Here are my thoughts on Austin and why we might be leaving for SA (Houston: employment, living in)

[daisyschic]

Originally Posted by Gunion Powder

Most of whom are native Texans. You don't really need Spanish there.

I was about to say the same thing, for some reason this person seems relentless to just keep posting nonsense and making assumptions, which she is very good at!

We went down there and we didn't have one ounce of problem with talking to people, the people seemed real nice there.

[daisyschic]

Originally Posted by The_Man74

I know

That was my point

I was just down to visit my brother a few weeks ago...

Be glad though, Austin retains "somewhat" of the Texas charm, although you will like San Antonio better(San Antonio, along with FW and Houston, is one of the remaining true Texas/southern cities left in Texas, regarding the "big cities" that is)....

The big thing with the job market, as I explained earlier, is that the city is simply not big/developed yet. It has grown A LOT, even just this year honestly lol. New restaurants, businesses, chains, etc all along 35(and the traffic has actually improved a little... I could notice it when I drove through)

But as far as job market and economy... I would give it another 1-2 years for it to improve because there are just too many people who graduated from UT, St. Edwards, Southwestern, Baylor, UTSA, St. Mary's, Texas State, etc... who are ALL fairly close to Austin(there are more universities I can't think of right now) and the job market is too packed right now. For reference, I, myself, would have trouble getting a good job(~70k+) in Austin and I have family there and went to a top 3 Texas school... so it's not exactly "intended bias"

I've been upvoting your posts so much that they won't let me upvote anymore? I couldn't agree more.

[daisyschic]

Originally Posted by Mr. Clutch

The bolded is absolutely false. People in Austin make less than people in both DFW and Houston per capita. Austin trails Houston by a fairly large amount in that metric.

We were very tempted to move to Plano, Tx when we came here, but we thought that with his (my bf) tech skills he would be able to make better money in Austin, so far that hasn't proved true. He did apply to a state IT job and they liked him a lot, he told me he would be surprised if he didn't get the job, but the state process is so slow. This job was specifically designed for entry level jobs, they were really impressed with his database knowledge. My bf told me that they test you right then and there at the interview and they watch everything you do, he told me he aced the database with a score of 100%. So he is hoping to land that job. He also told me how the interview process seemed very unbiased and he told me they take more of a holistic view of the person. He said the interview process with them was so enlightening and refreshing compared to other jobs he interviewed for. We decided that if he doesn't get that job, we are for certain packing up and moving, where we don't know yet, but we don't plan on staying in Austin, because only making $24/hr between the both of us just isn't enough.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

I hope you're bilingual. San Antonio is over 60 percent Hispanic.

Strange assumption on your part. I studied Spanish in college and have visited San Antonio numerous times, but never felt like I needed to use Spanish to communicate with anyone there. Same was true of Laredo.

Perhaps your experience was different.

[TXEX06]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

I hope you're bilingual. San Antonio is over 60 percent Hispanic.

LOL! What an ignorant statement.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by TXEX06

LOL! What an ignorant statement.

No need to be so rude, perhaps given her experience that recommendation was valid.

[hornraider]

I make WAY more as an EE in Dallas than I ever have in Austin...Houston also pays well. S.A. is about the same in my field as Austin, maybe even slightly higher if you can believe that.

[The_Man74]

Originally Posted by hornraider

I make WAY more as an EE in Dallas than I ever have in Austin...Houston also pays well. S.A. is about the same in my field as Austin, maybe even slightly higher if you can believe that.

yes the money in Dallas is very very good, if you can put up with the people and "soullessness" of the city

[The_Man74]

Originally Posted by daisyschic

We were very tempted to move to Plano, Tx when we came here, but we thought that with his (my bf) tech skills he would be able to make better money in Austin, so far that hasn't proved true. He did apply to a state IT job and they liked him a lot, he told me he would be surprised if he didn't get the job, but the state process is so slow. This job was specifically designed for entry level jobs, they were really impressed with his database knowledge. My bf told me that they test you right then and there at the interview and they watch everything you do, he told me he aced the database with a score of 100%. So he is hoping to land that job. He also told me how the interview process seemed very unbiased and he told me they take more of a holistic view of the person. He said the interview process with them was so enlightening and refreshing compared to other jobs he interviewed for. We decided that if he doesn't get that job, we are for certain packing up and moving, where we don't know yet, but we don't plan on staying in Austin, because only making $24/hr between the both of us just isn't enough.

Plano is EXCELLENT for IT... I actually work in that area currently and my salary is very very good. At 28, I doubt I would get paid this well anywhere else in TX besides a few shops in Austin and Houston

Some great places that come to mind are Dell, HP, Ambit Energy, IBM(probably more so in Addison though), Intuit..

There are a lot. A lot of local and national banks too which pay very, very handsomely for IT professionals (I can attest to this lol)

Plano also has a nice LifeTime Fitness in a great location for there, I think... if that's something you guys are into

Also, to be honest, I've never really gotten/felt that Plano was all that pretentious/snobby as people say. And I work and am in the Legacy area a lot (because of work and gym mostly). I think since you two are in a relationship you two might actually like it. But it's much more wise to buy a house in that area than it is to rent, that's my honest opinion. It's very much geared towards couples and families and it's a nice area. There's good shopping at the Shops @ Legacy and they're building some great stuff off DNT right there. There already is a small, but very good night scene in that area too!

All that said, I still think it's more so geared towards families lol. Or there are other options in Texas for young(er) professionals. But you two might actually really like that area I think.

They will generally require a two step skills test to place with any of those shops but they're generally pretty easy(well I always thought so lol). As you said, yes it is mostly based on pure skill level. If he's doing database and can prove that he knows how constraints, JOINs, UNIONs, some solid TSQL, he will be fine. They won't ask you how to do a SELECT statement basically lol. Again, it's good in that they base it pretty much entirely on just skill set. I always thought that that was fair and the best way to go about it. I think it's a great area honestly if you're in a serious relationship and/or are starting a family... but that's just me

*sorry if I read that wrong, but that's just my take on Plano

I think SA will overall be more "enjoyable/fun" though

[The_Man74]

All this said in my last post...

I wouldn't live in Dallas unless I was married and raising a family. It's much too pretentious and can honestly... In comparison for "things to do" be flat out boring in comparison to Austin and Houston... maybe even San Antonio too to be honest as you have Six Flags AND Sea World there with the beautiful Hill Country so close, and also the Guadalupe River is probably the only river I would step into, outside of the ones in Austin, without checking to see if i caught some weird disease or something in Texas lol

I'm just being honest lol.

That with the "personality" of the people and the (in)famous $30,000 Millionaires in Dallas can get old VERY, VERY QUICKLY lol... Eat, drink, shop, play dress up(aka "front/pretend") that's pretty much it honestly lol