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There was a long thread here from a transplant from the Midwest who had a bad experience in Austin and wanted to move to San Antonio. She had a business degree, and her boyfriend had an MIS degree, and they couldn't find anything that paid more than $14 an hour. I've had the opposite experience, but I'm not from out of state.
I moved from San Antonio to San Marcos for school. I was able to get a counseling internship near San Marcos after looking for years in San Antonio. I had a few coworkers who commuted all the way from San Antonio to the Austin metro area for substance abuse counselor internships. Some of them were driving 1.5 hours to and from work five days a week. Substance abuse counseling is a field with an extreme shortage of workers, so it's not like the demand isn't there. There are just too few employers in San Antonio willing to offer internships so people can become licensed.
In my current job, I know someone (a veteran with a lot of experience in her field) who is commuting all the way from San Antonio to Austin to work for the government. She couldn't get hired by the same government agency in San Antonio (similar to my experience). For most fields in San Antonio, you don't need to know Spanish. There are a few fields, however, where you will be put at a disadvantage if you don't speak Spanish, and human services is one of them.
I decided to move to Austin to be even closer to even better-paying jobs. I started applying for jobs when my lease was about to be up. I became overwhelmed with the number of callbacks for interviews. The number of interviews I got in 3 months in Austin equaled the number of interviews I would get in San Antonio in a year. It got to a point where I had to turn some interviews down either because they interfered with other interviews or because I couldn't take off from work.
Soon after moving to Austin, I landed a job that pays a lot more than any job I had in San Antonio. I'd like to point out that I have social science-related degrees, so I was kind of surprised that someone with a business or MIS degree couldn't find a job paying more than $14 an hour. I make significantly more than that.
The rent in Austin is very expensive relative to the rest of Texas. Honestly, I also think the apartments in San Marcos, Kyle, and Buda are overpriced. If I tried to live in any of these cities with the money I was making in San Antonio, I would be in an efficiency in a 30 year old complex. But, since I make more money now, I can afford a large one-bedroom in a decent neighborhood in Austin.
The traffic is also a lot worse in Austin than it is in San Antonio, so I recommend moving close to your job if you can. I don't know if the highways are landlocked or if Austin just didn't bother with adding lanes to highways. Austin needs to mimic San Antonio in building at least one full loop (two would be better) and expanding the highways to 4 or 5 lanes each way. There are way too many people in the metro area for this city to mostly have 2 and 3-lane highways. The eastern part of Austin needs a highway with no traffic lights.
I was never really bothered by crime in San Antonio since I lived there for so long and knew how to pick neighborhoods. However, Austin appears to have proportionally less violent crime. Austin is concerned about having 39 homicides in 2016, but San Antonio had 151! That's a lot better than Chicago and a few other large cities, but it's still a lot more than Austin even if you factor in the differences in size.
Another complaint in that other thread is that Austin is ugly. I've found that Austin is mostly ugly near IH-35 and certain areas of the city. To me, that's not much different from San Antonio. In San Antonio, there are large areas on the west, south, north, and east sides within a few miles of downtown that are ugly. I think it's actually pretty in Far South Austin. I also drove through wealthy neighborhoods in West Austin that were absolutely stunning.
I want to add that the law enforcement opportunities are much greater in the Austin metro area, and the corrections jobs in Travis and Hays counties pay more than Bexar County. Travis County is the highest-paying in Texas for corrections; Hays County corrections officers just got a big pay raise. But, even Comal County and Guadalupe County pay more than Bexar County. If you live in San Antonio and want to work in corrections, you might want to travel outside of Bexar County.
If you want to work in law enforcement in San Antonio, you pretty much have four options. You can self-sponsor (that means you pay your own way through the academy) at San Antonio College or AACOG in order to get a job at the small and mid-sized departments, hope that you can get hired by the very picky SAPD, get sponsored by UTSA, or join Bexar County as a detention officer and hope you can get into the academy they offer every two years. New Braunfels hasn't sponsored anyone through a police academy in several years. All the other departments in the San Antonio metro area didn't have enough money to sponsor cadets the last time I checked.
In the Austin metro area, you can self-sponsor through CAPCOG, Austin Community College, or even the Hays County Sheriff's Office's academy, but there are many other options that occasionally or regularly sponsor. Similar to San Antonio, Travis County will send corrections officers through its academy, APD has its own academy, and UT has its own academy. Hays County will send some of its corrections officers and even emergency communications and animal control officers through their academy. An equivalent county in the San Antonio area, Comal, does not have its own academy and will not sponsor. I believe Williamson County, in the Austin metro, will sometimes sponsor their corrections officers through the CAPCOG academy.
What's different between the Austin metro area and San Antonio metro area is that there are several mid-sized and small agencies in the Austin area that have enough money to sponsor cadets annually, biannually, or every few years. This is the list I've amassed: Texas State University, San Marcos (I think they also have their own academy), Lockhart, Austin ISD, Austin Community College, Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, Georgetown, Kyle, Cedar Park, and maybe Pflugerville and Leander. I think St. Edwards University used to sponsor, but I don't know when they last did. I'm not sure if Huston-Tillotson University still has a police department, but they used to sponsor.
