Portland vs. Seattle for IT Employment Questions (to live in, move to)

[MadBot]

I am from LA, CA. I'm looking to move to the Pacific NW, but used to live in Midwest as well. Getting a little weary of the endless sunshine, the dry and dreary weather. The dust, traffic, grey concrete and sparse brown landscapes aren't helping either.

There are other factors, however most important thing is of course, jobs. I'm a developer by trade (.NET to be specific). So I want to know...

How would you compare these 2 cities in terms of availability of IT employment, especially .NET / Web Development?

I noticed that most job in the greater Seattle is dominated by a few larger, older companies. There is a lot less young, small to mid-sized companies up there than in CA. Personally given the choice I prefer working for new, smaller to mid sized companies with more personal touch than a larger one.

Which city puts more emphasis on good balance between work life? As much as I like small companies, the days of me working in a startup might be well over. I want to spend more time with my wife and enjoy the little pleasures life has to offer.

I'm also unsure about the supply vs. demand of IT personnel. At first glance Seattle seems to have the lion share of IT jobs. However that doesn't tell the whole story as I know nothing about the market saturation especially for .net related jobs. If anyone has any experience about it, do tell.

Thanks in advance!

[hamellr]

Seattle is the better place for .Net developers. Portland is more about Open Source by far, while Seattle leans on Microsoft products.

If you know Ruby, Java or IOS, you could get a job tomorrow in either city. Small company wise there are just as many in either city. Seattle ones tend to get bought out slightly faster, while Portland ones seem like they are able to last longer. Portland has a lot more people working out of their basements then Seattle does.

In my experience work life balance is probably slightly skewed towards the worker in Portland more then Seattle. But compared to the East Coast, it's an entirely different culture. Unless you work in the game industry as QA, in which case you have no life.

[MadBot]

Originally Posted by hamellr

Seattle is the better place for .Net developers. Portland is more about Open Source by far, while Seattle leans on Microsoft products.

If you know Ruby, Java or IOS, you could get a job tomorrow in either city. Small company wise there are just as many in either city. Seattle ones tend to get bought out slightly faster, while Portland ones seem like they are able to last longer. Portland has a lot more people working out of their basements then Seattle does.

In my experience work life balance is probably slightly skewed towards the worker in Portland more then Seattle. But compared to the East Coast, it's an entirely different culture. Unless you work in the game industry as QA, in which case you have no life.

You might be right.

Thanks for the heads up. Haha yeah I wouldn't want to be working in the game industry atm.

[Rob Allen]

We need .NET developers right now. It's a larger company, located on the south side of downtown Portland.

Click on my name to send a Direct Message for details.