Move to Minnetonka-Unemployed-Dating (Minneapolis, Wells: sales, mortgage broker, broker)

[NeedSnow]

I'm currently living in CA and seriously considering a move that puts me close to Lake Minnetonka. I love all that it has to offer and I'm a snowmobile fanatic (grew up where there was snow back east) and love the summers on the lake as well, so I think it would be a nice place to settle.

I've visited a few times and have friends that work for Best Buy's corporate offices and law firms in the Minneapolis area. We're all just under 30 years old. However, I would be moving without even attempting to look at the employment classifieds. My background is mortgage brokerage and I have Series 7 and 63 licenses (stock broker and financial advisory) but never used them (except to trade daily for myself lol)..

For the last two years I've only worked 2-3 days a week (by choice) at a friends auto business not making any more than $2,000-$3,000 a month. However, during the boom years I did very well and would be coming with a $700,000 nest egg and no debt whatsoever..

So for a single guy and no set career path, how would the transition be? If anyone else is looking or knows, how is the financial sector doing in regards to hiring there? If I just wanted to get a hold-over job selling cars or something, how is that end of the employment market until I figure out what I want to do?

Last, what's the dating scene like? Are there many young professional females in their late 20's or are they all married with kids? Hey, it's the mid-west so I have to ask.. lol

[uptown_urbanist]

Everyone in Minnetonka is married with kids, but then again, I think that's why they moved to the Minnetonka area. I could be wrong, but I don't think the area is known for its happening young single scene (other than the boat scene in the summer). On the other hand, you should be fine if you're looking at the metro area as a whole; there are plenty of single people out there.

I've heard the financial sector is really picking up. Check out Wells Fargo; my Wells Fargo friends told me that they're even handing out generous recruitment bonuses for certain types of jobs right now.

[gweilo845]

I'm actually working for Wells Fargo Investments right now.

Due to the merger with Wachovia, the day-to-day operations are going to be moved in January to Wachovia's HQ in St. Louis, while the majority of the Minneapolis facilities are going to become their call center hub. I haven't heard anything about recruitment bonuses, at least on the investments (brokerage) side. With a large pool of people competing for positions, there's really no incentive for WF to have to offer bonuses.

With the series 7 and 63 licenses, the OP could possibly get a position as a phone trader in an incoming call queue. But that would just be a straight hourly wage, and not a great one at that. A lot of the positions are being given to those already working for WF, so as an outside candidate with no previous experience, they might have a tough hop getting their foot in the door.

I know the bank branch of WF is hiring agressively for "personal bankers" but from what I gather those are pretty much straight sales jobs - no sales -> no comissions -> no money.

You could always try looking on WF's site, but like I said, with a lot of internal candidates with years of experience with WF applying for the open jobs, it's going to be tough.

[golfgal]

There are a lot of financial companies in the Twin Cities area that would need someone with a 7 and a 63, and experience. I don't think finding a job in that industry will be difficult-KEEPING that job is the issue. Most of those jobs are going to be sales orientated so you will need to keep up with quotas, etc. If you don't want to do sales and are ok making $35-40K/year you could work as an assistant to a financial adviser/planner.

Minnetonka is an expensive area. Even coming in with $700K nest egg-at your age, that doesn't give you much for income if you want it to last the next 60 or so years.