Moving to San Diego from Montreal

[Hestati]

I do not want Downtown for sure. In Montreal, we live right across the river from Downtown, in Longueuil, it takes 10 min drive to get to downtown, but we never wanted to live in DT. We live in 16floor building though, with huge windows, for half the price of similar DT appartment. We want something in between crazy downtown and dead suburbs. Anyway, we are going to SD this June to explore the city and we will move in July-August 2014 (need to get my green card first). Also, my wife does not drive, so we need to be relatively close to train/tramway. One thing for sure, if I get the job before we move, we will live as close to work as possible.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by Hestati

I do not want Downtown for sure. In Montreal, we live right across the river from Downtown, in Longueuil, it takes 10 min drive to get to downtown, but we never wanted to live in DT. We live in 16floor building though, with huge windows, for half the price of similar DT appartment. We want something in between crazy downtown and dead suburbs. Anyway, we are going to SD this June to explore the city and we will move in July-August 2014 (need to get my green card first). Also, my wife does not drive, so we need to be relatively close to train/tramway. One thing for sure, if I get the job before we move, we will live as close to work as possible.

I wouldn't characterize downtown San Diego as being crazy. It is pretty laid back. You may like living in La Jolla east of the 5. The best thing is for you to have a good look around when you visit this June. There are a lot of nice areas.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Hestati

Fantastic, thanks!

For some reason I am not too corcenred about getting a job. I can work in purchasing, quality, customer support, banks... Does not have to be engineering. I can also work as a waiter

I will do more research and when time comes I will ask for a transfer, nothing to lose anyway.

It sounds like you will fit in just fine with that attitude because that is the same attitude that thousands of others seeking to San Diego say.

It DEFINITELY helps if your office has an office here. Definitely shoot for a transfer with them. That is probably the best option as well you won't lose seniority that way staying with the same company.

But if that doesn't work, you will fit right in here. There are lots of highly educated people working in retail or as waiters so you will fit right in. I think you are underestimating how bad the job market is here. Unemployment is very high here as well. Much higher than the reported statistics from the government. Especially when you factor in underemployment and people that gave up on looking for jobs.

It is good that you're coming from a high cost of living city already and you sound like you're a hard worker willing to do some gruntwork before you find the perfect job. So that helps quite a bit. Plus you will come with plenty of savings so you should be well prepared for a move.

Good luck.