NJ to Tampa? (Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando: appointed, real estate market, to rent)

[BrianEB22]

Have been questioning making the move to Tampa. Have been particularly thinking about south Tampa. Would like to know if anyone has a decent comparison between NJ/FL (Tampa)? Mainly employment opportunities (I.T./Comp Sci field), general social attitude, and primarily if its a good atmosphere for people who are in their mid-20's who are working professionals.

We are looking for an area that has urban characteristics with an equal amount of tranquility and serenity.

I appreciate anyones perspective who has had experience with such a move, or the area in general.

Thanks!

[D-R-B]

Tampa (and Florida in general) are not good places for young professionals. Stay in New Jersey, make a very good living, and come to Florida on vacation if you want.

There are many reasons for this, which have been discussed on this forum many times.

[annaegel]

Originally Posted by D-R-B

Tampa (and Florida in general) are not good places for young professionals. Stay in New Jersey, make a very good living, and come to Florida on vacation if you want.

There are many reasons for this, which have been discussed on this forum many times.

Ditto. I moved down here almost 5 years ago from Fair Lawn, NJ to Tampa. I have a family with 2 kids, so my situation is different.

There are hardly any jobs here, so good luck finding them. If you happen to get one, you will probably earn a lot less. My husband is now earning half of what he earned up north.

Come down for a week and check things out. I was very disappointed in Tampa. I am finally starting to adjust, though I still miss NJ terribly. The culture (I don't mean the theatre, museums, etc) is very different than NJ/NYC.

South Tampa can be pretty expensive to rent/buy. You should check that out before hand.

I know many people from NJ/NYC who moved down here and hate it. However, I know others who moved down 15 - 20 years ago from NJ/NYC and LOVE it. You never know.

If you already have a job up where you are, I would suggest stay until things get better. There really aren't that many jobs down here, even the jobs at K-Mart are hard to come by.

[Ceramictec]

I agree with the others. I have a tile contracting company here in the Tampa area and as you know Florida is flooded with hacks in all trades.
was thinking of a move back to NJ but the recent holiday snow storm made me decide to stay here and put myself above the others.
I don't regret moving here since I have adjusted to it over the 10 years.
but I wouldn't do it again if I was in NJ ;-)

[Spring Hillian]

B a l o n e y

Originally Posted by d-r-b

tampa (and florida in general) are not good places for young professionals. .

[MAniacTHW]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

B a l o n e y

The Worst City for Young Professionals – UPDATED « Re/Creating Tampa (http://www.recreatingtampa.com/2008/07/10/the-worst-city-for-young-professionals/ - broken link)

[Island_Guy]

Originally Posted by BrianEB22

Have been questioning making the move to Tampa. Have been particularly thinking about south Tampa. Would like to know if anyone has a decent comparison between NJ/FL (Tampa)? Mainly employment opportunities (I.T./Comp Sci field), general social attitude, and primarily if its a good atmosphere for people who are in their mid-20's who are working professionals.

We are looking for an area that has urban characteristics with an equal amount of tranquility and serenity.

I appreciate anyones perspective who has had experience with such a move, or the area in general.

Thanks!

I'm an IT professional and am working with a great recruiter in Tampa. PM me and I'll give you his name. There are very good IT opportunities in the Tampa area. I did my homework and can back it up. Matter of fact he lined up an opportunity that will be a $7,000 bump in salary from my job in Philly. So don't listen to these negative people dude. If you're in IT you WILL find work in Tampa. Yea, yea it's bad all over but in Tampa it's pretty good for IT work and getting better everyday, especially in the last 2 months. I telecommute for my current job so I can come down and buy a property anytime. Matter of fact while all the others flee FL, I'm comin to town to and "lowballing" some of these Sellers since their homes are still priced way too high. That's what happens in an "over valued" real estate market. As far as single life for young professionals, I checked out South Tampa and it had a decent vibe, so did Safety Harbor and Dunedin. Im sure St Pete and Gulfport are good too. But it's always better to be in a larger city since it really does come down to "numbers" being single finding other singles. So come down and check out those areas. As far as IT opportunities, I collected metrics over the last year based on corporate headquarters, monster search agent hits all involving 30 major cities. Tampa was numero uno in FL. If you're really looking for great places for IT opportunites and single professionals, DC area was the best out of all 30 cities I measured. So visit the area and if you like it, stay. You will always find IT work in Tampa especially now since it's tough to get good IT talent down there due to so many people jettin out of FL, lol. Here's is my list for 2009/(2010 IT job opportunities outlook) for FL based on my collections/analysis :

