Where can I find a job?

[ImpeachBush]

I moved to the Atlanta area (Dacula) back in September, and really thought I'd have a job by now. I've got lots of experience (9+ years) as a software engineer, and with all the high tech companies located in this area, I figured I'd have better luck. I've only had about 6 interviews, and I send out my resume to at least a dozen job openings a week. I'm getting very worried as my savings are dwindling away to nothing (I quit my job to move here with my partner, who is getting a Ph.D. at UGA), and soon my cobra will run out. I'd really appreciate it if any has a good line on job openings around Atlanta, or if you know of a good headhunter and how I can contact them, or just have any kind of advice at all about where to turn for work. Please, help and save me from the ulcers that I'm accumulating!!!!!

[sasquatch]

1. Move to India

:eyes:For one get out of the South. The only advantage there is to living there is warm winters. After that see about Canadian citizenship, if nothing else they'll help you with your ulcers.

[ImpeachBush]

2. I would if I could ...

But, this is where we are until partner finishes the Ph.D. ... I've never wanted to live in the South, and now I know why. The summers are much too sultry, the winters are boring, the bugs are HUGE and ABUNDANT, there's no wilderness, no place to bike or hike or walk, the traffic is incredibly horrid, there are too many people crammed into this county, and the cost of living is much higher.

I see you are from Ohio? That's my state of origin. I grew up there and lived there until I was 21. Since then I've lived in Utah (I miss the MOUNTAINS SO MUCH!!!), until September, when I moved here. I still root for the Buckeyes and the Miami (Oxford, OH) Redhawks and the Browns and the Cavs. My family is still there, as is my partner's. I wish she had decided on OSU for her Ph.D.

[RebelOne]

7. You must be living in the middle of Atlanta.

If you want to bike, hike or walk, go north of the city. Go up to the mountains around Ellijay. Lots of wilderness there and no traffic.

[ImpeachBush]

10. No, not in Atlanta

I'm in Gwinnett County, just to the N.E. of Atlanta. Dacula is near Buford and Winder and Lawrenceville. Seriously, the traffic is so bad here, and so few of the roads have any kind of shoulders for biking, that it is literally taking your life in your own hands to get out on the streets with a bike. Dacula has very few sidewalks (that seems to be pretty common in these outlying towns), but there is a public park that has a jogging/walking track that is a mile long. I'm not the kind of person that likes to go in circles ... I like to "go somewhere" when I'm out exercising!

[styersc]

11. Your problem in finding a job in the south may come from

your condescending and smugness concerning our region. As much as you think you are doing us a great favor by living here- there are others who would be willing to take your place.

We have hot weather and large bugs, but as it turns out- there are not fences at the borders keeping you here.

[ImpeachBush]

13. MY smugness? Condenscending?

No, I'm not being smug ... I'm just having trouble adjusting to life here. I knew it would be different when I moved here, and I thought I would adjust better, but I haven't. I don't mean to put anyone or anyplace down. I'm just calling it like I see it. This area of Georgia has little to offer to people who like the outdoors (like me), it caters to people in cars (not to bikers or joggers or walkers), the traffic IS terrible, I've seen NO highway courtesy, the bugs ARE huge, and the weather is boring. I'm only here because my partner has chosen UGA for its wonderful Ph.D. program, and here I'll have to live for the next 4 or 5 years. You can bet on one thing ... when those 4 or 5 years are up, I'll be out of this state as soon as I can load the moving van. No offense ... Its just not my kind of place. Neither is NYC or LA. I hate city life. Period.

[styersc]

14. I work for a consulting firm located just north of Atlanta

(in Holly Springs) but work out of my home in Columbia SC. I do have to travel to Atlanta frequently and agree about the traffic and big city traffic of Atlanta and the associated suburbs.

But there is lots of outdoor activities in and around Atlanta- you do have to drive to get there though. Buy a canoe or kayak- the Chatahoochee is great (runs right through Atlanta) as is the Chattanooga just northeast of Atlanta. Hiking is available everywhere just north of Atlanta as is camping- Stone Mountain is great and a great community for biking and hiking (Dahlonega is beautiful any time of the year.

Now as far as employment- wages are being deflated all over the country and has always been a problem in the south (no unions and a very "employer friendly" atmosphere). Be ready to work for less then you expected but as you said- it will only be for a few years.

Also- go to Athens with your partner every once in a while. Great music scene in Athens.

Enjoy our region- there's a reason why we call it God's country.

[papau]

3. Your college placement office, alum network, monster.com, yellow pages

It is a 60 hr a week job to get a job - a lot of dropping in and drop off resume, plus phone calls, plus who you worked with/for in the past networking, plus family friends

In addition in the past headhunters were useful - but with a 500,000 excess in programers post India, they are no doubt less effective.

A son in law has given up on programing and will try shopkeeper - maybe!

It's tough - you have my best wishes.

:-)

[lovedems]

4. Good luck, my husband has his MCSE, his CNA (i think that is the Cisco

router cert.) he has his Novell admin. license + an assload of "little certifications", 10+ years of experience managing 80+ servers and hundreds and hundreds of work stations, plus experience a very high ranking in internet security. The well is dry for tech people it seems.

He does have an opportunity at the State Farm Corporate office in Bloomington, Illinois as a security analyst but it would be a pay cut and no benefits (and we are a family of 6). It would be considered a contractual job so they skip out on the vacation and insurance and over-time.

Life sucks under *

[radwriter0555]

5. Craigslist

Atlanta

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/

[RebelOne]

6. Well, the company I work for in Marietta has an opening

for a copyeditor. But the pay sucks.

[dawn]

8. Doesn't it always?

I start a new web copyediting job tomorrow. The pay, as always, sucks. :)

[RebelOne]

9. I'm a copy editor for 10 monthly hunting and fishing magazines.

Our benefits are great and we have lots of sick time, vacation and holidays, which sort of makes up for the lousy pay.

[Nikia]

12. Is this still a problem in the south?

My family is from Ohio. When my aunt got married, her husband had a job in the South and I believe it was Georgia. She attended and graduated from a dental hygenics program and scored high in her class. All her Southern born and raised classmates found jobs quickly. My aunt did not. She said that they seemed to be put off by the fact that she was a Northerner. This was almost twenty years ago though. Atlanta is probably a more progressive city.
It's not like that sort of thing doesn't happen to some extent here in Wisconsin.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. Dacula?

Is that near Fankenstein?