Sending resumes in portland area (job market, salary, live)

[Minervah]

I just wanted to add I was not trying to be sarcastic in my posts. A couple of us here giving advice were on the hiring end of what you are trying to do so we are really trying to be helpful. Nell Potts is a great scource of knowledge. I was responsible for only a couple of companies in one department each but I learned pretty much how it works on that side of the desk.

I am sensing a bit of an attitude of resistance on your part and you do not wnat that to come through to an employer. Believe me. I know it is difficult to someone with lots of experience and intelligence but you have to know that from the hiring point of view it can be just as frustrating to the employer as it is to the applicant because there are so many out there.

Please don't take the rather unusual Portland hiring criteria personally. It's the same for everyone with the possible exception of those whose skills are really in very high demand.

What Doggiemama described is very typical of the Portland employment seeker from out of town but that also goes for those of us who are already living here who are looking for work after being laid off as I have been several times in the past. So it is not only transplants who must play the game.

[jjpop]

I'm not sensing an attitude from the OP, just a general disbelief that after 1 week of sending resumes he/she hasn't gotten any responses.

I would just say "welcome to the club." After 1 week, even highly educated and experienced natives are unlikely to get a response--even when applying for specific jobs. I can tell you there's just not the urgency here in Portland that you have in other parts of the country. Things just go slower and you have to wait it out. And if you're sending resumes cold (i.e. not applying for a specific opening) you'll likely never hear from the employers.

[kcam]

Sorry if this is hijacking, I just signed up and saw this topic is similar to the one I was going to create so I figured I would just ask here. If I should post this as a separate thread, please let me know.

I am starting to actively look into moving to Portland, too. My boyfriend has the opportunity to transfer to Portland to work for IBEW (national electrical union) and the only thing holding us back at the moment is the worry that I will not be able to find a job there. We currently live in Los Angeles and his current commute (anywhere from 45mins - 2.5 hour commute every day) is starting to wear on him. We pay $1500 for our two bedroom apartment and in order to get his son into a halfway decent school we had to get put on a waiting list and luckily win a lottery spot for him to attend. We're really tired of this and think that Portland presents a better opportunity for us financially. It also seems to present a better life for his son, who can attend a school that has better ratings as well as live in an actual neighborhood and not just a street in a city.

I work in social media management, which doesn't look like a highly demanded profession in Portland. However, because the cost of living in Portland seems to be much lower than where we currently live and union workers seem to get paid more there, I am okay with taking a paycut. My question is, how hard will it be for me to find an entry-level administrative job or something to pay the bills while I look for a full-time job in something like marketing/pr/advertising/copywriting? Ideally I would need a job that keeps steady hours since I would be taking my boyfriend's son to school in the morning.

[Minervah]

Let's put it this way, it will be the same for you as it will be for the OP. Your best bet would be to start with a temp agency and go from there. Expect minium wage. Your skills are not those in demand but with a temp agency you can get your foot in the door in many places and work you way up. Maybe you can eventually find something in your field eventually but at least you will have had some background working in Portland and employers like that.

However the good news. Your BF's transfer is your solid gold ticket. Take it. You can find a nice two bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood for $1500 or less depending upon where you go. I live in a neighborhood that is very popular where they go for around $1200 on up but less expensive can certainly be found in other areas just as nice but not quite so trendy. The only problem is finding them because Portland has a very low vacancy rate.

Take a look at padmapper and Portland Neighborhoods online and see what appeals to you. Or maybe Portland suburbs. The schools are good there. Lake Oswego and Beaverton have really good schools. In Portland schools can be kind of hit or miss.

[kcam]

Thanks, Minervah! Temp and minimum wage is fine with me. The income my boyfriend makes is decent so really all I am being asked to do is find something to bring in a little extra cash for the time being. We both understand that moving somewhere completely new means starting over in a lot of areas!

I spent the majority of my afternoon looking at padmapper and researching Portland yesterday on Portland Neighborhoods and I noticed the vacancies are so slim, like you mentioned. I read online that there are vacancies that are sometimes not even posted on CL or the other major sites. Is Portland that exclusive? It seems like a club.

