The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => Discussion => Topic started by: Cmdr_King on May 14, 2009, 08:39:01 AM
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As many of you may know, Michigan is a forsaken wasteland bereft of hope, and to find a future neccessitates leaving it. I have mentioned in passing that I intend to do so in September, but at this point I think a more detailed description is necessary.
Due to various circumstances, 'September' actually translates as my needing to have left here on or before September 1st. While a few weeks earlier than ideal (avoiding travelling in August was one of the reasons for choosing September in the first place), it's not such a large change as to require bickering.
Mostly this just underscores the seriousness of this endevor. Wussing out isn't really an option, and it'd be a horrible thing not to do things properly the first time around.
So, moving on, my general point is that I need to do what I can to keep things moving smoothly. Due to my limited funds (somewhere in the range of $4000-5000), simply picking a place and going would likely end very poorly. This will have to cover travel, rent, some duration of living expenses, and some measure of furnishings. While I may have some windfalls in that area, it still boils down to two key concerns about my destination.
1) Cost of Living needs to be affordable.
2) Employment has to be secured quickly.
And basically, this all means that whereever I go, I'll need help when I get there. People who can help me get to know the area quickly and move in at the very least. Ideally, although this gets into the range of huge favors that I'm honestly a little uncomfortable with, help finding a place and a job in the first place.
And... well. While I could tap relatives or friends from other places for this, they're circumstances limit how much aid I can reasonably get in these areas. So, I'm putting it to you folks: where should I move? Putting people on the spot a bit I guess, but really there's not a diplomatic way to ask this sort of question, and doing so publically is at least a little less awkward, right?
So, uh, yeah, if you have any thoughts please respond! Just thinking it through to myself isn't getting me much of anywhere. Even just notes on Cost of Living and employment opportunities is useful, so don't feel like you shouldn't say something because you don't have an in for an awesome job or anything >.>
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>___>
Does "Interstate" mean you're only willing to immigrate within the US? <_<
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I'll check up on some data for some areas around Hampton Roads later. You were a cook at a bar, right?
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Maybe the San Fran area? This is terribly presumptuous of me to suggest, since I'm not one of the DLers who lives there. Nonetheless, it sounds like it has a high standard of living and a possible support network for you. Perhaps it's worth considering?
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I'll check up on some data for some areas around Hampton Roads later. You were a cook at a bar, right?
Southeast Virginia is fairly expensive to live in thanks to the relatively high cost of rent. Finding a job isn't impossibly hard, but finding a good one is without marketable skills.
I can get you a job, but it's a pretty crappy one. You should be able to find something in food service or the service sector in generaly fairly easily if you have references.
CT: Getting a work visa in any first world country is a major pain in the ass unless you have a skill they really want.
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Avoid New Mexico. Very low cost of living but the job market here is shit.
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Have you considered enlisting? You get free room and board, and might learn a good trade for when you discharge, and you'll travel around. Not to mention help with college if you want to get a degree someplace. It seems like a better idea than just running to some random state and hoping to not wind up homeless.
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Better yet, do both. Spend a bit of time selling your body on the Vegas strip and then enlist.
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Oklahoma has a low cost of living and has more jobs than most places. Bad weather and lots of fundies though <_<
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Delaware has a really low cost of living, but the job market isn't great in general. I have no idea about the market for cooks in particular, though.
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CT- quite apart from anything else, I'm given to understand that actually becoming a citizen of another country tends to be a lengthy, expensive process. Not the adjectives we're looking for here.
Trips- Service would end badly for me. This is probably fairly obvious if you've ever met me, not that you have.
Anyway, employment-side my current job of the past three years is indeed as a cook (you can wank it up a bit due to the size of the place, but anyway.). I technically have an associate's degree, but it's in General Studies so mostly useful as a solidification of my on-and-off college experience until such time as I'm ready to move on to a higher degree.
Cost of living-wise, my biggest concern is definitely rent. Given the funds I'm working with, and the current state of the job market, stuff like $1000+ a month would leave me broke and unable to get myself situated more or less instantaneously.
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New Jersey is the land of diners. No idea what the employment situation is for them, but there are usually jobs open in NYC/NJ area. Granted, high cost of living usually offsets that.
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I can promise you rents well below $1,000 here, at least. (still no guarantee you'd get money to pay them, of course)
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CT: Getting a work visa in any first world country is a major pain in the ass unless you have a skill they really want.
Yep. My sister's wanted to move to Britain for a while now but this has acted as a considerable obstacle to doing so (we all know how marketable an english major is, don't we?)
