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Ill just add that if it comes down to it, I always see postings for jobs at Busch Gardens, restaurants, cafes, bars/nightclubs, the Airport, Publix, Target, banks, call centers and the like...this is where you see alot of students trying to survive AND have fun! And just reading your posts you do seem like you have a very tenacious attitude, which helps in finding any type of work.
Tenacious. lol. I like it.
I have much research to do but the above jobs will do in a jam for sure and I have experience in all of them.
The origional goal was to come down to work during a peak season and rack up some quick cash (probably more likely a reality in a place like Daytona, or West palm) but at the end of the day as long as I can go to school and be in a cool place I will be happy, and of course to be effective you always should be hunting for better oppurtunities regardless of what job you have.
Those of you struggling should keep your head up, I have a feeling things are starting to improve and will continue to improve but just keep in mind we are all in the same boat. There are very few places you can relocate and escape the bad economy right now. I'm in a seasonal tourist area right now that is winding down. When I got down here I was promised several jobs with high pay and was serving tables. It turned out that the season got very dicey and the places I had picked were not what they led me to believe. I actually ended up with only one job at one point making like 200 bucks a week for an entire month! All the other restaurants were already fully staffed so I couldn't get another server job. I ended up having to find work as support staff at a 1st year restaurant but luckily they were very successful and I worked really hard and got in good with them. Now despite all my troubles and bumps in the road I'm still standing, weeks after many others have had to leave this place. Now Im the go-to guy for support needs in the restaurant and getting the bulk of the hours. I'm not as rich as I had planned on being but despite it all i managed to save 3k and could be closer to 4k by the time I leave. To top it off I live in a nice 2 million dollar house with a private beach right on the lake out on a dirt road in the woods and got in so well with the landlord that I can come here any time and stay as long as I like. Right now I only pay 50 bucks a week. So you know I took a bad situation and made something out of it. I hope all you can do the same.
as a young professional, i dont think our area is the best in florida. nightlife is bland (unless you like getting drunk), intellectual life is almost non-existent (usf isnt ranked very well), jobs are horribly underpaid (And right now there are hardly any available in many sectors) and the area has higher crime than i think justifies its lack of stuff to do.
flip side, there are things i enjoy about our area and which help me to get by. other cities in florida have their own issues, so it depends very specifically what you are looking for. personally, i recommend elsewhere.
dont let my knocking discourage you, i have good and bad things to say about the area, but most importantly i try to keep my opinion level-headed and realistic. many younger people either leave if they grew up here, or if they visit, are pretty unimpressed (from my personal experiences, this is what i usually end up hearing)
sorry to rain and all, hopefully, i wont get too much cuff from anyone. if you do decide to move here, you will be welcome, and i hope you find what you are looking for and enjoy the area.
oh, and many of the places mentioned for jobs on this thread, have hiring freezes right now (and have had them for some time, with no sign of let up)
Hey man thanks for weighing in. No doubt there are some in this thread who suggest that other area's would be better for jobs or fun that have schools. It would be much more helpful for me as I do my research if those of you who advice against this gave me a suggestion as to what would be a better selection. I've done a lot of research so far and while I have much more to do this is one of the area's that on paper seems to be the best (in florida at least). If someone has a different suggestion either in Florida or elsewhere, let me know and tell me why it is better than Tampa. I will be jobless by the end of December and am relocating regardless, so I am going to move somewhere.
I really wish you wouldn't think that we are trying to purposely dissuade you from moving to Florida......!
Some people can be very successful really fast and others try for months and months to find the "any" job!
I found this article yesterday and figured you should probably read it as an FYI if for nothing else: Americans Tame Their Wanderlust - Yahoo! Real Estate
I think you should be aware of what is going on, rather than up and up and move and then be disappointed with what you'll find! aninaction is right when talking about how poorly some jobs are paid....that is not any fiction, someone in New Hampshire who was a Administrative Assistant paid at $20 bucks an hour There, was asking if she can get the same here!!!!! the answer is NO, because 99.9% of those jobs are under Temp Agency monopoly and it is almost impossible to find one of those jobs (having years and years of experience no less) paid at anything over $11 bucks an hour here! most pay between $7 and $9 an hour which is shameful since the prices for everything else has gone UP through the roof in the last 5-6 years and these salaries haven't gotten up at all! so the end balance between what you'll make and how much you'll end up spending on bills/groceries and the like is not proportionate AT ALL.
Also, consider car insurance here is very expensive thanks to all the idiots that don't have ANY and all the insane drivers out here......that alone can be a budget breaker.....Plus DMV's NEW fee schedule for registering a car etc which doubled recently!
Other states fair better as explained in the article above, but Florida is seasonal just as well.....were not really year/round vacation grounds...that happens a bit more thanks to Disney in Orlando, but Tampa is not the same in that regard....it gets freezing cold in January/February (even March) as the temperatures fall in the 30's and by the beaches is feels even colder because of the wind.....we cannot use our pool between October and April/May....in 2008 we were able to use it in April, this year it wasn't warm enough until May...paying to heat that up will blow your electric bill to Mars.....
