Escape from California?

An anonymous reader asks: "Is there any escape from California? I'm a very experienced software engineer (7+ years) with a MSEE and lots of great work experience. Even in this market, jobs in CA are easy to grab if I want them. Trouble is, I don't want to live here anymore. Six figures in Northern CA gets mostly pissed away on a mortgage for a house that isn't worth half that anywhere else, and I'm pretty much just waiting for the earthquake to hit and wipe it out. I'd love to move to the midwest, but decent software jobs seem to not exist. I'm more than willing to take a huge paycut to get a job there, but where to even start looking?"

Comments

Talk to Konstantinos

[bitty]

Hey Konstantinos, why don't you start up a software firm in Nebraska and give this guy a job?

You might be able to find a decent job... but

[LWolenczak]

You may find a cool, sweet job in another state, but be aware, your most likely not going to really find what you want, or where you want it. Sure, some engineering firms are hiring developers again, but things are just downright slow, and nearly non existant. A lot of things have contributed to this economic downfall... and Its not going to fix its self till many things happen..... I'm not going to go into a list, but the .com economy is a good cause of our current economic state in the rest of the country.

I'm comming up on being out of work for three months.... with little end in sight. I have hope, but when you have bills to pay, hope does not spring eternal. I say, stay where you are, or maybe commute from Navada. Yes, I'm serious.

Move North.

[Trusty Penfold]

There's loads of software jobs in the Seattle area.

Re:Move North.

[itwerx]

Yeah, and even bigger loads of unemployed programmers trampling down the door to get at them!
Friend of mine just got hired for a position which received over 800 applicants in less than a month! (They threw up their hands at the deluge and went the word-of-mouth route).
Another position I know of recently was very low paying kind of boring crappy little job at a non-profit org. and it got over a hundred resumes before it was even officially available! (At least they saved their advertising $. :)
Not to mention, if you actually bother to read the business section of the news, Seattle has the highest unemployment rate for the tech sector in the whole damn country!
So if you have a job you specifically want to offer the guy, go for it, but don't be leading him on...

Try Provo

[T-Ranger]

novell is looking for an experienced software engineer.

Send me a resume!

[Llama Keeper]

Seriously, I'm looking for some good Software Engineers. We outsource most of our development and are looking to move it in-house. Drop me a resume justin@_NOSPAM_Llamakeeper.com.

JUSTIN

Read this...

[burnsy]

According to this study, Movin' Out: Domestic Migration to and from California in the 1990s, California has had a net outflow every year in the 1990s.

The top states for Californians to move to were:

Washington - 534,000
Texas - 523,000
Arizona - 449,000
Oregon - 374,000
Neveda - 320,000

Utah

[flikx]

I'm not kidding, it worked fine for me. Strong tech sector, affordable housing, good wages for engineers, friendly people, world class recreation (biking, skiing, hiking, climbing, etc.) I was glad to escape California, it didn't even take much adjusting: considering the fact that most of the people living in my neighborhood are from California.

Re:DC Metro Area

[xWeston]

Are you joking? i went to the east coast (specifically maryland) for the first time ever and the houses were MUCH cheaper than they are where i live. The houses being built around mine (i live in a 1000 sqft condo/duplex that is worth $300k) are averaging in price at about $800k with the low end starting at about $600k.
The high end TRACK HOUSING goes for about $1.5million. I live in north county san diego, it isnt cheap.

In maryland i saw houses as large as these 1.5million dollar ones for around $500k or less.

consider Northern Virginia

[peteshaw]

the Northern Virginia/DC area, is pretty cool. While not, say, California cool, it has:

3% unemployment.

While telecom has been nuked, the government sector is growing and defense contractors are hiring. (Can you say homeland security?)

You are halfway between the chesapeake bay and the Shenandoah mountains, so most people can find something (sailing, hiking, lazing at the beach, hanging out downtown) to do.

And, when bored, you can always go to the whitehouse and watch people protesting all manners of things.

I don't know, its okay down here. Housing is expensive by most standards, but still maybe half of NoCal standards.

good luck to you--peace and joy

--Pete

I did what you're trying to do

[gregwbrooks]

Born and raised in CA, and managed to finally end up in the midwest (first Chicago, then Kansas City). Sold my rat-trap of a house for $145k (paid $180k, dammit -- AND it's now worth $310k!) in 1996, moved to Chicago, and never regretted it for an instant. By way of housing-price contrasts, I now live in a restored, painted-lady Victorian that I paid $144k for; if I wanted a similarly old/large/cool house in downtown Kansas City, I could have gotten it for about $250k -- both prices are (ahem) quite a bit less than the going CA rates.

A few pointers:

• Set your sights on the bigger metro areas. Sure, everyone wants to telecommute, but management's not going to put up with it for the most part. The big difference is that there is oh-so-cheap housing within driving/train distance in most of the Midwestern markets. On the other hand, if you go to a smaller, more-rural market, you're basically screwed when your job dries up. I'd stick to Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee and (maybe) Indianapolis if your heart is set on the midwest.
• Going to Chicago? Live just over the state line in Indiana. Better tax situation, commuting options via car or train, and the housing is MUCH cheaper.
• Check out the business journals. Most major cities (and certainly the ones I mentioned) have weekly business journals. Most of these, in turn, do an annual "book of lists" that ticks off contact info for things like "largest employers," "largest software developers," largest web design firms," etc. Very helpful.
• Check in with the local user groups. Depending on what your field is, you can get a lot of info via e-mail by chatting up with local user groups.