Anyway, northern VA = crazy expensive, but you've asked about that before. I am obviously not in a position to give advice on the job market.
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Get a job, you slacker of a Ciddy.
Cost of living-wise, my biggest concern is definitely rent. Given the funds I'm working with, and the current state of the job market, stuff like $1000+ a month would leave me broke and unable to get myself situated more or less instantaneously.
Southside hampton roads rent is pretty obscene. 800+ and up as a general rule. Newport news area where Pyro lives is better but is still pricey.
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I suppose I should elaborate on a point. While jobs I can get immediately are a good thing too (ie something similar to the cooking I have a fair whack of experience at etc) should the need arise, one of the primary reasons to move is that I realistically need to get into a better growing job field, but the options in Michigan are non-existant. Basically, I've reached a point where I know just picking a field and trying to get a degree in it isn't going to work for me, so I need to do things backasswards and get a job I can live with, then work on improving within it at a later date.
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Yeah, San Fran area prolly isn't what you're looking for. You might find rent of less then $1000/month, but it won't be much less and the place will suck rocks.
Job market out here...well, it's not too great in Pacifica/Daly City, and I can't really advise you about anywhere else in the area. I'm not very familiar with places I can't walk to.
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Yeah, San Fran area prolly isn't what you're looking for. You might find rent of less then $1000/month, but it won't be much less and the place will suck rocks.
I'm on $636/month in a good apartment in a safe neighborhood, but I signed into that rent like...four years ago--dunno how much the market changed if you're buying into the market now. Also, I share with two roommates (granted, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large common area, so this isn't bad at all).
On the other hand, people seem to be willing to pay a premium to live in SF proper, so rent outside of SF was about 50% cheaper last I looked. I'm living in SF because I work in SF and want a short commute. But if you're living as a Chef or something there's no guarantee you'd be working in downtown SF. ...Granted, for all that rent is cheaper, I haven't heard great things about living in Oakland....
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Yeah, don't go to Oakland. Just. Don't.
And finding roommates would make thing a lot easier. Dunno if I could help you in that regard out here though. A have a few freinds who are cool enough sorts, but they're either still living at home with no real intentions of leaving, or already have a place with just them and the signifigant other.
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Oh, chances are finding roommates through the...four people you're connected to here isn't going to happen. Besides, all real-estate transactions in the bay area go through Craigslist, so just use that.
Craigslist has a section for "we're seeking roommates":
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/roo/
Or alternatively, there's a place to post an ad "I'm going to be wanting a room starting Sept 1" here:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/hsw/
If you're actually interested follow these steps:
Step 1: Find out if there's a job market here; none of us seem to know >_>
Step 2: Talk to someone who knows the area about what places are good to live in (i.e. Oakland bad).
Step 3: Respond to an ad/post your own ad and ask if they're willing to take a transplant from another state without meeting them first--this was the hardest part when I was moving here from Vancouver.
Though...regardless, the bay area is not a low-rent place, so unless it looks good for employment you can probably use the same strategies in another city and get cheaper accomodation.
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When I was out looking for an apartment over here in Illinois, rent was running $600-$800, depending. Mine's like $700 and it's a decently nice place.
Couldn't tell you anything about the job market though. And I don't really have a car so I can't actually go around and look.
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I think that looking for a state first may be the wrong approach. You should probably try and get SOME idea of what it is you want to do, or at least what field you'd like to work in. Some jobs you can get anywhere, of course, but even so, if there are any jobs you're thinking about that ARE region-specific, then moving to that region will expand your options.
That said, if you do want to search by state, this would be a good place to start...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_unemployment_rate
General comments:
Oklahoma is indeed a quite nice state, if a bit over quiet and also extremely conservative. Austin, Texas is a bit more lively, but I'm less sure of the job market around there - some of Austin's titans are faltering like Dell.
The nearby Dakotas have very low unemployment, and are actively recruiting Minnesotans to come over and live there as we speak. However, the economy there is largely based on, uh, resource management I suppose - hard labor outside, basically, for things like mining, and managing / fixing machines as well.
The San Francisco real estate market is, last I checked circa 2005, the most expensive market in the country (New York being #2). They've some really dumb rent control laws that had the opposite effect, basically.