The idea that we have 80 degrees year/round is not accurate, that you may find in California with even more expensive rates for EVERYTHING.......so, definitely that state needs a LOT of restructuring.....
Take it all for what it is...were not trying to convince you not to move here, were just trying to tell you that there are more things to consider when moving to another state than just weather!
having traveled greatly in florida, and being pretty familiar with the cities, i have a hard time really telling you which is the "best"; like i said, each one has its issues, and none of the cities are that impressive to young professionals
miami has its cultural perks (and is developing a not too bad skyline), however some people cannot stand many aspects of it, my wife, for example, would never live in miami because of some of the crime issues, personally, i would probably live there instead of here (again, probably), they have art, an intellectual scene, and international communities (hispanic and otherwise)
gainesville has a decent university (ranked higher then usf and the rest in our area), they also have had a decent indie music scene over the years, personally i think the area is smallish with not a lot to do
orlando, in my opinion is similar to here, just lacking a beach, i was never impressed with ucf, but im not familiar with its ranking, they do have disney, which honestly, i couldnt care less about. they also rank way higher in terms of crime.
jacksonville is bland to me, UNF was ranked best value by princeton review a few years ago, but ive never known anyone who went there, theres a few things to do, but their downtown is unimpressive, which is a shame because of how beautiful it could be with the bridges. st augustine, though touristy and small, is also close by, not many jobs, but at least another decent community.
key west is fun but touristy, very touristy. the island is small enough though that biking or owning a scooter is very feasible, one of my friends who is there never even uses her car, the art community is unimpressive, there is no university, but the people who live there are way more inviting then they sometimes tend to be around here, overall they have less crime, though rape is rather high and higher than even tampa, which i think is high to begin with
if i didnt mention a city, its probably because i dont think much of it (didnt mention st pete because i think its part of tampa bay, and i also dont find it impressive overall, with similar problems to tampa, though downtown is obviously more vibrant, if small as hell). everyone please keep in mind, these are my quick impressions written off the cuff, anyone can add to or detract from what ive said (and are more than welcome to).
Jobs are pretty tough to find throughout the state except in the medical fields and the insurance companies in the tampa area seem to have a lot of job postings. Someone mentioned the weather in a previous post. Its still blazing hot outside but expected to drop into the mid 80's in afew days. I've lived down here over 20 years and have no problem going swimming in the bay area beaches from March right through the end of November.
Yeah man. lol. The lady talking about the 30 degree weather must have been crazy. The average high in Dec/Jan is 70 something degree's with the average low in the 50's. That's like summer here and we swim.
Internet forums draw interesting responces but it's really nice to get all kinds of perspectives to be able to consider things I may not consider.
It's interesting how different peoples perceptions are though.
Many people complain that Tampa/St Pete is boring to them, yet for me with the background I have it would have more entertainment than any other place I have ever lived times like 5 with short commutes to 5-6 other hotspots on top of that!!
Others talk about jobs and bad schools. This of course has my attention and more research into the schools will have to be done of course. As for jobs Im pretty sure I have explained over and over again that I work in the service industry for tips. I work with people who go down for the florida season and make tips, I have friends who have gone down there, I have gone down there to visit. So when people tell me you can't make money in Florida they arn't giving advice with me in mind at all, they are just being negative and venting to fill their day -- their motivation for posting may be constructive but they are thinking more about their fields of work than mine or they don't really know about my field of work.
My concern is not the pay because I know what the pay is for those jobs and I know that it is good during peak season at a busy establishment. The question in my mind is will I be able to get one (a service job) at all -- and when people tell me I cant get one at all I have a hard time taking it seriously because my life experience has always been that if you get up off your fat lazy ass and stop feeling sorry for yourself and you present yourself well and you keep following leads and you have a resume and dress well and have letters of recommendation that you can land a job within a couple months at worse in my field -- ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE IS A TOURIST SEASON COMING UP!
There's little doubt I am coming to Florida -- the only real uncertainty is where I will be living. It sounds like those who give Tampa the thumbs down generally give Florida the thumbs down in general and don't really seem to be able to point to a city that is better besides the stereotypical ones like New york or Los Angelos -- both of which are not on the table for me in the near future for cultural reasons among other reasons that I wont get into. I think the moral of the story is that the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence for a lot of people. Maybe the grass seems greener to me and it won't be but that's an experience i will have to have on my own.
^Eagle^ ....Email me when you get here and it gets down to 30 degrees......and will compare notes along with the weather people advising YOU to cover your plants!!!!!!!!!! let me know how your frost looks like....
I didn't say it was in the 30's EVERY DAY! But comparing to Miami/Fort Lauderdale where we also lived and NEVER had temps go down to the 30's....in the past 6 years that we lived in Orlando and Tampa we've seen frost and cold weather coming through more than once a year! how about you first move here and see/feel for yourself, THEN call me crazy!
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