1.) Tampa/Lakeland (very diverse in type of companies/corporations of all sizes and many of them)

2.) Miami (Another good place for IT opportunities but not as good as Tampa lately. Great for single professionals)

3.) Jacksonville (Banking collapsed hurt, jville was pretty good)

4.) Palm Beach County (FPL, Office Depot,GD insurance companies, Harris)

5.) Orlando (not sure what went wrong in Orlando but Disney IT always seems to be looking for talent and I heard IT pays well there)


Good luck, hope my advice helps. Other notables in the South that did fairly well this year for IT opportunities, Atlanta, Austin and Dallas.

[Island_Guy]

Originally Posted by BrianEB22

Have been questioning making the move to Tampa. Have been particularly thinking about south Tampa. Would like to know if anyone has a decent comparison between NJ/FL (Tampa)? Mainly employment opportunities (I.T./Comp Sci field), general social attitude, and primarily if its a good atmosphere for people who are in their mid-20's who are working professionals.

We are looking for an area that has urban characteristics with an equal amount of tranquility and serenity.

I appreciate anyones perspective who has had experience with such a move, or the area in general.

Thanks!

I'm an IT professional and am working with a great recruiter in Tampa. PM me and I'll give you his name. There are very good IT opportunities in the Tampa area. I did my homework and can back it up. Matter of fact he lined up an opportunity that will be a $7,000 bump in salary from my job in Philly. So don't listen to these negative people dude. If you're in IT you WILL find work in Tampa. Yea, yea it's bad all over but in Tampa it's pretty good for IT work and getting better everyday, especially in the last 2 months. I telecommute for my current job so I can come down and buy a property anytime. Matter of fact while all the others flee FL, I'm comin to town to and "lowballing" some of these Sellers since their homes are still priced way too high. That's what happens in an "over valued" real estate market. As far as single life for young professionals, I checked out South Tampa and it had a decent vibe, so did Safety Harbor and Dunedin. Im sure St Pete and Gulfport are good too. But it's always better to be in a larger city since it really does come down to "numbers" being single finding other singles. So come down and check out those areas. As far as IT opportunities, I collected metrics over the last year based on corporate headquarters, monster search agent hits all involving 30 major cities. Tampa was numero uno in FL

2009/(2010 Outlook) IT Opportunities FL Cities

1.) Tampa/Lakeland - Many, many diverse Corporation/Companies of all sizes. Very impressive area for IT opportunites and will continue to grow

2.) Miami - Great for single professionals, decent IT opportunities but this year not as good as the past

3.) Jacksonville - Crushed by the banking collapsed, normally good, CSX, Citi Bank, Bell South, FIS, Deustche Bank, to name a few

4.) Palm Beach County (FPL, Office Depot, GD, Harris, insurance companies)

5.) Orlando - Not sure what happened to Orlando, although Disney pays well for IT and has posted a few times this year

The best area was the DC area out of all the 30 cities I measured. Other notables in the South. Atlanta, Austin and Dallas did pretty good.

Good Luck hope this helps. I'm in my 40's, wife no kids so for me based on IT opportunities, weather, cool quaint towns, sports teams, spring training baseball, amazing beaches, it's so me ! But I'll always be a Philly sports fan.

[Spring Hillian]

Your link was about universities and not the professional climate in Tampa. IT, legal, telecom, banking, finance all seem to be doing well in Tampa.

Originally Posted by MAniacTHW

The Worst City for Young Professionals – UPDATED « Re/Creating Tampa (http://www.recreatingtampa.com/2008/07/10/the-worst-city-for-young-professionals/ - broken link)

[PopnFresh]

I have lived in Tampa for 22 years now. Without fail, every transplant I meet from NJ or NY bemoans the point they left. They never miss an opportunity to tell us how GREAT or how much better NJ or NY was. Which begs the obvious question. So do yourself a favor and take the advise of the other posters and just visit. We love our tourists and you'll have a great time. The only thing that will make Tampa like NJ is the disgruntled ex-NJites moaning about the promised land they left.