The DC region is indeed incredibly expensive, as noted earlier; find roommates (there's a massive housing shortage there and the road system is congested). But the job market is pretty stable there; there's a lot of government, defense contractors, etc. who are pretty safe from budget cuts (AgentKing?). If you have any desire to work in government (good benefits at least!), it's worth a look. The one thing I will add is that many government jobs have strict hiring requirements and can hire based off a "score," and an Associate's Degree may not cut it for some of the better starting positions. However, the government posts all job openings online nowadays, so you should be able to give it a look easily enough and see if there's stuff you're interested in.
Speaking of government, I should add that the FAA is actually hiring, something I'd know more about than your average gov't. agency due to my parents working there. Their headquarters is in Oklahoma City (go figure), and also have a big huge center near Atlantic City, New Jersey (my home region). Southern New Jersey is pretty cheap to live in, for what it's worth, but the only good jobs are with the FAA or the casinos. Oklahoma already covered, they're cheap too. If you have any interest in being an air traffic controller, those jobs are everywhere, including not at airports (en-route centers for while the planes are in-between airports, natch); they used to take people without bachelor's degrees, as well. Not sure what the rules are now; mentioning it mostly because there was a big hiring surge in the early 1980s after the strike, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are plenty of openings for those retiring after ~25 years service, and because ATCs are traditionally mocked as playing video games for a living.
The Philadelphia area is of moderate expense ($500-750 rent?). The economy there is also kind of getting by, though I'd be hard-pressed to name a specialty; it was lawyers back in the day, but not anymore, I think. It's certainly the only part of Pennsylvania who's economy isn't completely in ruins. Western PA... uh, Pittsburgh is really cheap to live in, but for a good reason, everyone left. There are jobs in medicine (some very good hospitals in the area) and academia (universties) and that's about it. Same with nearby Buffalo, NY; medicine or nothing for jobs, but at least housing is dirt cheap. The rest of upstate New York is horrible; more cheap housing but not even hospitals for medical jobs. (Okay, Albany has some jobs.)
The New York / NJ region is where I live currently. Finance, media, and entertainment are the biggest things of note about NYC at the moment, and all are in a bit of trouble at the moment. So the job market isn't as good as DC's, I'd say. On the bright side, public transportation is much better here than in DC; I get by without a car just fine (which saves a LOT of money to offset the high rents), while that's problematic in the DC Metro region unless you live in DC proper itself. I currently pay $930/month rent in Manhattan, for what it's worth, and actually we're having a bunch of vacancies open up right now with people graduating and all. There are a decent amount of openings for cooks and bartenders if you're looking to get a job immediately while you look for something else.
And though I wouldn't normally recommend this, AAA has a good point, assuming you're fine with the fairly unique constraints that living in Afghanistan/ Iraq brings. Cost of living: 0, they pay you to be there. You can grab a Bachelor's later on Uncle Sam's dime, and if you can manage your way into something not the infantry, that can certainly be parlayed into useful skills later. (Medic, mechanic, pilot, translator.. all good stuff.) Obviously not an option if you're not okay with the risks involved, but economically an extremely solid choice.
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I will say after meeting CK no he will probably not do well in the Military and is probably too introverted to do Peace Corps. But I may be wrong. >_>
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The developing cities around the border of Riverside and LA county in CA wouldn't be a bad choice for career opportunity. As many new shopping plazas packed with restaurants are established.
But can't really say about rant. LA county isn't cheap on house prices, unless you head for some immigrant based cities. If that is fine with you, I'd recommend small sub-urb city in LA populated by Chinese immigrants.
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Not currently living there, but a surprisingly solid place to live is Northwest Florida. The cost of living is relatively low. Apartments run from $300 to about $700 per month, depending on how much of a hovel you can deal with. For a more house-like deal, you're looking at more ($1000-1600), and you'd need a roommate, I'd guess.
Summer jobs are easy to get due to the high demand that the tourism brings to the area, and if you stand out, you generally keep your job during the low season. That said, it means you need to arrive in a Floridian city before Spring ends (when they hire summer temps)... so it might not be helpful now.
The upside of NW Florida is that you can get into the exciting tourism industry (I'm not being ironic here). Hotel management is a pretty decent way to make a living and it's the kind of industry that you can start off in an entry-level position and actually work your way up. It seems to work best by starting in entry level positions for summer help and then applying at a different hotel for the next highest position using your experience at the other hotel for credentials. Not to mention that your current skills in the service industry are actually suited to this kind of work. Of course, if working in a customer service position sounds horrible, then best not to apply.
The beaches are also nice, but the summers are sometimes unbearable.
