Moving to Northern Virginia...recommendations??

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by chimelright0529

Sorry! I'm an art teacher and my husband is a graphic designer, so not the biggest budget in the world, but hopefully once we get secure jobs we will have something to work with.

The schools here are run by the counties, so you'll want to apply directly with them. Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Arlington, and Alexandria will all have processes and hiring fairs (usually right around this time of year). A good portion of the hiring does not get completed until summer though (when all the remaining vacancies are made public), so this could be a last minute scramble.

The salary schedules for all the counties are publicly available with some quick googling.

[finalmove]

You'll need to make a minimum of $120K combined to make it in the Northern Virginia area. Think Park City.
You'll burn through your savings quickly unless you find work as soon as you arrive. This place has no mercy.
Make a couple of trips here before you make your decision.

[stpickrell]

You may find lower prices (and a slower pace of life) in the western counties -- think Frederick-Clarke-Warren-Loudoun in VA or Washington-Frederick in MD.

If you insist on coming here w/o work I would find a relatively cheap place in any of Winchester, Frederick, Hagerstown, Charles Town, Front Royal, Fredericksburg, or Annapolis and use that as a temporary base for interviewing for real jobs/working at whatever time-filler you do for the $$$. Be prepared to eat the lease break fee once you find a "real" job.

[marie5v]

Someone has already listed the counties you can teach in - I think Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun are the largest. All are comparable in salary and work conditions. Just look them up online (fcps.edu is Fairfax). Apply now and hopefully you can go to some of the hiring fairs where they do the early hiring. Those are probably coming up in the spring. Don't know if it matters to you, but I think there must be a sizable lds population in Fairfax - they come to my door sometimes and they built a huge church down the street. You might also consider Montgomery County schools in Maryland, which actually has a union (we don't).

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by finalmove

You'll need to make a minimum of $120K combined to make it in the Northern Virginia area. Think Park City.
You'll burn through your savings quickly unless you find work as soon as you arrive. This place has no mercy.
Make a couple of trips here before you make your decision.

That is quite the exaggeration.

When my husband and I first moved to Alexandria in 2009, we were making roughly $80k combined. And we did just fine. If would have had child related expenses, we would have just had to cut out the movies, going out to eat, baseball games, comedy shows, etc.

I do agree that OP should not move to the area until they have jobs lined up.

[Fredesch]

This may not be the best time for you to move to Nova. DC is the fourth most expensive region in the US. And we are number 1 in traffic congestion. Unless you both get jobs that will greatly increase your income, you will be lowering your quality of life. Also there is no real skiing here and the few things they call skiing around here will be disappointing. Enjoy the greatest snow on earth while you can.