It sounds like she wasn't happy and made a "grass is greener" about San Antonio . Once she started doing that, it didn't matter anymore what Austin, the only solution was to move to San Antonio and that would solve all of her problems
There was a long thread here from a transplant from the Midwest who had a bad experience in Austin and wanted to move to San Antonio. She had a business degree, and her boyfriend had an MIS degree, and they couldn't find anything that paid more than $14 an hour. I've had the opposite experience, but I'm not from out of state.
I moved from San Antonio to San Marcos for school. I was able to get a counseling internship near San Marcos after looking for years in San Antonio. I had a few coworkers who commuted all the way from San Antonio to the Austin metro area for substance abuse counselor internships. Some of them were driving 1.5 hours to and from work five days a week. Substance abuse counseling is a field with an extreme shortage of workers, so it's not like the demand isn't there. There are just too few employers in San Antonio willing to offer internships so people can become licensed.
In my current job, I know someone (a veteran with a lot of experience in her field) who is commuting all the way from San Antonio to Austin to work for the government. She couldn't get hired by the same government agency in San Antonio (similar to my experience). For most fields in San Antonio, you don't need to know Spanish. There are a few fields, however, where you will be put at a disadvantage if you don't speak Spanish, and human services is one of them.
I decided to move to Austin to be even closer to even better-paying jobs. I started applying for jobs when my lease was about to be up. I became overwhelmed with the number of callbacks for interviews. The number of interviews I got in 3 months in Austin equaled the number of interviews I would get in San Antonio in a year. It got to a point where I had to turn some interviews down either because they interfered with other interviews or because I couldn't take off from work.
Soon after moving to Austin, I landed a job that pays a lot more than any job I had in San Antonio. I'd like to point out that I have social science-related degrees, so I was kind of surprised that someone with a business or MIS degree couldn't find a job paying more than $14 an hour. I make significantly more than that.
The rent in Austin is very expensive relative to the rest of Texas. Honestly, I also think the apartments in San Marcos, Kyle, and Buda are overpriced. If I tried to live in any of these cities with the money I was making in San Antonio, I would be in an efficiency in a 30 year old complex. But, since I make more money now, I can afford a large one-bedroom in a decent neighborhood in Austin.
The traffic is also a lot worse in Austin than it is in San Antonio, so I recommend moving close to your job if you can. I don't know if the highways are landlocked or if Austin just didn't bother with adding lanes to highways. Austin needs to mimic San Antonio in building at least one full loop (two would be better) and expanding the highways to 4 or 5 lanes each way. There are way too many people in the metro area for this city to mostly have 2 and 3-lane highways. The eastern part of Austin needs a highway with no traffic lights.
I was never really bothered by crime in San Antonio since I lived there for so long and knew how to pick neighborhoods. However, Austin appears to have proportionally less violent crime. Austin is concerned about having 39 homicides in 2016, but San Antonio had 151! That's a lot better than Chicago and a few other large cities, but it's still a lot more than Austin even if you factor in the differences in size.
Another complaint in that other thread is that Austin is ugly. I've found that Austin is mostly ugly near IH-35 and certain areas of the city. To me, that's not much different from San Antonio. In San Antonio, there are large areas on the west, south, north, and east sides within a few miles of downtown that are ugly. I think it's actually pretty in Far South Austin. I also drove through wealthy neighborhoods in West Austin that were absolutely stunning.
I am glad moving to Austin worked out well for you,OP.I am happy for you.I agree that Austin needs better highway infrastructure.I dont think Austin is ugly.
It all depends on your degree, field, and networking. The school district I work for in San Antonio pays me 8k more a year then what I would get working for Austin ISD. My wife is an oral surgeon who went to school in Dallas and then opened up her practice in San Antonio. The market for dentists/oral surgeons is more staturated in Austin. The higher salaries and lower cost of living made staying in San Antonio a no brainier for us. We were also able to afford a condo in Cannon Beach, Oregon, to get away from Texas summers.
Yes I believe it is obvious San Antonio has fewer opportunities and is far more impoverished compared to Austin. I would recommend Austin over San Antonio any day for people that want to be more than just comfortable.
I am glad moving to Austin worked out well for you,OP.I am happy for you.I agree that Austin needs better highway infrastructure.I dont think Austin is ugly.
The highways suck here, that is for sure! I think I-35 through the city is beyond salvageable. Austin definitely is not ugly. The "ugliest" parts of Austin are nicer than some of the nicer parts of Corpus Christi, (my hometown), and San Antonio.
The law enforcement field pays great here and there are a number of large departments in the Austin area to choose from, (Austin, Round Rock, San Marcos, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Pflugerville, all 50+ officer departments). Not to mention, Austin is the highest paying department in the country, based on COL, and has some of the best, if not the best retirement anyone has to offer.
The highways suck here, that is for sure! I think I-35 through the city is beyond salvageable. Austin definitely is not ugly. The "ugliest" parts of Austin are nicer than some of the nicer parts of Corpus Christi, (my hometown), and San Antonio.
The law enforcement field pays great here and there are a number of large departments in the Austin area to choose from, (Austin, Round Rock, San Marcos, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Pflugerville, all 50+ officer departments). Not to mention, Austin is the highest paying department in the country, based on COL, and has some of the best, if not the best retirement anyone has to offer.
Ya, the 35 is always a mess whenever I am down in the ATX so I agree.
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