Interestingly enough, if you wait until I get back to the states in two years, I'll be needing a roommate... >.>;;
-Djinn
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I will say after meeting CK no he will probably not do well in the Military and is probably too introverted to do Peace Corps. But I may be wrong. >_>
I would think the Sea Org might have some merit if it wasn't for the whole money thing.
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Snowfire talking about government stuff.
Idly, CK, if any of that should interest you, this is generally the place to start looking: http://www.usajobs.gov/
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The south has a relatively low cost of living, unless you're considering anything around the Miami area in Florida. As far as I know about the economic conditions in Ga, our unemployment rate is bubbling somewhere between 8%-9%. Though, I was able get three different jobs within the 2007-2009 timeframe, working part-time. Full-time jobs I haven't had much success looking for. Anyway, if you're a chef, perhaps you should look into furthering that for the moment since it's something you have the most experience in. My friend's a chef, he's living in the Buckhead area (what I would consider city-living) working two full-time jobs to make due for the moment, and he hasn't been alerted of any uncertainties of keeping his job. Anyway, you wouldn't need to work two jobs, especially since MARTA will get you everywhere within the metro-Atlanta area.
Though I do not suggest Atlanta for you. If anything, I'd recommend you research TN, AL and SC or NC on city-data, then look up in the yellow-pages or through newspaper jobsites what their current employment roll is doing. You can apply for jobs out of state too, rather than moving then seeing how it goes. Perhaps I'm talking more about employment because whether you successfully move or not, I'm pretty sure you don't want to move back to Michigan.
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Come up to NYC! I need a roommate starting September.
As for the jobs situation, I dunno. You're not working the financial sector, so that's a plus, anyway.
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Austin is a bit expensive actually. Corpus Christi/San Antonio are fairly cheap cost-of-living wise. As for jobs, we have billions of restaurants... and the police are hiring! You could get people to respect your authori-tie!
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The area of NC I'm in has basically flatlined for jobs, to the point where people are moving away(The major factory in this town closed, and it's the biggest town within like twenty miles of every direction or something like that.), and I live in the middle of nowhere and have no driving ability of my own to help anyone with. Also, the only town above six digits is around 40 miles instead of 20.
But hey, you know, it'd be tacky to not respond, so. >_>
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Obviously, the areas I know best are in PA and WV.
With regards to central PA...
Job market is actually growing. There's a lot of development in the area, and in particular, I know a lot of chain restaurants going into business, especially in the small towns (my hometown has an Applebee's, Damon's under construction with plans for opening a lot of other places in the future - there's also a Charlie Brown's, and a bunch of other places 15 minutes away). Pretty cheap place to live as well - places to live aren't tough to find. No public transportation system, and it's also boring as sin, which I'm sure Shale can attest to >_>
Philadelphia is hell. Do not go there.
Pittsburgh actually has loads of chances for jobs, in the food service area too. Public transportation abounds as well. Rent varies alot - you can find places that are, to be honest, shitty, for $300 a month, or better places averaging around $600 or so. I like the city, though your mileage may vary. Roommates are also easy to find, if you're into that.
Morgantown in WV is very affordable, and a collegetown with a big job market in all areas. Cheapish too - $300-$600 or so, like Pittsburgh. Same issues, mostly.
I'd just suggest you be certain you can do this, and make sure you have a fallback plan.
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Well, put it off a week or two longer than I meant to, but I feel confident saying that I've decided on Morgantown WV.
Concerns...
1. I'll need to open a new bank account at a national chain, both so I can get at it in WV and so that I can open an account with some sort of debit option for travelling funds purposes (carrying around that much cash being unambiguously insane). So any annecdotes from DLers on the matter, for example which ones have worked and which to avoid, would be helpful.
2. I've never rented before, and certainly not through craigslist. What's the usual amount of time needed to get ahold of someone and go from there to being able to move in? I'll want to know if I should get on this right away or if it's a quick process and going ahead too early would just involve paying for the place weeks before I actually use it.
3. This is more specific to OK, but how's the public transport there? I've read that there's a fairly unique system in place, but mostly curious how necessary a car is in the area.
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2. I've never rented before, and certainly not through craigslist. What's the usual amount of time needed to get ahold of someone and go from there to being able to move in? I'll want to know if I should get on this right away or if it's a quick process and going ahead too early would just involve paying for the place weeks before I actually use it.
If you're renting a room, a lot of rentals are going to be immediate, and from my recent experience the ones that aren't will want you to move in at the start of the next month. Apartment, beginning of next month should be standard, and those are gonna be a yearlong lease. If you care to do things the complicated way, look for someone who rents by the week and use their place as a base to try to get a job/real apartment from.
