okay. here’s the deal, i’ve been out of college for a little over a year, i have a degree in marketing, thus far i’ve been unable to find a “real” job. my gf just graduated from college, and is taking at least a semester off. I’ve enjoyed the time i’ve spent in the pacific northwest and was wondering if anyone knew of a town that had a good job market and/or was a good place to live. Basically i just wanna get out of the midwest, and think the pacific northwest might be a good place to spend some time. any advice/info/help would be appreciated.
I think it depends on the kind of marketing you want to do. Seattle has a reasonably strong job market, especially in the computer and software area. Microsoft is a big and growing employer, and hires lots of product marketing functions. But there are many smaller companies here in the same industry if working for a really big company isn’t your thing. I think Seattle is a nice place to live…especially if you’re a rain-lovin’ liberal. There’s also decent uni-riding, regardless of your wheel size and style preferance.
I’m not so familiar with the base in other cities. I think Portland would be a nice place to live…very laid back. But I’m not sure how their econ base is right now.
thanks tom. i’ve been told i’d fit in well in seattle, but that’s by a bunch of hicks. i do enjoy the rain/lack of sun, and yeah, i’m somewhat left leaning. I really just need some place that has a decent job market. I know how to do lots of stuff, and i’m a pretty smart guy.
The Seattle area includes more than just the city of Seattle proper. It includes the surrounding communities too like Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond (Microsoft is in Redmond) and more. Thar be Seattle jobs in cities other than Seattle.
For a quickie job search for the area you can try sites like NWjobs and Seattle Jobs and the biggies like Monster.
The other big market in Washington is the Tacoma area but I don’t go down there and don’t know much about that area. The Seattle area is where it’s at. Good muni and good riding and good activities.
In Oregon there is the Portland area. The Portland area includes the surrounding communities like Beaverton and Hillsboro (Intel is in Hillsboro). I haven’t been in Portland in a while (many years). I don’t know what the job market is like down there. For muni in the Portland area I’ve gone East (way East) over to Hood River. Good trails around that area and some freeride trails with stunts too. But it takes about an hour to get from Portland to Hood River and longer than that if you live on the West side in Beaverton or Hillsboro. There’s gotta be some places to ride on the West side but the interesting stuff is way East. They do have a lot of good beer in Portland though.
Yea, it’s great over here! I personally prefer a warmer climate than this (that’s why I’m moving to Hawaii when I get older), but for what it is it’s really nice. If you’re a coffee addict Seattle is a haven for you and if you were a hippie in the 60s you love Seattle also. It is kind of depressing with all of the grey weather, but in the summer like right now it is nice (70 degrees at 9:00 am).
john, i’ve been checking sites like monster and careerbuilder, and they don’t list things i’m qualified for that pay well enough to warrant a move, i’ll be sure to check out the websites you’ve listed though, they look promising.
i can get you a job in my mail room…the pay sux but hey, so does life.
move here to Salem and help us cut red tape
You’re a year out of college so I assume you’re 23-25 years old?
You’re young, you don’t have kids, and used to not having a lot of money?
So why not flip a coin, heads seattle, tails portland.
Leave most of your stuff with your parents and just go.
You can find a McJob pretty easily that will at least pay rent while you look for a career. The job market in either Portland or Seattle will be better (or at least more interesting) than anything in Iowa. If in 6 months things haven’t really worked out for you move back.
The only real risk here is the expense of the move itself, and if you don’t take that much stuff with you it’s not that high.
yeah, i’m trying to hold off moving without a 'real" job until at least december when my gf is out of her aptartment lease and could come with me/help pay bills.
MArk ! , where were you?
we needed you really bad tonite, there was this Vote by Mail job that had 6 inserts…alot of it had to be collated.