IT Jobs in Northern Virginia (Reston, Manassas: apartment, renting, mortgage)

[Nascarfan23]

Hello everyone,

How is the current IT job market in NOVA? I'll be graduating from college in one year with a degree in MIS and five years of IT experience. NOVA has been reported as having some of the highest IT salaries in the nation, but I'm not sure if that is just "talk."

Thanks

[Caladium]

Better than most other places, but that's not necessarily saying much. I wouldn't move here without a job on the gamble that you'll easily find something. Used to be you could do that, but not these days.

[VRE332]

There's lots of good IT jobs here, you wont have a problem. Just be sure to look at the cost of living and the 1+ hour commutes each way. Don't let the salaries mislead you.

[Nascarfan23]

I've been looking at living in the Warrenton area. Are most of the IT jobs in DC or in Fairfax, Manassas, etc?

[SteelCityRising]

Agreed with the most recent poster about not being lured into a false sense of security about the high salaries, as the high cost-of-living here rapidly erodes that "perk." For example, I'm renting a 1-BR apartment outside the Beltway for $1,135/month, and that's considered "a good deal" while my PARENTS pay less than that for the mortgage on a 3 BR, 1 BA, 1,500-square-foot home back in PA. It's all relative. Back "home" my salary of just under $42,000 would be about the median household income, and I'd be resented by middle-aged blue-collars who made the same salary at their "peak." Down here I'm "poor" earning $42,000 while many of my 22-year-old peers seem to drive BMWs and Lexuses, so once again it's all relative.

I'd choose the position that offered the best "perks", even if it had a lower salary. In my case I'll be earning over $60,000 by the time I'm 24, so it's worth it to "struggle" a bit financially for two years because of that expected pay off as well as the fact that I have great medical benefits, vacation time, and tuition reimbursement for graduate school. Some of my friends at different firms are starting roughly $10,000 more than I am annually as their salary but are being given bare bones perks due to this awful recession. Since I'll eventually be earning the same as them anyways after several years it just made more sense for me to choose the opportunity I did.

Best of luck in whatever you do though! My father is an IT project manager and has been laid off, transferred, and tossed around like a pawn in a game of chess. That is a VERY volatile industry!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Nascarfan23

I've been looking at living in the Warrenton area. Are most of the IT jobs in DC or in Fairfax, Manassas, etc?

Most of the IT jobs are actually outside of the Beltway in the Reston/Herndon area, also known as the "Dulles Tech Corridor." I know Oracle has a huge installation here in Reston, along with BAE Systems, Raytheon, Sprint, AOL, and many other major firms between these two suburbs.

[qwertman]

the IT job market is good, how easy it is to find a job could depend on the position you're looking for though. There's A LOT of tech jobs through most of fairfax county and stretching into loudon county. The dulles corridor - tysons, reston, herdon, sterling, seem to have the most jobs. Warrenton is kinda far out. Manassas will have some jobs, that would be the closest to Warrenton.

[oneasterisk]

It's certainly not just "talk". There are some really high paying jobs out here. Also the NOVA region enjoys comparitively lower unemployment rate since we are so close to DC. If you can't find a job with a private company, gov't contracting is another alternative. There are a ton of contracts out here and contractors make up a large chunk of the workforce. I've been contracting for almost 10yrs and the money/benifits have been great.

What field of IT do you have experience or want to get into? IT is just too broad a description these days.

While most of the jobs are closer into the city, there are jobs further out. Most companies and all gov't have BCDR initiatives, they'll have alternate datacenters further out of the city. I work at one and they keep me plenty busy.

[Nascarfan23]

Thanks everyone for responding. For the last five years, I've been working as a systems administrator. Going forward, I'd like to either remain a systems administrator or migrate into a role where I can act as the "middle man" between the IT side and the end user. My specialty is Windows and I don't have much Linux/Unix experience. I've been viewing the IT recruiter listings for NOVA and there seems to be a lot of programming jobs, jobs that require a TS clearance, and jobs that require Linux/Unix experience.

[horseplayer]

TS clearance took me a little over a year to obtain. Everyone has Windows experience. That would be like a mechanic emphasizing his parking skills. How big was the network you supported? Do you have a degree?