We are willing to spend more on a place to live, providing we can find a house somewhere. We are tired of living in apartments, have a little money saved (and are currently saving more). We can even afford more in LA; we rented in a conservative price range three years ago and have since both gotten raises/promotions. Commuting is not a big deal for us since he already drives so much that nothing is probably worse than the commute he does now. Since he works construction, he starts jobs around 6:00-6:30 and is done by 2:30 or 3:00 so rush hour is not usually a factor for him.

Speaking of this, do you have a neighborhood you'd recommend? I saw what you wrote about the schools in the suburbs, so I'll look into Beaverton/Lake Oswego. What are those areas like? Ideally my dream neighborhood is a mix of convenience (easy access to public transportation, close to grocery stores and schools) and character (I'd rather not live somewhere that is strip mall after parking lot after chain restaurant, but I'm not opposed to living somewhere where it skews a little suburban). So far I've gathered that Portland is basically split up into 4 areas (NW, SW, NE, SE) and so far the SE portion looked/sounded the most appealing to me, but this all based off of online research.

We plan on coming to visit next month to check out the area before making a final decision on whether or not he should accept the transfer. I'm excited at the prospect and am looking forward to hopefully getting out of super-sunny cookie cutter LA!

[Minervah]

I live in SE Portland so I know the most about it. It's called Buckman and Sunnyside along Hawthorne Blvd to the north and Hosford Abernathy and Richmond to the South. It's shamefully trendy but in my defense it wasn't when I first moved here 25 years ago. It's kind of famous now. There are lots of houses and some apartments.

But most neighborhoods NE or SE close-in meaning closest to downtown but not right near it are going to be pretty nice and near shopping. No strip malls just older neighborhoods with large homes and big trees although some are growing big ugly apartment buildings but that's another thread.

What you will have to do because housing is pretty scarce is first find something that looks good to you and then check out the neighborhood. Beaverton is a bit more suburban-y looking though, you might want to check that out. Lake Oswego is like a small town. Very pretty. A bit more expensive. There is also the suburb of Milwaukie which to me is also small town looking.

The city is divided like you said. The NW, NE and SE are very city looking. Lots of trendy stores, very walkable and some areas with good public transportation. The farther out you go NE and SE it gets a bit dicey. Like maybe past 82nd STor so.

NW is very urban. Lots of older tall apartment buildings, restaurants, bars, etc and some nightlife. Then there is downtown and the Pearl District with condos and night life.

The SW part across the river is more green and hilly. More houses and less expensive. Less city looking.
Hillsdale and Multnomah Village are a couple of very nice neighborhoods there. You really won't find strip malls and that kind of thing in the city until you start heading out of town.

You kind of have to come out and see for yourself. Get a good map. Portland is small. You can do it in a day and then come back and really explore each area.


Oh and temp agencies sound perfect for you. Where I used to work, we got some great people from one of them. They went on to much higher level jobs too. One lady was a former manager at Starbucks. We hired her as a receptionist/all around clerical person. Today she is an associate underwriter training to be a senior underwriter. It's a great foot in the door type situation for someone exactly in your position.

She wanted out of her Starbucks job which was great and paid really well but she wanted to have regular hours to be home with her infant daughter. She never thought she would want to be an insurance underwriter but when the position became open to her, she found she really liked it a lot. You never know what one opportunity will lead to.

[kcam]

Very helpful info & encouraging words. Thanks so much!

[Minervah]

You are welcome. I am always happy to help people with a plan.

[Nell Plotts]

My gut says that the bf will find more IBEW assignments around INTEL (around Hillsboro) so it would be smart to look for housing in that area. EC and Christenson Electric are the major industrial electrical contractors. I presume bf knows the IBEW referral process.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

My gut says that the bf will find more IBEW assignments around INTEL (around Hillsboro) so it would be smart to look for housing in that area. EC and Christenson Electric are the major industrial electrical contractors. I presume bf knows the IBEW referral process.

Add Stoner Electric to that list. They get a lot of the smaller one off installs in Washington County.