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Well, put it off a week or two longer than I meant to, but I feel confident saying that I've decided on Morgantown WV.
Concerns...
1. I'll need to open a new bank account at a national chain, both so I can get at it in WV and so that I can open an account with some sort of debit option for travelling funds purposes (carrying around that much cash being unambiguously insane). So any annecdotes from DLers on the matter, for example which ones have worked and which to avoid, would be helpful.
2. I've never rented before, and certainly not through craigslist. What's the usual amount of time needed to get ahold of someone and go from there to being able to move in? I'll want to know if I should get on this right away or if it's a quick process and going ahead too early would just involve paying for the place weeks before I actually use it.
3. This is more specific to OK, but how's the public transport there? I've read that there's a fairly unique system in place, but mostly curious how necessary a car is in the area.
1. Banks suck, especially national chains. If you're eligible, I recommend something like USAA. If you don't get USAA, consider an online bank -- I have no personal experience with them, though, so can't help you there. If you must use a brick & mortar national bank: Bank of America has ATMs EVERYWHERE but is ridiculous with fees and bureaucratic nonsense; Chase/WaMu has been good to me, but I've heard people aren't so fond; Wells Fargo charges fees but has great customer service.
2. It took me ~2 weeks every time I rented through a Craigslist ad. It took 2-3 months to get to that point, but I suspect that's mainly a Bay Area/university-town quirk. Feel free to look semi-seriously in advance of actually trying to find a place so that you can get a good idea what the prevailing rates & incentives are. It definitely helps your bargaining position. If you are doing the room thing, NotMiki is right in that most are for immediate or near-immediate occupancy.
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Bank of America are bureaucratic jerks, but I use them anyway. They actually don't really charge fees if you keep a good amount of money in the account, though I'm guessing that's not an option in this case. The big reason to use them is that they are everywhere--and I don't mean have lots of ATMs (they have that too). More that a lot of American banks are regional to a small area of the country, so if you plan to move from state to state, with many banks you'd have to keep switching, but with BoA you wouldn't. (My sister has a bank account with the Bank of Santa Barbara...yyyyeaaahh).
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For people in the tri-state area of NY, NJ and Conn (plus Penn and Mass), TD Banknorth is awesome. I've used them since they were Hudson United. Their checking accounts actually reimburse you for all your ATM fees from non-bank ATMs. It used to be for all accounts, but I think they recently changed it so that it requires 1500 in the account to be eligible. I've since dipped under 1500 and it's still refunding for me though 2 months running.
I honestly have no bad things to say about the bank, other than you can't make international payments with their debit cards (Which Hudson United did). And thats veeeeeeeeeeeeery minor. I've had my CC# attempted to be used by overseas thieves and they refused all those transactions, immediately cancelled the card, called me to inform me what happened that day and sent me a new card within a few days.
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Well, put it off a week or two longer than I meant to, but I feel confident saying that I've decided on Morgantown WV.
Concerns...
1. I'll need to open a new bank account at a national chain, both so I can get at it in WV and so that I can open an account with some sort of debit option for travelling funds purposes (carrying around that much cash being unambiguously insane). So any annecdotes from DLers on the matter, for example which ones have worked and which to avoid, would be helpful.
2. I've never rented before, and certainly not through craigslist. What's the usual amount of time needed to get ahold of someone and go from there to being able to move in? I'll want to know if I should get on this right away or if it's a quick process and going ahead too early would just involve paying for the place weeks before I actually use it.
3. This is more specific to OK, but how's the public transport there? I've read that there's a fairly unique system in place, but mostly curious how necessary a car is in the area.
Apologies for not responding...ever >_> I haven't looked at this topic in a while, nor have I been in chat to hear anything <_<
Anyway...
I live by PNC Bank, which I've always like and found to be very reliable and fair. There is one in Morgantown, but I do not believe they are common at all on anywhere outside of the East Coast.
Craigslist can be a crapshoot - I've heard good and bad, of various degrees. There are some very cheap, decent apartments in the area (college town and all). My advice is get on it as soon as possible, but look in to other areas as well as a back up.
As for the public transportation...let me ask my students tomorrow. As far as I know, it has been down all summer for work, but is apparently pretty reliable. Cars aren't necessary, by any means - there is a decent bus system from what I understand, and the unique public transportation (PRET, IIRC) goes all around the city.