What's the job market in Portland Metro 2015? (Hillsboro: transplants, school district)

[harrishawke]

Currently work as a Software Quality Engineer (also have HRIS and other technical skills), and we are considering a move to Portland due to my long term girlfriend getting a lucrative job offer from Intel there. She is from Atlanta (which we like), but there isn't the kind of work she was trained to do, plus we wanted to experience something new.

I am concerned that I may not like the gloomy/rainy weather as much, and that there won't be many jobs there as the Metro Area is much smaller than Atlanta (although I presume less applicants as well). We are friendly people and like outdoors and eventually want to raise a small family in a safe good school district.

Can anyone kindly present the realities of this transition and city life there? Are most city dwellers from native to Oregon or transplants from other parts of the country?

There are plenty of software jobs. You have Jive, Smarsh, Panic, Puppet Labs, Urban Airship, New Relic, eBay, Airbnb (not sure if they actually have developers here), Surveymonkey, Salesforce has a huge outpost in Hillsboro. Intel has a ton of software people here (as does Intel Security). Yahoo (Hillsboro) and Microsoft (Pearl district) have a presence. Wacom is moving from Vancouver, WA down to the Pearl district.

Basically there are a ton of companies already here and more moving in all the time.

[Nell Plotts]

The cost of housing in the Silicon Valley is driving software employers north. Assuming your SO will be working in Hillsboro I suggest you locate housing along the MAX line between Portland and Hillsboro (the Blue Line), easy travel either direction.

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

The cost of housing in the Silicon Valley is driving software employers north. Assuming your SO will be working in Hillsboro I suggest you locate housing along the MAX line between Portland and Hillsboro (the Blue Line), easy travel either direction.

Pretty much this. The software industry in Portland is benefitting enormously from the insane COL in SV.

It's dramatically cheaper to do business in Portland (pay employees less, pay less for office space, etc) and it's an appealing location to the same sorts of people who would be attracted to a city like San Francisco.

[Nell Plotts]

You will find a lot of 'natives' in Portland metro, many who grew up here but made their careers elsewhere return in retirement. Professionals who were educated in Oregon want to stay and Portland has the most opportunities. Portland has attracted technology employers because their highly skilled workers would rather live here than elsewhere and we are a short flight to the Silicon Valley enabling the industry to keep professional networks intact. The 'locals' will not take offense if you move here.

Note that my suggestion is that you live in a suburban area west of the city proper, that is because long hours are typical in tech and it will take you some time to find the balance between work and personal time.

The one time in your life that you can give new opportunities a spin is when you are young.