So I live in the state of Michigan and we have now hit 12% unemployment, the state jobs are looking to do a 5% fy09 pay-cut, followed up with a 5% fy10 pay-cut due to an extreme shortfall on our attempts to balance the budget. along with that, they are also considering furlough days (8 hours off unpaid, as to how many is not yet clear by the bill), increasing insurance premiums (which already just went up jan 1 by over 30 bucks a paycheck), and this is all just a tip of the iceberg in the proposed bill. And I just do not see anything making a change for the better anytime soon since we rely so heavily on a failing industry. Downtown Lansing looks like a ghost town with all the GM plans closed. 3 years ago my parents went on a motorcycle trip to N.C. to take a ride on the US-129 (Dragon's Tail) and brought pictures back. I fell in love immediately and have had interest in moving there ever since. Well, with our current financial situation in this state, I think the time has come to pack my bags and take flight. My college roommate works in Raleigh and loves it. From what I have found, the COL for N.C. tends to be about the same, and if I can land a job in the Research Triangle, I have extremely good chances of landing a much higher paid job. Was wondering if any of you N.C./Research Triangle area board members could offer me up and advice, or possibly even be hiring at your jobs for IT professionals.

Thanks!
-caveney

 

thx for all the help NC'ers!

 

If you can find a job, you'd definitely like it here. But there is a lot of competition for positions right now as unemployment is up here too. It's nowhere near as bad as Michigan though.

as far as knowing of any available jobs... while layoffs aren't too bad yet, there's not a whole lot of hiring going on. I am looking for work too, I just have a part time position right now. thus my post count on this and other forums is up pretty high these days.

and please, don't get impatient when people from one specific geographical area don't immediately respond to your thread in a subforum with relatively low traffic.

 

^ was nearly 24 hours later. and thanks for the info Ray. sent him an email and asked if he wanted a copy of my resume as well. wait to hear from your friend and go from there!

been browsing theladder.com quite a bit, but from what I have seen, site is pretty much a joke. all the 100k+ jobs they say are a majority due to commission and professionals in medicine and law. oh well... push forward from here and see what happens.

 

sorry man...I don't get a chance to cover all the boards every day. But I do live and work in Raleigh with lots of friends in RTP and surrounding areas, maybe giving me some answers to your question(s).

First off, NC is a good state...I've lived in NC since 1987 (moved from Troy, MI). We have the best beaches and some decent mountains. Our mts. are arguably weak, but compared to MI...they are the Rockies. These mts also contain the #1 road in the US...(Hwy 129 which you already mentioned). The beaches are my favorite on the east coast. They are largely undisturbed (in many areas) and the sand it very fine and soft (not granular). And if you have 4x4, there are a number of beaches you can drive on and even camp (lots-o-fun).

Secondly, the weather in NC is pretty solid. You will have your scorcher summer days with ridiculous humidity and you will have winter days below zero with a possibility of snow. And Pasta forbid it snow, because it will shut down the whole city/state if they receive more than a dusting (sometimes a blessing). Snow never really lasts that long so this goes in the positive column (for me).

Third, Raleigh is a good city. I moved to Raleigh in 97 for college (NCSU), I moved from bumfux NC to the big city. It is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the US (Raleigh-Cary). Right now, property values are down as well are interest rates = good time to invest in a house if you can afford it and want to be around for a while. Raleigh also has a great music scene. I'm not sure if you are big into music, but this is one of the best perks of this city. Something about it breeds decent music and many good bands play here or very close (Chapel Hill, Carrboro).

As for jobs in the IT industry, I'm not as much in the loop. I work for a company of 6 full-time employees and we are forced to do all of our own IT work individually. However, there are 3 major universities with amazing networks of computers and companies the sizes of small city blocks that are all networked together. There are jobs in the industry, you must seek them out... a lot is about who you know (which I understand being the point of this question/answer session).

Even though there are jobs there is still some downsizing going on here still. For example, Big Blue had "Black Thursday" yesterday, in which a number of jobs were cut and more cuts are in the future. Even though these may seem numerous, compared to MI, it may not be that drastic. I'm guessing things will recover more quickly here than in MI...but that is only my opinion and is due to the very active IT world.

Some local job boards include trianglehelpwanted.com and newsoberserver.com. I would also check the larger sites (Monster, careerbuilder, etc).

If you wanted to visit, I could probably help you out by showing you some cool stuff in the area (or at least telling you where to go), but it sounds like you already have some connections in the area. If you have any other questions, shoot me a PM.

L8R,
DOOD

 

thanks for all the info man!

 

plus if you are over 7 feet tall, oddood can relate... lol jk :P

you will be close to the dragon us129. end of story thats all you need!

 

I'm from the more mountainous regions in the west part of NC and i can go ahead and say that the 8 was made for this area so that part you will certainly enjoy. These mountains also turn blue in the evenings( hence the "blue ridge mountains" as they are called) which is truly a sight to behold from atop mount Mitchell (highest peak east of the Mississippi) which BTW requires an amazingly beautiful drive across the Parkway to get to the summit. Maybe you should consider an area to the west of Raleigh?? As far as jobs go in my area all i can say is people with degrees and experience are fine for the most part, but since i am young and trying to work my way through college the kind of jobs i go for are scarce( 1500 people applied for the job i just got lol) but i can't say when it comes to IT jobs so your on your own there. Maybe you should just take a little vacation and spend some time down here enjoying the scenery and snooping around for opportunitys before making any big decisions???

Good luck to you in today's financial times I'm feelin it to bro