[Oden]

Hi everyone, I'm single and just graduated college with a bachelors in MIS and minor in networking I have a job offer in omaha for 32k and another in lincoln for 34k Just curious about the area(s) and which would be the better for me to take. Also is this salary on par for the area? Both jobs are similar and the location seems to be the biggest difference. Any information or advice would be great, thanks!

[kosnebbear]

Omaha and Lincoln both have their plus and minus sides. If you are into a night life after work then Omaha would fit better. You will find about anything you will want or need in both cities. Rent in both cities will be about the same. If you are into buying a home the prices will also be about the same. With Omaha you have several communities that are either part of Omaha today or share city limits with each other. No matter where you find a place you will that your drive time will not be over 20 to 30 minutes with traffic in Omaha. Lincoln is a city with no other cities next to it with any major size. The traffic in Lincoln is not a bad as it is in Omaha due to the fact that there are not as many people in the Lincoln area as compared to Omaha. It will be up to you in which area will fit you best. Take the time and go visit both areas before picking the job. It is best to be happy where you are living over what you get paid.

Good luck and welcome to Nebraska.

[Wandulonian]

I live in Omaha but worked in Lincoln for years, personally I perfer Omaha. There is just so much more to do, more people around. When UNL's classes end Lincoln becomes a ghost town. Also, I disagree with the prior claim that the traffic in Linc is better. Omaha does have the occasional traffic jam, but they are easy to avoid if you know where you are going. Lincoln does have less traffic, however they also don't really have a freeway so going from one part of town to the next can still take 40 min. When it comes down to it you need to ecide if you want to be in a city of 250,000 or 1 mil.

[jesse--james]

I would also like to add that if you are only going to make 32k -- then once you start your new job -- keep looking -- you should be able to make at least 45 k with a degree if you live in Omaha.

[Katarina Witt]

I live in neither town, so perhaps can be more objective (?!). $2K will not make much of a difference. Go with the best job. You can make either place work for you. If you are young, you might actually like Lincoln better, though Omaha has several universities as well.

[DTO Luv]

I would definantly say Omaha. Lincoln is not a place to be long term. The town is very transient as most people move away after college. Also Lincoln doesn't have nearly the corporate strength of Omaha so I think you'd be limiting yourself living and working in Lincoln.

[mattpoulsen]

I would say it depends on the job. Like Pittnurse said, the $2000 difference isn't much of a difference. The possibility for moving up exists in both cities and it really depends on your sector and the company you work for. Also, keep in mind that it is very easy to make a lateral change from Lincoln to Omaha and vice-versa. The cities are only about 40 minutes apart and I have known many people who will work in Omaha for a while then take a position in Lincoln and vice-versa. Lincoln has more of a college feel to it, which may be attractive as a young person. Omaha has more of a metropolitan feel to it, which from my experience, becomes more attractive when you're a late 20's single professional.

It just boils down to your personal preference, but I wouldn't let the $2000 difference in salary sway your opinion too much. I would look more into room for advancement and company reputation.

[bobneussendorfer]

Just my opinion but having lived in both cities I prefer Omaha. Lincoln was fun for the college bar scene and it really seemed like a fitness city in that people were out on the trails all the time. Omaha just seems to have so much more to offer. Better shows, better restaraunts, lots of festivals, blah, blah, blah. I also feel there's many more business opportunities here as well. Traffic is heavy in Omaha but at least people are getting there. I swear it seemed that down in Lincoln, everybody was driving like they were looking for an address....20 mph in a 35 consistantly! Omaha is great and getting better.

[kosnebbear]

Sorry but I can not agree with Wandulonian on the size of Omaha. Seems as if I had to make this same point in another thread as well.

If you check you will see that Omaha by itself as a city is only around 420,000 in size. The 1 million plus that everyone wants to claim that Omaha is in size comes from eight different counties that are Omaha and those around Omaha. Bellevue is a town that is not part of Omaha, Council Bluffs is a town not part of Omaha and it is one of the three counties in IOWA that is part of the Omaha metro area. You have Ralston, Papillion, LaVista and Fremont all of which people in Omaha seems to think that these cities which are still cities on their own that are not part of Omaha, but are counted in the over all 1 million plus population for the Omaha Metro area.

So why stop here with Omaha claiming three counties in IOWA and five more in Nebraska for being 1 million in population, why not claim that, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, Scottsbluff and all of Nebraska as part of Omaha. This way instead of claiming that Omaha is 1 million plus, you can then claim that Omaha is over 2million in population. Go check the facts and you will see that Omaha alone is just about 420,000 and this is with the recent take over of Elkhorn by Omaha. These are not my figures it is the figures of Omaha which you can check out on the City-Data web site under Nebbraska first then by going to the city called Omaha next.

Also I don't know why it takes you 40 minutes to go across town, when I can do it during peak traffic time in less than 20 minutes. You must be one of those individuals that bobneussendorfer is talking about who must be driving 20 MPH in a 35 MPH zone looking for an address or are you one who comes to Lincoln to cause traffic problems. Don't know which one you are and really don't care. After all your facts about Omaha being 1 million in population is baseless so I can assume that your point about the traffic is also baseless.

[DTO Luv]

You're wrong once again kosnebbear about the population. Every city in the country is measured in population by the same standards. It's not Omaha trying to make itself look bigger. It's actuallty that big.

There are many bi and tri state metros in the country. For example, NYC the city itself is over 8,000,000 people. But in the metro that also includes cities in the different states of New Jersey and Connecticut, the NYC metro is over 20,000,000 people.