listed a couple college towns- they're usually not the best choice for jobs with competitive wages. Seattle would be good, and Denver too, but both are expensive. Salt Lake seems to be the best overall fit for your listed criteria (young folk, reasonably mild weather, access to outdoor activities, jobs, reasonable COL)
Shoot, if you can get a job and deal with the insane COL in Boulder it would be your paradise
Seattle is pretty freaking expensive if you're concerned about cost of living.
Yes it is expensive, but not california or NYC expensive. Not nearly. A lot of the costs here are absorbed into housing. If you want to buy a house, it is FREAKISHLY expensive. Think $600k for a shack if you want to live in the desirable areas of north Seattle. Suburbs are alright, relatively speaking. That's where all the population growth and families are moving to because the city has gotten so expensive to live in.
I was born and raised on the Southside, and moved out to Seattle for a job. The gas is more expensive, and rent is more expensive, but nothing unheard of it you, say, wanted to live downtown in Chicago or the Quad Cities. With your major you could easily find a studio or efficiency 1 bedroom, or even better, find roommates that are cool. Lots of people here do that.
The weather here is unbeatable in the summer. Think 75 and sunny every. single. day. for three months. It's our payback for the 7 months of grey drizzle in the late autumn/winter/early spring.
There's basically everything you would ever want to do in the Puget Sound area if you're an outdoorsman.
People slow down and move over for bicyclists here. And pedestrians. violent crime is very low (though property crime is somewhat higher in the city). There's artistic scenes and hipsters here, and the diversity is pretty cool (I don't mean ethnic diversity so much as diversity of thought). The food is awesome (except there's only one SEMI-Chicago style pizza place here, I miss me Giordano's).
It's not perfect. Inefficient city government, ultra-liberals, and meetup.com centric social scene are very different if you're used to Chicago. The road conditions are abhorrent and the drivers are zombies at best, and have zero logical movements on the road. But it's well worth it here.
Those are major cities (except maybe Boise - it's a little smaller but still big enough) that you should look out if you love the outdoors. I live in the Denver area and spend so much time in the mountains, it's ridiculous! It will be a long time before I get bored with all there is to do in Colorado's Rockies and look elsewhere.
If you are okay with smaller cities...
Bozeman, MT
Portland, ME
Flagstaff, AZ
Coeur d'Alene, ID
Burlington, VT
Santa Fe, NM
Bozeman and Flagstaff are also both college towns, so with their outdoor setting there will be many people with your same interests.
I omitted Southeastern locations like Asheville, NC because if you're anything like me, trying to enjoy the outdoors is difficult in such oppressive heat. The average high in summer for Asheville looks like the mid-80s, but when you add the high humidity...
Also, it would be preferable to secure a job for yourself before moving anywhere. If you move first and look after, at least make sure you can live with a friend or something while you look, otherwise you could find yourself in big trouble if it doesn't work out.
Last edited by Melanzana92; 12-19-2011 at 09:29 PM..
Those are major cities (except maybe Boise - it's a little smaller but still big enough) that you should look out if you love the outdoors. I live in the Denver area and spend so much time in the mountains, it's ridiculous! It will be a long time before I get bored with all there is to do in Colorado's Rockies and look elsewhere.
If you are okay with smaller cities...
Bozeman, MT
Portland, ME
Flagstaff, AZ
Coeur d'Alene, ID
Burlington, VT
Santa Fe, NM
Bozeman and Flagstaff are also both college towns, so with their outdoor setting there will be many people with your same interests.
I omitted Southeastern locations like Asheville, NC because if you're anything like me, trying to enjoy the outdoors is difficult in such oppressive heat. The average high in summer for Asheville looks like the mid-80s, but when you add the high humidity...
Also, it would be preferable to secure a job for yourself before moving anywhere. If you move first and look after, at least make sure you can live with a friend or something while you look, otherwise you could find yourself in big trouble if it doesn't work out.
If Burlington VT is suggested, then Ithaca NY should also be considered and the COL there is lower than many of these other smaller places, including Asheville NC and has a similar vibe. Another sleeper in Upstate NY could be Saratoga County and the adjacent Glens Falls metro. Plattsburgh, which is across Lake Champlain from Burlington and an hour south of Montreal is another sleeper. Both of the sleeper areas are very close to the Adirondacks as well.
It's a shame you ruled out the entire state of California.
Boulder is expensive, Boulder/Denver suburbs and much of Denver itself is not. Even within the Puget Sound region centered on Seattle, affordable living can be found. I myself wouldn't let perceived cost-of-living stop me -- every place has its affordable areas (the poor/lower middle classes have to live somewhere).
IMO, your criteria needs to be narrowed further. You can pretty much throw a dart at every state west of the Great Plains and meet your criteria, save for a few places with harsher winters (Bozeman, I saw mentioned).
What about Texas? Dallas or Austin have decent weather albeit hot in the summer. They do however get all 4 seasons. North Carolina especially Raleigh or Charlotte have mostly moderate weather if you are bothered by humidity too much. And all of these areas have plenty of smart twenty somethings. The job markets are pretty good too especially texas. Denver also would probably be a good be also. Maybe sacramento California it's far cheaper than San Fransisco or much of Southern Cali. And the weather is moderate.
What about Texas? Dallas or Austin have decent weather albeit hot in the summer. They do however get all 4 seasons. North Carolina especially Raleigh or Charlotte have mostly moderate weather if you are bothered by humidity too much. And all of these areas have plenty of smart twenty somethings. The job markets are pretty good too especially texas. Denver also would probably be a good be also. Maybe sacramento California it's far cheaper than San Fransisco or much of Southern Cali. And the weather is moderate.
Dallas is a far, far cry from an outdoorsman's paradise. Even Austin is iffy, there are lots of recreation options in town but nothing that compares to what Seattle, California, or Colorado can offer.
Basically, I'm looking for an area that is going to have a decent amount of people my age, have decent job opportunities, availability of outdoorsy activities, and mild weather conditions.
Anyways places I've ruled out of moving to mainly due to the extreme weather or super high cost of living:
Florida
California
Mississippi
Louisiana
Northeast (NJ/NY etc)
Places I've thought of:
Boulder, CO
Madison, WI (yes, I know its similar weather, but I hear its niceish?)
Portland, OR
Seattle,WA
Salt Lake City
North Carolina???
As a new grad with some experience, how would you go about finding jobs? Move first then look, or look then move based on a offer? Is there anywhere else besides Indeed and Monster.com to look for jobs?
Don't go to the east coast period if you are an outdoors person. Too many rude people and awful weather this side of the country. You picked many good choices. Go to Colorado. Don't look back.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
