Moving to Great Falls --- How Will I Fair? (apartment, rent)

[heavy_heart]

Hi there!!

I've been planning on moving to Great Falls from Cape Cod, MA, for quite a few months now. I'm 22 and I'm just really sick of living here, and I haven't been able to find a job for the past several months. My cousins live in Great Falls and said jobs are more plentiful there. Here are some of my qualifications: Associates degree, computer skills and typing, medical terminology, canine and feline first aid certification, state certification as a preschool teacher, cleaning experience...I'm currently a pet-sitter, under the table, but I'd be interested in working with animals (my dream), office work, cleaning, child care, hospitality, retail, etc. How do you think I would fair in the job market there? Here, I'm either "overqualified" or "don't meet requirements." No one is willing to train you here, they expect you to already have experience before you apply. It's really stupid.

And how about renting a safe one- or two-bedroom apartment? Our minimum wage here is around $8.50 and a one- or two-bedroom apartment is around $800-$2000/mo. plus utilities. I can't afford that.

ALSO, do you have a community college there? University? Any degrees in animal studies? I might be looking to get my Bachelor's. Is there any way I could sort of intern or apprentice to learn dog grooming or dog training or animal care? Anyone know?


Thank you SO much for any help. I'm still trying to figure out if going there would be a good idea or a total mistake. Just trying to ease my worries...


Ps. I hope this was the right place to post this. I'm new here. :\

[cedar_bluff_tree_farm]

I think your best bet would be to study animal science and get a bachelor of science degree.....perhaps go on to become a veterinarian if that interests you. Montana State University offers a pre-vet program I believe.

Montana is a tough place to make a go at it. Having a job lined up before you move will greatly help your chance of success.

Not sure about Great Falls, but many parts of Montana aren't doing as well right now and are facing high unemployment rates and few jobs.

[Rickers]

Originally Posted by heavy_heart

My cousins live in Great Falls and said jobs are more plentiful there.

Get a commitment from your cousins to support you (temporarily) in case it takes longer than expected to find a job you can live on. The pay rates for many jobs can be so low that you may have to live in a dumpy trailer or put up with sharing a place until you work your way into a better paying job. This state is very tough to move to in an economic slump unless you have a skill that is in high demand.
Welcome to the CD forums and good luck to you.

[Walter Greenspan]

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heavy_heart, to get a better feel for the City of Great Falls, you might want to give the Greater Falls blog a look-see ...
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[heavy_heart]

I follow the jobs.mt.gov Twitter feed and there are jobs posted every day that I'd be interested in. I'm assuming it's all legit since it's on a .gov site? My cousins are more than willing to put me up as long as I need.

To be completely honest, I feel like anything would be better than living here right now. I'm not planning on going out until at least March. When would be a safe time to drive there?

[organick]

Originally Posted by heavy_heart

I follow the jobs.mt.gov Twitter feed and there are jobs posted every day that I'd be interested in. I'm assuming it's all legit since it's on a .gov site? My cousins are more than willing to put me up as long as I need.

To be completely honest, I feel like anything would be better than living here right now. I'm not planning on going out until at least March. When would be a safe time to drive there?

I dont think its legit..........no way there are gov jobs coming open daily in great falls. Try using a more legit way to find work than twitter

[MTsam]

We registered with the jobs.mt.gov site and got leads on lots of jobs in the area we were interested in. It is a legit site, run by the state. It doesn't list just gov jobs (if there are any available) but pulls from local area job postings such as from job services, newspapers, etc. Only problem with this system is the amount of people applying for jobs- more people applying than there are positions available. As for Twitter, I think the OP meant that she could access the jobs.mt.gov website through Twitter, not that Twitter was directly offering government jobs in MT.

[severdsoul]

get use to the wind... and hope its blowing... great falls has more wind than chicago, almost every day.
When its not blowing, its either going to be realy hot, or realy cold.
but over all , not a bad place to live, we lived there for about 7 years. Not much for scenery, but its ok, decent sized town, everything you need.
as for a job, just to get you going look up N.E.W. Great Falls ..
National Electronics Warranty ?sp? They are always hiring, and not bad pay, i worked there for 5 years, its phone work, but no outbound, people call in with the warranties etc.. it wil get you by until you find something. They are always (or were) begging for people. I was making $10 a hour when i left. It pays the bills.
Housing is not to bad there, just have to shop around, depending on what you are looking for.
Great Falls Tribune is the main paper, you can find it onilne as well.
We just could not stand being that far away from the mountians, to go hunting was a hour drive just to get to the mountians.
Get use to the sound of jets, the Air Force fly's out of the airport there.. i do miss that.. have some great shots of some of them taking off.. Good point is you know when things are going on, one day we had 6 jets take off, and once they cleared the runway, nailed the gas and were gone, could not even track them with our eyes, they were going so fast.
Easy town to navigate in, once you get use to how its layed out, but 10th street has most everything.
winters? expect a week or two of 30 below, but over all, not to bad. But a little advice, with the wind and cold temps get a block heater put on your car if you dont have one. Some days it will save your butt.

[Mt-7]

Hi Heart
Here are a few older comments on Great Falls //www.city-data.com/forum/monta...community.html
that said,
Coming here with family will be a plus for you. There is a sense of taking care of family and being able to claim some will help you in the job market. I understand the rent you are paying, similar in Oregon with the same pay scale. My pay is not very different coming here but boy are my COL expenses down.
That said if you are free of responsibilities this is the time in your life to try new things. When you present yourself just hold off on overselling yourself. This is Montana and a bit of the old world still lives here.
Good luck and come to the Let's Visit thread and introduce yourself

[magoomafoo]

Originally Posted by organick

I dont think its legit..........no way there are gov jobs coming open daily in great falls. Try using a more legit way to find work than twitter

Yes, it is legit. I got a job with the county off the montana jobs gov website. That's where you go to file unemploy. online, get business regulations and codes ect....